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- Pentatonic HarmonicsLEVEL 4Creative natural harmonic patterns
- Pentatonic & Minor SwitchingLEVEL 3In this lesson we will learn how to switch between a pentatonic and the minor scale.
- Pentatonic Guitar HarmonyLEVEL 3I'll show you an easy and effective way to create harmony guitar parts in 4ths and 5ths with pentatonic.
- Pentatonic Exercise: QuintupletsLEVEL 5A lesson on quintuplets and pentatonic shapes. Quintuplet is a group of five notes each with equal duration, but fit into duration of four.
- Pentatonic Exercise: SlidesLEVEL 3The sliding technique which can be used in lot of creative ways, here is one of them. We use the C Minor Pentatonic scale and we move through all 5 shapes.
- Pentatonic Shred LicksLEVEL 7This lesson includes some Pentatonic minor and Chromatic note licks in the style of John Petrucci, Zakk Wylde and Steve Morse.
- Pentatonic Major SoulLEVEL 5R&B soul track featuring improvisation in A Pentatonic Major.
- Major PentatonicsLEVEL 3Achieve beautiful Lydian / Maj7 sounds using just the pentatonic scale!
- Minor Pentatonic VoicingsLEVEL 6Create modern sounding chord voicings by using the minor pentatonic scale
Feedback
Gabriel Leopardi6th July 2014Hi Gabe, many thanks for your detailled reply it is highly appreciated and I will work on these pulloff lessons you posted. GMC is really a great place to improve my shredding.
Great to know it Mark! Thanks for your words. Please try the lessons and tell me how you feel them. Keep me updated!
markmerz6th July 2014Hi Gabe, many thanks for your detailled reply it is highly appreciated and I will work on these pulloff lessons you posted. GMC is really a great place to improve my shredding.
- Gabriel Leopardi5th July 2014This is really a great lesson. Great sound and good to learn the A minor Pent Scale. However I struggle with the speed. So do you have some advise how to improve my speed? Also the Pull-offs in chapter 4 are hard cause the strings do not sound clear very often. Any hints for that too? m/
Hi Mark! Great to see you working on this lesson. This is a very cool lesson to start getting fresh ideas with Pentatonic scales. The lesson includes many different techniques and rhythms so it can be tricky at first.
Every time I work on a lesson that includes licks that ar hard for me, I isolate these licks and create exercises that help me to master this new ideas. Here are some ideas that could be applied to that legato lick:
- Isolate the lick and practice it as an exercise over a metronome and drum loop.
- Divide it in sections, for example work on 1 string and loop it. Then work on the other string as a loop. On third place combine strings 1 and 2 and play them as a loop.
- Create variations of the pattern on each string.
- Move the lick and play it in different parts of the neck.
As you asked about how to master legato technique, I would also like to suggest you this lessons and exercises:
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Beginn...r-23-Pull-Offs/
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Bens-Land-Of-Legato/
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...ll-offs-lesson/
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/search/pull+off/
Check all this lessons, starting by the first one that includes an spoken video in video part 1. Then, let me know if you have any question! - markmerz5th July 2014
By the way I thnk this should be diffyculty 6 or so :-)
- markmerz5th July 2014
This is really a great lesson. Great sound and good to learn the A minor Pent Scale. However I struggle with the speed. So do you have some advise how to improve my speed? Also the Pull-offs in chapter 4 are hard cause the strings do not sound clear very often. Any hints for that too? m/
Marcus Siepen23rd December 2012Thanks a lot :-)
- Slavenko Erazer4th December 2012
Great solo!
tmrock12th November 2010very cool. I'm searching for the same sound using SG+ Engl+G-Major :-)
- Marcus Siepen20th June 2010
Thanks a lot daniel
Daniel Realpe22nd April 2010this sounds so good! your tone is perfect!
- Daniel Realpe19th April 2010
man, this is a great solo!
- Marcus Siepen8th April 2010
Thanks guys
Praetorian6th April 2010Awesome tone on this lesson!!
