Electric Guitar: Triplets Using the Minor Pentatonic Scale

There is something about the electric guitar that lends itself to playing triplets. Who knows why, but guitarists are constantly playing them with various degrees of success in terms of interesting licks or musical phrases. In this article we will deal with playing triplets on the electric guitar, but not the easy kind where they simply repeat on one string, (which many guitarists overuse), instead we will be working mainly with ascending triplets (but I also encourage you to eventually reverse them so they can be played descending as well).

First, we'll use the G minor pentatonic scale to execute some fast ascending triplets. Let's use the lower G down at the third fret so we can give our fretting hand a good stretch. Here we go.

--|-3--| |--3--| |--3--| |--3--|
|-----------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------|
|--------------------------3---3--|
|---------3---3--5-3-5---5-----|
|-6-3-6---6---------------------|

|----------------------------------|
|------------------------3---3---|
|---------3--3--5-3-5---5-----|
|-5-3-5---5---------------------|
|----------------------------------|
|----------------------------------|

|----------3--3--6-3-6~--|
|-6-3-6---6---------------|
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|

Do you feel where the triplets are? Pick every note and strive to keep your picking (or the timing of the notes) even. Personally, I have a tendency to play the notes on the same string faster than the ones that occur on adjacent strings. So strive for smooth transitions between strings. No clattering around erratically with your pick - always try to execute these triplets wih extreme finesse and control, and experiment with other keys as well.

Remember to practice this lick (and any other difficult licks you encounter - although this one isn't particularly difficult) with a metronome slowly at first, say about 70 beats per minute, until the pattern is ingrained well into your fingertips and brain, then gradually increase the speed until you are blazing along without a care in this big wide universe. Concerning the triplets above, I begin the lick with an upstroke and then alternate pick everything else. That way I can use alternate picking between strings, yet the pick is still moving in the most economical fashion possible.

Another triplet based pattern I like also uses the minor pentatonic, except this one involves string skipping and finger-tapping techniques. The fun part about this one is that the lick is easier to execute than it looks, and a tremendous amount of speed can be generated with only minimal effort. Try it.

|------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------12t-5-7-|
|-----------12t-5-7---------------------|
|---------------------12t-5-7-----------|
|-12t-5-8-------------------------------|

|--------------------------------12t-5-8-12t-|
|-----------12t-5-8---------------------------|
|----------------------12t-5-7----------------|
|-12t-5-7-------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------|

Simply tap this lick in the normal way, using just your index finger, taking care to hit the right notes as you skip over the strings, while executing the hammer-ons with your fretting hand below. (All notes are either tapped, hammered-on, or pulled-off to -- notice the tiny t's in the tab next to the 12s.) To reiterate, you can really get this lick ripping along at a prodigious speed with only a modicum of work. It flows nicely and the string skipping provides wide intervals that sound good. This is a nice tapping lick.

Work out both ascending licks above so they are descending as well. (It won't be too hard.) They sound just as good going backward as they do forward.

By the way, while you are here reading my simple words, I would like to say that the pentatonic minor scale is an amazing entity. So simple yet so useful, and it occurs in so many different forms of music throughout the world. You will probably play the minor pentatonic scale thousands of times during your electric guitar career, so get used to it; and try to invent your own new triplet-based combinations as well. See if you can invent an entirely new pattern of triplets that no guitarist has ever played before. And when you do, get those notes popping off so clean and fast your listeners will be astounded and awe struck.

Reference:

How to Become a Guitar Player from Hell, Jason Earls, Pleroma Publications, 2007.