By: Dr Matt Warnock
Working on scales is an essential part of the guitar learning experience. Not only does it help us with developing better technique, it also teaches us the neck, about harmony and about the melodic components of our favorite riffs and solos. When first learning to play scales players often get caught up in simply running each scale straight up and down, without variation. While this is a solid way of developing speed, and learning the scale itself, sometimes adding patterns and riffs to our scale practice can provoke our creative side, as well as develop our technical ability.
There are countless patterns to choose from when looking for ways to augment our scale practice, and one of the best resources for patterns is rock-metal-shred guitarist Paul Gilbert. The riff, and component patterns, discussed in the following article are drawn from a scale pattern that Gilbert commonly uses in his playing and discusses in his teaching. It can be found in many of his instructional DVD’s and books, most notably the video version of his Intense Rock I instructional package.
To view each tab-notational example just click the link labeled Ex. 1, Ex. 2, etc and the example will open in a new browser window for easy viewing.
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Before we dive into the riff as a whole let’s break it up into smaller, more easily digestible, chunks. The first thing to get under our fingers is the scale itself, in this case we are going to be applying the pattern to a G major scale, using a “three note per string” fingering, which is commonly used by rock, metal and shred players.
Once we can play the whole pattern, and its component parts, make sure to practice it in different keys, and through different modes, to get the most out of this riff.
As far as the fingering is concerned, try using 1-2-4 or 1-3-4 for the first two sets of strings, six and five, after that use 1-2-4 and 1-3-4 for the last three sets of stings. Many players find that the 1-2-4 stretch is easier to play for the first two sets of strings, but Gilbert himself uses 1-3-4 most of the time when playing three notes that are spread out over five frets like we have here.
Ex. 1 – G Major Three Note Per String Scale
Now that we are familiar with the scale we should check out the rhythm that we’ll be using during the duration of the final pattern. The scale is grouped into triplets, which is when three eighth-notes are played in the space of one quarter-note. If we are unfamiliar with this rhythm try practicing triplets on one note until it becomes easier, then apply it to the whole scale.
Another trick that can help when learning to play the triplet rhythm is to say the word when playing each group of three, so, say trip-o-let, one syllable for each note. This may sound rudimentary, but sometimes it’s these little, simple, tricks that can really help us internalize a particular rhythm or concept.
As far as picking is concerned, the best way to play each note is with alternate picking. Since the beats are grouped into three notes, it’s best to think in groups of two beats when working out the picking.
When alternate picking triplets, down picks will line up on the first note of beats one and three, while up picks will line up on the first note of beats two and four.
So, use down-up-down for the first beat, then up-down-up for the second, repeating that pattern throughout the scale. This way we will play a down pick on the first note of beats one and three for each bar.
Ex. 2 – G Major Scale in Triplets
As well as practicing this pattern with alternate picking we can also practice left-hand slurs through the exercise. When playing groups of slurs, like those in example three, keeping the rhythm steady is a key element in ensuring the patterns success.
Sometimes our left hand can get ahead of ourselves and simply play the notes “fast” rather than rhythmically accurately. Try mixing one run through of picking with one of slurs to help keep the rhythm steady in both.
For picking, try playing all down strokes on the way up the scale, then play all up strokes on the way back. This will produce a “slow-sweep” type of picking that can help when playing long runs of slurred notes like these.
Ex. 3 – G Major Scale in Triplets with Slurs
Now that we’ve worked on playing the scale with straight picking and slurs in triplets, we are ready to try out the first pattern in the riff. This pattern is basically an ascending-repeating pattern where we play the first set of three notes, then move up one string to play the next three, then we repeat that pattern on the same string, until we reach the top of the scale and turn back around.
The same pattern is repeated on the way down the scale, except that we descend in three note groupings rather than ascend, as we did on the way up.
Here is that same pattern with the slurs that we worked on earlier.
Ex. 5 – Scale Pattern 1 with Slurs
The second pattern in the riff is what Gilbert calls a “group of four,” as the first chunk of the pattern is four ascending notes, followed by two descending notes that “reset” the pattern and push it onto the next string group.
Try accenting the first note of each triplet by playing it slightly louder than the rest. This will help us keep our place in the pattern and further accentuate the triplet feel of the riff.
Here is the second pattern with the slurs that we worked on earlier. Notice that now we are mixing slurs and picked notes because of the string crossing between the third, fourth and fifth notes of each string set.
When ascending the pattern try picking down-down-up for each two beat grouping. So in the first six notes we would pick down on the first note G, then down on the fourth note C, then up on the fifth note, before moving on to the next grouping of notes.
When descending the pattern just reverse the picking, so it would now be up-up-down, instead of down-down-up.
Ex. 7 – Scale Pattern 2 with Slurs
Now that we have worked on the scale, triplet rhythm and two patterns separately, we are ready to put them all together to produce the entire riff. When first looking at, and reading through, this riff it may seem complicated and technically challenging, but when we look closely we see that it is just made up of pattern two, followed by pattern one, then repeating this combination on each string set.
To make things easier we will first learn the pattern ascending the scale. Then we’ll descend it later once we’ve got our fingers and ears around the riff as a whole.
Ex. 8 – Scale Patterns 1 and 2 Combined Ascending
Here is the same combined riff with added slurs.
Ex. 9 – Scale Patterns 1 and 2 Combined with Slurs Ascending
We are now ready to try the riff down the scale, from the highest note to the lowest. Again, notice that it is just a combination of pattern two followed by pattern one in succession down the scale.
Ex. 10 – Scale Patterns 1 and 2 Combined Descending
Again, we will now add slurs to the descending riff.
Ex. 11 – Scale Patterns 1 and 2 Combined with Slurs Descending
Now that we can play the riff both ascending and descending, separately, we can combine them to produce an eight bar run of successive triplets through a two octave G major scale.
It’s also a good idea to practice playing the scale in reverse order, so play it descending and then ascending. This will help us learn the neck a little better, while at the same time getting us to think of these patterns beyond the six-string root, something that will come in handy when we take this pattern and apply it to an improvised solo.
Here are some further ideas to check out when practicing this, and any other, riff or pattern.
• Practice slowly, start at quarter note equals 50 and only increase the speed when we can play any-all exercises through perfectly, three times in a row.
• Practice this pattern, and each of the smaller chunks of the pattern, through all twelve keys of the major scale.
• Practice the pattern, and each of the smaller chunks, through all of the modes of the major, melodic minor, harmonic minor and harmonic major scale. As well, it is also a good idea to play this riff through diminished, whole-tone, augmented, pentatonic and blues scales.
• Come up with variations of the riff. Try combining two pattern two’s followed by a pattern one, or whatever combination you cam come up with. The sky’s the limit with what we can do with these patterns, even though they seem very simple on paper.
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Links
Paul Gilbert: Intense Rock, Vol. 1 and 2 on Amazon