- Melodic madness16th January 2010
I love this. Thanks, Marcus
- Marcus Siepen29th September 2009
Thanks everybody. About my sound, this lesson was recorded with Guitar Rig 3, a pretty cool software.
MirkoSchmidt20th September 2009oh, öhm.... name falsch geschrieben... marcus meinte ich natürlich... *g*
- MirkoSchmidt20th September 2009
hey markus,
nachdem du beim REC mein video bewertet hast, dachte ich, ich schau mal werd du bist!
Ich muss sagen, ich bin sehr froh das getan zu haben, das solo rockt so cool und ist auf einem level, das ich schaffen könnte!
Ich hoffe, du bewertest es, wenn ich dieses solo als video hochlade, hoffe es ist bald soweit...
vielen dank für das video! das macht wirklich megaspaß zu spielen!!!
(I only makes some complements in german) - george956223rd August 2009
very nice lesson!!!it helped me a lot to underastand the petnatonic mechanism!!!
Young Guitarist17th June 2009Yay i learnt this! Marcus this lesson made me understand those pentatonic boxes ALOT MORE! HUGE INSPIRATION FROM THIS! Thanks alot!
Alexiaden937th May 2009Very cool solo, Marcus !
NoSkill8th April 2009Hey, nice lesson. I'm going to work on this for awhile. A nice classic Ace Frehley run, a couple of times there. Thanks for taking the time to post this one.
playaxeman19th November 2008Hi Marcus,
Great lesson.
Just my kind of style.
I loved this lesson and i will have lots of fun with it.
I hear big influence of DP indeed. Well done.
Do you use a special tool/gear for your hot sound!!!! like a pod XT or pandora box.
Always interested how to make a good sound thats why i am asking.
Regards
BIGD210th October 2008I have taken the A minor scale as my "learn the notes" scale but this sounds so good I may have to back it down a bit....sorry to comment so late but I passed this by months ago for some reason.
Thanks for the inspiration!!
BD
Chokehold26th September 2008I love this
everytime i don't feel like playing guitar i just listen to this and it really cheers me up alot - Marcus Siepen27th August 2008
If you are fluent with the pentatonic scale the just explore the next one and add it to your "vocabulary"
sidewas lightning1st August 2008The pentatonic scale is amazing! It's also the only scale I'm really fluent with...
- Maximus30th July 2008
I was digging around the site for a new lesson to dig into. I just found it. Great feel and tone. Love the LP!
- Marcus Siepen27th July 2008
Check out my new Harvest of sorrow lesson, pretty much "in the style" of BG
- MyNinjaWay23rd July 2008
woah! Blind Guardian! haha for a minute there I thought I was just really really tired and I imagined you were on the site I just signed up to yesterday... :-O lovely solo mate, definitely looking forward to seeing some more lessons from you too... would also love to see some of the BG style solos etc because they have their own distinct flavor... blind guardian rules! \m/
- Xose Pineda14th July 2008
Amazing tune, dude!
- Marcus Siepen11th July 2008
@ fkalich: Ooops, you are right, there is this small mistake in the tabs, sorry, only now I realized it. And about lesson names, well, now another cat can be named
@ Nocebo: No, my tuning is NOT the standard tuning, e-flat means that my guitar is tuned down half a note. ( whatever flat tuning means tuned down half a note while whatever sharp tuning means tuned up half a note)
@ cpgosborn: the best way to increase your speed is to use a metronome. Practice at a speed that you can play, and only increase in very small steps. 
Matt239th June 2008Nice lesson Marcus
I love the sound you've got.
fkalich25th May 2008There is an error on the tab in section 4, last 3 notes on the wrong strings.
- UMPHREAK14th May 2008
Intro sounds like some welcome to jungle type riff. Great lesson, could you give me an idea about the progression in the backing. Its so sweet to solo over it.
- fkalich7th May 2008
More lessons please. And one more thing. More lessons. Did I say more lessons? And also, more lessons. More lessons. More lessons. At least one lesson for every cat I have. I am renaming my cats after your lessons. The first cat is now called "Pentatonic Solo". The other 7 cats are jealous, they want new names to.
