chris-buono-guitar-pro

Every improvising guitar player, no matter what style, wants the same thing: To play a great solo time and time again. An important part of making that happen is having a solid neck vision. In this lesson, I give you a thorough roadmap of everyone’s go-to scale formula – the pentatonic scale – to play up and down the neck helping to develop that vision.

At the same time, you’ll be working on your alternate picking and timing. What you see in the Guitar Pro file is a culmination of Workouts from my TrueFire Online Classroom, Guitar Gym. Check this out!


“Pentatonic_Workouts-Chris_Buono.gpx”
(click on the image to download the Guitar Pro tab)

The Lesson

The scales will be communicated in “fingering groups” numbered 1-5. They will travel up and down the neck in what I call a “helix pattern” where you play alternating ascending and descending directions without repeating any notes. Starting in the 2nd position in what could be seen as either F# minor or A major pentatonic you’ll play as far as a 22 fret neck allows before shifting to the next fingering group in Am or C and descending to the open position. You’ll make your way up and down the neck once more this time in Cm or Eb and finally in Ebm or Gb. In other words, you’re shifting through four key centers separated by minor thirds. The shifts will always be in a local vertical area and are designed to feel natural.

The underlying purpose of this Workout is twofold. First, the pentatonic scale is an everlasting musical giving tree for myriad applications. It’s without question a must-know melodic device and should be completely mastered. That said all five fingerings should also be played in a usable fashion not constricted by so-called “proper” fingering conventions. I detail what I believe are real-world, functional two-note-per-string fingering approaches to each of the five scales in the video and Guitar Pro file.

As for the second purpose – it’s simple. I’m trying to keep the Workout just that: Simple as well as effective. Instead of getting bogged down with choosing a naming convention for the five fingerings from the handful of possibilities I’m cutting out the theoretical debate and having you play. For instance, as with any scale formula, the pentatonic scale breeds a modal system albeit one that is not widely recognized or studied. Probably because three of the five modes are as follows: 9sus4 pentatonic, m7#5(4) pentatonic, and 6/9sus4 pentatonic. See what I mean?

I’ve used this Workout for over three years in Guitar Gym and have seen incredible results in my students’ neck vision and playing overall. Their goal is to master the fingerings, get the sequence played in 1/8 notes at 100bpm, and then work up to 1/16th notes again at 100bpm. It’s an epic journey players from across the globe have completed. I hope you’ll make the commitment and achieve this goal, too! Thanks!
– Chris Buono

Chris Buono’s website
Chris Buono’s Guitar Gym Courses
Chris Buono’s Facebook and Twitter

4 Comments

Chris Buono - mars 26, 2015

@Jimmy – Sure is. Grew up on that street.
@OliverD – You can do it! I’m here to help when you’re ready.
@dave – Seriously? HAHAHAHA. C’mon now.

Thanks for checking it out, guys.

dave - févr. 8, 2015

YOU BORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OliverD - févr. 7, 2015

Buono
Been checking your vids out at truefire and so nice to have stumbled upon you here as well.
Working my way through your alt picking class which is great and trying to figure where to go from there. They all look so good!

I know this material via ear. It’s been working for the 20+ years of gigging, etc. but I’m at the point where I just can’t live with myself STILL not know what freaking notes I’m playing as I’m playing them. Like in this vid, I live in the sub-world of fingerings I guess.

Anyway, psyched to check your site and maybe take some lessons with you. Again really enjoyed this vid, as I do all your vids. Thanks,
Oliver D.

Jimmy - févr. 7, 2015

Hey Chris,
I see that Mantoloking sign in the back ground. Would that be Brick NJ?

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.

mySongBook Top tabs
The official Guitar Pro tabs and scores library
Sultans Of Swing  Dire Straits
Rosanna Toto
Smoke On The Water  Deep Purple
The Devil Went Down To Georgia Charlie Daniels
Hotel California  The Eagles

Browse tabs

Free Guitar Pro tabs pack

Download hundreds of riffs, licks, and exercises to spice up your guitar practice time.


Follow Guitar Pro

Get the latest Guitar Pro generation