I know this isn't blues per say but this seems like it would be pretty fun. Has anyone done as a soloing technique with a harmonica? I know it's a little heady but seems cool. Thoughts?
---------- "The only way to get better is to play a little outside your comfort zone every time you play!"
Jazz harmonica players certainly know the pentatonic territory - its been a standard part of jazz soloing for decades, with whole books written about it. =========== Winslow
Blues guitarists use the Pentatonic Minor scale over the Tonic Major progression. In other words, if the Blues is in E Major, one would play E, A, and B7 chords, but would solo with the E minor Pentatonic scale. It shouldn't work, but somehow it does.
Pentatonic scales are so handy. I once heard them described as "The notes you can take to the bank". Very true, because they encapsulate the main harmonic content of each key in the simplest and most musical form.
If you're learning a new position on the harp, start with the pentatonic scale version first - it gets you really grounded in the key centre. After that you can throw in the extra altered notes that reflect different chords within the key.
I used pentatonic scales to demonstrate playing in 11 different major and minor keys on the PowerBender without overblows in this video:
Some of them will work in standard Richter as well, though not as easily and sweetly.
Last Edited by Brendan Power on Jun 26, 2017 5:26 AM
Last year at HarmoniCollege, Jason Ricci taught a class on minor pentatonic. He uses that scale A LOT! Of course he can play it frontwards, backwards and sideways.A lot of his really fast run are based on those 5 notes.
Don't sell out and learn scales. You gotta play by feel like a real blues man. We live in a world of absolutes. There's no way you can combine knowledge and feeling together.
Scales ruined my life and they'll ruin yours too!!!