OrganisedConfusion7th May 2008@Nocebo. No. E flat isn't standard tuning. Standard tuning is EADGBE. Eflat is a half step down so Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb
- Nocebo4th May 2008
Hmm...I'm confused. Even though I use piano, tuner and GP to tune my guitar, I seem to be a semi note lower than the tuning for this lesson. E-flat is standard tuning right?
- Mackietao30th April 2008
How did I not notice a Blind Guardian member here on GMC until just now? Nice lesson! Very good for beginners (and beyond) to work with their feeling on! I´m looking forward to more lessons by you. BG has been my favourite band for a long time now and I love the guitarwork!
Of all hundreds of concerts I´ve been to I enjoyed yours the most, Umeå, Sweden, a couple years ago. Rock on! 
skennington28th April 2008Loving this lesson man Thanks!
- cpgosborne22nd April 2008
Marcus, I'm having some trouble with the triplets at speeds above 120bpm. Is there something I can learn to do with my picking hand to increase the speed? Love the lesson by the way!
Pablo Vazquez20th April 2008Awesome lesson!! Great!!
- Marcus Siepen19th April 2008
Thanks a lot guys :-)
Canis19th April 2008Thanks a lot Marcus
We're not worthy ^^- Alex8719th April 2008
Great solo Marcus
Good lesson 
Daniel Robinson19th April 2008Awesome lesson Marcus i love how you spiced it up with the Harmonic Minor scale. I always try to mix scale types when coming up with my own stuff really groovin melody line
Daniel
Alejandro Pinero18th April 2008Exelent!!
THanks for your solo- Marcus Siepen18th April 2008
Thanks everybody
- Maximus18th April 2008
Awesome lesson Marcus. Great tone and composition. I will begin learning this immediately.
Unleash-The-Shred18th April 2008Wow, awesome lesson man! Thanks for just being amazing.
Gerardo Siere17th April 2008Great rock classic sound.
- Marcus Siepen17th April 2008
Again thanks a lot to all of you, it is good to hear that you enjoyed my lesson :-)
@ Pezi: Hehe, I am lazy too, that's why I kept my tuning in E flat
This is the BG tuning every since we did Follow the blind, but Hansi was not the reason, this tuning gives a bit more power to the guitars, many bands use this little trick
@zoom: I don't count this part, actually the only time I had to count it was when I recorded the slow version, in the "normal" version I feel the length.
@ Nemanja: Haha, sorry, I forgot to mention the drums when I listed my setup :-) I am using Sample Tank 2.5 for this, a sampler software that comes with tons of great sounds, as far as I remember the name of that drum sample is "punchy" - Pezi J. Baumgartner17th April 2008
love it : )
the only unpractical thing is the tuning in e flat so you have to tune down^^ i'm lazy... i tried a lot of blind guardian songs already, seems to be marcus' favourite tuning : ) is this because of hansi kürsch's vioce? 
Vinod Saranga17th April 2008very classical rock solo
Great lesson Marcus
zoom17th April 2008Question? when you do the legato bit in part four do you count 8 times or do you just feel it? Does it just become 2nd nature sort of thing?
audiopaal17th April 2008Wow, I loved that.. Awesome solo with a great melody
Oh man, I can't wait to get home to practice this one! With my "new" Gibson Les Paul Studio Lite from 1991 - fkalich17th April 2008
64 people on the "now practicing list". I am pretty sure that is a record (from what I have seen here over the past 14 months).
ActiveX17th April 2008Awesome lesson man, this one is definitely going in my "favorites" folder
- fkalich17th April 2008
this sounds just as neat as it did to me yesterday, and that was super neat sounding. A must learn. You have a great swing to your beat. Thank you for this lesson!
Smikey200617th April 2008cool solo! will learn it for shure..
- zoom16th April 2008
thats a fAt solo! whats not to love about that!
- BIGD216th April 2008
Cool lesson..........kinda like I already do at times...
visi0n16th April 2008great solo
thanks!
