Odd note groupings...5 note, 7 note, etc

Playing Technique
#1

I’m currently working on some of the picking techniques that I’ve picked here…but I’m also trying apply it to certain exercises that I incorporate into my daily practices.

What sort of exercises would you do in order to get better at odd note groupings…like 5 note groupings or 7 note groupings, etc.

Would you just work on your usual pentatonic scales or 3 note per string scales…and just play them I groups of 5 or 7 note runs?

Or are there other/better exercises that you would recommend to help get the hang of playing those odd note groupings?

#2

Personally as long as I can make them “make sense” somehow, by adding them together or something to eventually hit a repeat pattern on a downbeat with a downstroke. So…
Pattern of 5 + 7 = 12 so 3 clicks at 4 notes per click.
5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 5 clicks, 4 notes per click
7 + 7 + 6, etc

#3

If it were me, I’d avoid running complete pentatonic scales up & down for the time being. (Look at the stretches you have to do to create 1-3 note per string pentatonics, as in Frank Gambale’s Speed Picking video). Extremely difficult for me, anyway.
Think instead of riffs that can fit into, or alongside, the pentatonic scale box. Think of minor scales in relation to the pentatonic box, as in my speed -picking exercise. This is 3 notes per string.

Think of where you start on the beat. If you add a “pickup” note before the main “1” beat to these 5-note groups, they become 6-note groups, which is good for jazz or blues.
If you start the 5-note groups on the main beat, with a downstroke, using a “pickup note,” these “odd groupings” suddenly become “normal.”
Like with Eric Johnson: his “groups of five” don’t have to be in a 5/4 time signature; they can be normal pentatonic riffs that you are “zig-zagging” and changing direction in. It just seems like “5” because it’s 4+1. Think of “5’s” as 4 + 1.

Play the fives in a 4-beat, and look at it as a constantly shifting “string of pearls.”
If you play 1-2-3-4-----5-1-2-3-----4-5-1-2-----3-4-5-1-----2-3-4-5, you will start on “1” again, eventually.

If you are going to play 5’s against a 4/4 beat, a drummer I knew showed me this trick: say “opportunity, opportunity, opportunity…”

#4

Long ago when I was finishing a BA in music and jumping right into MS music I happened upon a few mnemonic devices that skyrocketed my transcribing, notating, test taking, and most importantly—performing—playing on the bandstand.
Groupings of 5 = U-ni-ver-sit-y - - - - - - - - - - - 5 syllables
Groupings of 7 = At-A-U-ni-ver-sit-y - - - - - - -7 syllables
Groupings of 9 = Ta-ka-di-mi-U-ni-ver-sit-y - - - -9 syllables
9 syllable borrows [Taka dimi] from Indian Classical music
Had an all-nighter with Shawn Lane in 98 where we were having a good laugh at sunrise with juxtapositions of Indian classical beat counting with Mafioso BADA-BING-BADA-BOOM cadences.

4 sixteenth = ta-ka di-mi
3 eighth in triple = ta ki da
6 sixteenth in triple = tava kidi dama

After internalizing and synthesizing the rhythmic groupings into your improvisation or composition, they become new patterns of expression in your pallet. I still enjoy thinking or vocalizing the Indian classical syllables while practicing. All of this can be challenging to synchronize at tempo…yet with practice it will tighten up.
I won’t say that it will make your rhythmic awareness or comprehension of groove any better… because as far as I’ve experienced, only clave and son clave cross grid pattern persistence and 4 3 4 timeline bending seems to truly improve a person’s rhythmic compass bearing, aka funkigroove.

Cheers &
Booyakasha!

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#5

I would recommend doing a little bit of everything, like working on simple fives and sevens patterns in your left hand on a single string.

5’s:
8–7–5–7–8- -5–7–8–7–5- -8–7–5–7–8–5–7–8–7–5

7’s:
8–7–5–7–8–7–5- -8–7–5–7–8–7–5- -8–7–5–7–8–7–5-

This way, you learn to internalize what should be done with your left hand, since the movements are not as linear.
Then you can take the same idea and explain it for a 3nps scale on two or more strings, like this:

5’s:

7’s:

Also, since this is an odd number of notes, you should pay attention to the right-hand motion and also the escape.
I recommend practicing two-way pickslanting, because it fits perfectly with this type of line:

But if you’re just a USX or DSX player, that’s fine! You can do a lot of things like this too, just add a little sweep picking and creativity.
Also, you can think of five or seven notes for the right hand only, even though there are six notes in a pattern, like ascending sixes. You can just pick five times to do this.
Here are some examples of this:

This might not be quite what you were looking for, but it might help.

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