Hi There,

Thanks for reading my blogs so far.

In the last blog we looked at some examples of riffs that you can use in the 1st shape of the minor pentatonic scale.

I’ve now come up with some more riffs that you can use for the 2nd shape.

This time i’ve used the key of Am (2nd shape will start on the 8th fret 6th string)

Here’s a pic of the 2nd shape:

For the first riff we start on the highest note of the pattern on the 10th fret 1st string which we’re going to bend up to reach the pitch of the 3rd shape:

In this riff we’ve got;

– A ‘bend and release’ pitch bend

– A hammer on and pull off just plucking once

– Hammer on and vibrato at the end

Here’s an audio clip of me playing it:

2ND SHAPE MIN PENTATONIC NO.1

For the 2nd riff we are going to utilize hammer on’s, pull offs, a slide and vibrato

Here’s an audio clip of me playing it:

2ND SHAPE MIN PENTATONIC NO.2

For the 3rd riff i’ve combined the pattern on 2 strings for a smoke on the water type riff maker:

Here’s an audio clip of me playing it:

2ND SHAPE MINOR PENTATONIC RIFF 3

For the 4th riff i’ve shown how you can get more of a melodic type riff using the pentatonics that’s less ‘solo like’

Here’s an audio clip of me playing it:

2ND SHAPE MIN PENTATONIC RIFF 4

Hopefully this has given you some ideas to play around with in the 2nd shape of the minor pentatonic

Thanks for reading

For other music tips feel free to follow me on twitter @jsmusicschool

ROCK N ROLL

James