Harlequin16th April 2008@Marcus: Ah, just saw it. And a new Les Paul ... You can never get enough Les Pauls
I'm also waiting for a further Les Paul, they are just beautiful 
kyldeee16th April 2008Awesome solo Marcus, love it, thanks
SensE16th April 2008Marcus, I want to say the same thing jus like what Aluha said. You will gain respect not just only being a musician but a awesome guitar teacher. Stay tuned.
Nemanja Filipovic16th April 2008great lesson Marcus,as every body sad you have a killer tone,but I am amazed by your kick drum...
what drums did you use in this lesson....
thanks...
Bali16th April 2008Thanks Marcus!
I've posted a file with 40 of my lead sounds for GR3 here:
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=14290
Hope you enjoy them!
steve2516th April 2008Great lesson Marcus, this will be very helpful, cheers
Nick32516th April 2008nice lesson marcus
Nathan33316th April 2008Amazing lesson mate! This is just what I was looking for!
- Marcus Siepen16th April 2008
Thanks Nick :-)
@ Harlequin: Nope, that guitar is not THAT new anymore, and it is already listed in my blog, but since I am still waiting for another one soon there will be a new one mentioned in there - Harlequin16th April 2008
Great lesson Marcus! Is it a new Les Paul? As far as I remember you didn't mentioned it in your blog.
Nick Kellie16th April 2008great marcus!
- Marcus Siepen16th April 2008
I just posted a screenshot of my settings in guitar rig 3 in the instructors corner of the forum, here is the link:
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=14288 
Bogdan Radovic16th April 2008Awesome lesson Marcus !! Really well developed solo!
- Marcus Siepen16th April 2008
Thanks again to all of you :-)
@ Tmas: just practice a bit louder and your roommate will for sure wake up sooner or later 
Carlos Carrillo16th April 2008fantastic lesson and nice job Marcus!!!!!!
Pi3816th April 2008Really cool solo.
Tmas16th April 2008Cool sounding stuff. I will definitely learn this.. if my roommate ever wakes up!! lol
Old School Rocker16th April 2008Damn that was killer love your tone. The second I get home im practicing this till my fingers bleed mabey longer.
BTW That guitar you have is a work of art I love the Wine Red finish. Kinda reminds me of my Dragon Blood finish on my BC Rich:).- Bali16th April 2008
Great sound.
Would you mind posting your Guitar Rig preset? - Marcus Siepen16th April 2008
About the setup that I used here, the guitar is a Les Paul Standard Premium Plus, as I said the pickups are Gibson Burstbuckers (the guitar comes with those pickups, so this is the normal setting). I recorded with Pro Tools, I am using this M-Box Mini version here at home, and the "amp" is Guitar Rig 3, an amazing software plugin that sounds great in my opinion. The amp that I have been using in that plugin is based on the Bogner Uberschall, I used it for rhythm and lead sounds, just that I added some reverb and delay for the leads. (and the eq is different for rhythm and lead of course
) - Marcus Siepen16th April 2008
Nope, it is a wine red Les Paul with Gibson Burstbuckers
The EMG's are in some other Les Pauls 
drummingguitarist0616th April 2008Holy crap Marcus that is some AMAZING tone that you have. What is your setup? The only thing I see is the Gibson LP, but is it a Std. or Studio?
muntahunta16th April 2008.... is that a wine red gibson les paul with EMG's???
I WANT IT!!! lol
nice lesson dude, hope to see alot more
Angelica16th April 2008That's what I was looking for! Thanks Marcus
- Marcus Siepen16th April 2008
Again thanks a lot to all of you :-)
@ Iluha: The fact that I play in a successful band of course does not make me a good teacher automatically, actually it does not even make me a good guitar player by default, but I will try my best to come up with more interesting and helpful lessons, and I am happy that you liked this one :-) 
Fran16th April 2008Cool licks Marcus!
Ivan Milenkovic16th April 2008Killer tone, and a great solo lesson.
Muris Varajic16th April 2008Good work Marcus,was waiting for your next lesson
and finally it's here!
