Blues Pentatonics Expansion Pack

General Music Discussion
#1

I’ve been wanting to make this thread for awhile. I’ve been playing live in cover bands for several years now, always trying to fit in my Gilbert licks, or my Malmsteen licks, or whatever, but what always gets the crowds attention the most is a good ol’ trusty blues lick right from minor pentatonic. And it hit me one day; listening to tunes both old and new, that the blues stuff always sounds the coolest in the context of a full song. So my goal for this thread is to post an infinite number of licks that our favorite players have played live or on record where they put their own spin on the minor blues stuff and make it sound awesome! I encourage everyone to post your finds, include tab if you have them! Lets keep the video clips short and to the point; give us a timing of when the lick occurs in the video if ya can. I will get us started with a few bangers. I see this thread thriving because a lot of these bluesy spinoffs really aren’t that hard to incorporate into your playing at a faster pace and are usually easier to pull off live consistently (in my subjective opinion).

  1. Joe Bonamassa - just some awesome EJ style stuff, beginning of video to 0:15

  2. Dario Lorina - 2nd guitar player in Zakk Wylde’s band; only a few seconds long

  3. Buckethead playing Paradise City; start at 6:40, that first opening lick

  4. Yngwie - sweet blues lick from this live song at 4:10
    Transcription here at bar 21
    Credit to @Jacklr for the soundslice

  5. Dimebag - Revolution is My Name
    go to 1:53

    Found the songsterr tab here; lick starts at bars 55-56

Hope we can share some solid blues spinoffs here! Cheers everyone.

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#2

Cool thread! I will try to think of some stuff

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#3

Lari Basilio’s solo on Pete Thorn’s In Good Company is stellar start to finish…but this lick in context is so, so cool. Starts with the open E jab and ends up between the 10th and 12th frets.

Straight out of the B minor pentatonic. Box 1 up into the top of box 2.

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#4

Guthrie pentatonic + flat5 legato run down from Bulls on Parade

Emil Werstler Pentatonic+Passing tones

Emil Werstler Pentatonic + flat5 octave 6es

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#5
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#7

[Dave DiPietro Guitar Lesson - YouTube](Dave DiPietro Guitar Lesson - YouTube)

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#8

That’s cool. Pretty sure Dave DiPietro was from jersey and my guitar teacher along with Zack Wylde took lessons from him. They also took lessons with a guy named Ken Dubman from a band Anthrax. Small world.

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#9

I saw Dave several times with TT Quick @ Lamour’s East back in day.

Dave was/is a great player. You took lessons from DAve? or your guitar teacher did?

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#10

My guitar teacher did. My teacher either took lessons from Dave, Ken Dubman or both. I remember him talking about them along with Zakk many times. Him and Zakk grew up in nearby towns. My guitar teacher was a guy named Randy Ferri who played in a hair band called Roxx. They were actually pretty good just too late for that music I guess.

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#11

very cool. i was going to take lessons from dave… but i stood him up… lol.

do you remember a NYC power metal band called Cites?

Steve Mironovich?

He was my teacher in the late 80s

Cities, 1982, Lamours Rock Capital Of Brooklyn - YouTube

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#12

Very nice idea – Rick Beato just made a similar observation regarding Nuno B.'s solo in Extreme’s new release “Rise.”

Beato said that the solo was a shredding masterpiece, but most importantly fit into and served the song so well. And to paraphrase further, Beato noted there are MANY ripping licks and solos done on Insta, etc., but the Masters fit their genius into a song.

Solo starts about 2:22

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#13

Oh, and here is Beato’s analysis.

There are already a number of lick breakdowns on Nuno’s solo, but I haven’t checked any for accuracy.

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#14

Nuno Bettencourt is one of Rock guitar’s best and worst kept secrets.

So much groove, so much ‘fun’ and ferocious chops.

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#15

…and my girlfriend says that his hair is gorgeous too.

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#16

He’s also a fantastic writer/arranger and one of the best backup singers in rock.

And yeah, credit where it’s due. He does have great hair.

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#17

I try not to resent the fact that he’s 56 and has apparently kept every last strand of his hairline.

The operative word: Try. :slight_smile:

There are so many parallels to Nuno and EVH. Ignoring the part where EVH changed the course of music. As you said, he’s a writer and arranger. He’s a great backup singer - but he’s also got an excellent singing voice.

Nuno is one of the few guys where you can hear Eddie’s influence all over the place…but it doesn’t sound like a bad imitation or caricature of Eddie. He’s done his own thing.

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#18

Totally! Fun story, I saw Extreme live back in 2000…something…can’t remember the exact year. Easily the best performed rock show I’ve been to for the whole band (and vocal harmonies were on point).

I went to the rest room before the show started and some guys were talking about how awesome Nuno was. One was like “Maannnn…Nuno is like Eddie squared”. Another guy was like “Naaahhhh man, Nuno is Eddie times Brian May”

I’m not good at math but the calculations just might check out :wink:

And now…I need to go hunt for the pentatonic stuff I said I’d hunt for…

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#19

I have not heard of that name or band but I will
Check it out! Small world im def gonna go through that full Dave DiPietro video one day. I think he still plays some original stuff locally along with Ken Dubman. But back in the day from the stories I’ve heard, they were underrated gems; kind of like the guitar teachers that never made it big if I had to put it some way and I don’t mean that as a diss at all

#20

The band Cites were a local Power metal band in SI NY. They released an album, some cool tracks. Steve Mironovich was my teacher in the early 90s. He was a fantastic player, along the lines of “Rusty Cooley” style with phenomenal aggressive picking.

Steve was up to be Ace Frealey’s replacement in KISS but the low manager from his original band tried to make $$$ off Gene and Paul… lol, that’s not going to happen.

Check it out, it’s on the interweb… great story.

Anyway, there are so many great players that no one ever hears about.

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#21

Some killer blues soloing by Shawn Lane.
Solo starts around 1:15. @Tom_Gilroy or anyone else have tabs or transcription for this?

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