In this guitar lesson, we’re going to cover an embellishment riff that I like using in songs that have an Em to G major chord change.
For More Riffs Like This One, Click Here
This riff comes right out of the E pentatonic minor scale, which hopefully you’re familiar with by now. Why E pentatonic minor? Well, the chords in question are Em and G, so those overlay perfectly with the Em scale. However, if you take a look at the notes that are being used, you’ll find they also are found in Root 5 B minor diatonic scale as well, which is relative to D major… which is the key the example chord progression is found in.
Personally I find it just a little clearer in my own mind to relate to it from Em, but either way is technically okay. Probably the B minor scale makes more sense to most people.
In case you want to play along, the chord progression I demonstrated this with is just D A Em G A.
Understanding your chords and how they integrate with your guitar scales is the key to finding riffs like this one. I recommend my Guitar Scale Patterns lesson as a great place to start.
JONATHAN WHAT MODEL TAKAMINE IS THE GUITAR YOURE USING.
Hey Ric, it’s a Takamine EF360SC… Japanese made.
Hey what’s up JB. I’ve been pay close attention to your emails and things are becoming much clearer even though i play the bass the chord progressions are correlated. I can play a bunch of songs (300) that’s easy but knowing what’s going on inside the is hard and i won’t to thank you for making things clearer. PEACE!!!!!
Thanks for all the protips, man.
Always like to add the little flourishes to keep the proven grooves interesting.
I’ve been going to the sites you gave and all I get is blogs, no lesson.
Hi Terry, I’m aware of this problem and I believe it is only on older versions of Internet Explorer. We’re trying to fix it, but in the meantime I would recommend upgrading to the most recent version of Internet Explorer, or else use FireFox or Chrome or Safari instead.
I don’t seem to pick up your lesson threw my computer……It was working a while ago…..Now I just get the comment section…..What up????
Great ideas. A very useful lesson. Thanks and have a wonderful day.