Iluha16th April 2008Great one Marcus, I have to admit that at first I was sceptical when you joined the crew, as I don't ussually expect from musicians that made it big to be good teachers, but this is a very helpful lesson from many aspects and also sounds great, so thanks for spending you'r time on this site man
Joe Kataldo16th April 2008Nice lesson Marcus!
Mr T16th April 2008Yeah, love that tone!
Juan M. Valero16th April 2008ah, and amazing tone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Juan M. Valero16th April 2008
great lesson !! sounds really cool Marcus
Rodnator16th April 2008Awesome Marcus,incredible tone.
at lights end16th April 2008great lesson!
- Gabriel Leopardi16th April 2008
Great rock solo Marcus!
The Uncreator16th April 2008Very cool solo Marcus!
I love the opening melody, Just awesome
Marshmall0wz16th April 2008GREAT LESSON! nice paul too
Marcus Lavendell16th April 2008Great doable solo Marcus!
jammer9116th April 2008Pure rock. Im sorry im not an 80's kid and am out of touch with rock, but i know rock when i hear it and this lesson purely rock. It starts of steady and then elevates you. Great lesson for sure.
- Marcus Siepen16th April 2008
Thanks guys, I really appreciate it :-)
PassionPlay16th April 2008This 1 is sweet
What i like is, thats it's not very technical stuff it's just a good composition
Capt.Z16th April 2008Glad to have another one of your lessons.
Jerry Arcidiacono16th April 2008I agree with MickeM. Very useful lesson for pentatonic soloing!
- fkalich16th April 2008
Very nice, and it is unique to other existing lessons, always a big thing to me.
Pizzoaro16th April 2008This is great!
skipdaflip16th April 2008Nice Penta solo... It's bookmarked here!
Dejan Farkas16th April 2008Nice construction of solo
- SamJ16th April 2008
Great lesson! Thanks!
MickeM16th April 2008Very good lesson! I think it's very suitable for practicing the pentatonic scale and have a lot of hard rock-fun at the same time.
Hisham Al-Sanea16th April 2008great Pentatonic solo Marcus .very welldone
- Marcus Siepen16th April 2008
Thanks a lot everybody, and yup, there is a touch of Purple in there for sure
- Jon Lambo16th April 2008
Loved it, a very classic rocker solo!
Danilo Capezzuto16th April 2008Nice lesson Marcus!
Trond Vold16th April 2008Excellent
RIP Dime16th April 2008Nice, very Deep Purple, you have a great sense of rythem, really catchy solo too.
superize16th April 2008Wow....very nice solo Marcus.... i have been wating for this
Thanks
preownedguitar16th April 2008I love it Marcus. Been waiting for this one!
Kristofer Dahl16th April 2008Excellent - the solo builds up dynamically and the backing chords provide an perfect basis for strong harmonies. Thanks Marcus - it's awesome to have you here!
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- Lesson
- My notes
Hi everybody, even though I am still without internet at home I finally had the chance to upload my second lesson, this time a nice little Hard Rock type of solo based on the pentatonic scale. This scale has always been my fave scale, it is easy to play and always sounds nice in my opinion, and it has been the basis for many of the greatest riffs and licks in rock history ("Black night" from Deep Purple or "God of Thunder" from Kiss, to name just two examples).
Most of my solo is based on the A minor Pentatonic, which I am using in different boxes here, only towards the end I break things up a bit and also use the A minor harmonic scale and the A minor scale to add some more color, other techniques you will find in this lesson are alternate picking and hammering on / pulling off and there are backing tracks in different speeds for you to play along.
I hope you'll like this lesson and have fun practicing it, Cheers
Marcus
Jump to start: Home or `s` , you can also click/tap the lesson part again (the numbers above player)
Go to next part: PageUP or End.
Volume: ArrowUp / ArrowDown keys
Go to any part: Number keys (combinations also possible)
Pause or play: `k` or space key
Fullscreen: `f`, esc to close
Increase / decrease speed : `+` or `-`
