Em Pentatonic Jam

Here is a gentle entry into practicing your soloing skills. Let's take the Em Pentatonic scale in open position and simply use different rhythms to try out a melody. You can even use words to help you build rhythms, like "Mississippi hotdog" or "watermelon ap-ple" (notice those have the same rhythm if you pick them on a string). There are no wrong notes in this scale, so try to be bold and find sounds you like. Trust your EAR!
Once you get the hang of playing lead (the Em pent), try joining the upper video on the strum from time to time to get the feel of switching from playing rhythm guitar to lead guitar. If the Pop strum is beyond where you are right now, try a simple alternate strum - down up down up down up down up on the beats 1+2+3+4+. You got this!

[@GuitarJoLa]

Very very nice! 👍

[@SVN62534]

Great job Brittany! Keep rocking

[@user-xk7gr6kx8d]

Like it

[@1man1guitarletsgo]

The rhythm guitar was played in the key of G Major, and so technically it might have been better to approach the solo using the GM scale, but since the GM and Em scales use essentially the same notes, you can get away with thinking of it as E minor. Then, while improvising a solo, include some target notes to reinforce whichever chord's being played at the time.

[@DrGuessFilms]

I think the point was that since so many people learn the e minor pentatonic as their intro to soloing, it gives a context for how to actually use it musically outside of blues.

[@brittanybrook_guitargirl]

Hey thanks for your input. This video is geared toward my private students who study first the Em Pentatonic scale in open position. This is their very first introduction to playing lead and it's a nice and simple pattern to get inventive on!

[@brittanybrook_guitargirl]

Indeed. Thanks!