Tips To Sound A Little "Out", And Personalize Your Playing

Hello guitar pals! I am writing this column to help you sound a little outside using an easy way based on extended patterns.

In the first example, if you have a situation like, let's say,an A minor vamp you can mix (A Minor Blues + A major Blues) pentatonics. That results in a scale like this: A, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F#, G, A. This is a terrific sounding 9 note scale. Follow me on these next two examples:

               
1. A minor blues (mp3)

6E--5----8-----10-----------------------------------------------
5A------------------6---7-----10--------------------------------
4D-----------------------------------7----10----12--------------
3G--------------------------------------------------------------
2B--------------------------------------------------------------
1E--------------------------------------------------------------

6E--------------------------------------------------------------
5A--------------------------------------------------------------
4D--------------------------------------------------------------
3G-----------------------9---10---12----------------------------
2B--------------------------------------10--13--15--------------
1E-----------------------------------------------------11-12-15-

2. A (major/minor) 6/7 or A79#13 (mp3)

6E--5----8---9--------------------------------------------------
5A--------------------7--9--10----------------------------------
4D--------------------------------------7--10--11---------------
3G--------------------------------------------------------------
2B--------------------------------------------------------------
1E--------------------------------------------------------------

6E-------------------------------------------------------------
5A--------------------------------------------------------------
4D--------------------------------------------------------------
3G---------------------9---11--12-------------------------------
2B-----------------------------------------10--13-14------------
1E---------------------------------------------------12--14-15--

Another good way to sound a bit different is to take the blues turnaround approach. Let's say you a have a simple 12 bar blues to fit a nice solo over:

It is called a turnaround, this harmonic movement starting on bar 9, and you can use the A melodic minor scale over the entire turnaround. A melodic minor scale brings us the next few chords Aminor7+, B minor7(13), Caug5, D7, E7, F#minor75b, G#alt.
If you notice, the fourth and fifth chords of the scale are exactly the same chords of the blues turnaround except in Bar 11, the A7, where A melodic minor will sound Dorian7+ against the 7 chord, sounds weird but it works!

Well, that's all for now. See ya!