Santana style - 12-13-01

Lesson Subject: Santana Style

What you learn: Licks & Scales

Teacher: Michael Johnson

Michael: Our interactive lesson is part 4 of the style of Carlos Santana. This lesson covers more on Santana's later style as you can hear by the lesson sample:

Michael: Here's the looping jam track we'll use throughout the lesson:

Michael: Our progression is based on the key of A min. Here's the chords you use:

Michael: So basically you have Am:

Michael: G

Michael: F barre

Michael: E

Michael: Then the progression moves to Dm later.

Buud: Can you do the same chord progression with a barre on 5th, 3rd and 1st? Easier to do.

Michael: Sure Buud.

sr: What does "barre" mean?

Michael: Using your 1st ( and sometimes other) finger to hold down other strings at the same time. Thus you have a "barre chord." Here's an example of F "not barred" and "barred."

Michael: OK, we're basically using the A Dorian mode for most of the coming licks, pretty much the same scale you learned for the other Santana lessons. Here's our first lick:

Michael: Notice in this lick you start with the relative pattern on the 10th fret and then you jump into the A Minor Pentatonic scale pattern on the 5th fret. The second section of the lick jumps to a # 7 note, this sets up the sound of the lick, then it uses the minor pentatonic pattern I mentioned earlier.

Michael: Here's our next lick:

Michael: Notice you jump into the A Dorian mode, and how the notes relate to the A minor pentatonic pattern:

Buud: On lick one, there's some vibrato on that first A note right?

Michael: Correct buud, using vibrato is the best method for sustaining a note, like in that case. Here's our next lick:

Michael: You can take advantage of using various related patterns in a solo, Carlos is a great example of jumping to pattern to pattern within a melodic context.

jlancaster: and Arpreggios?

Michael: Sure you can use arpeggios, in fact we'll get into that later, this run uses the pattern on the 1st string (E) and then jumps into the Dorian again. Our next lick uses a pattern on the 12th fret:

Michael: Notice how you play this lick over the F portion of the progression, this allows any vocals to sing over the majority of the progression and then the guitar jumps in with licks in between the phrasing.

sr: It's like different "colors". Or different shades of a color.

Michael: Sr, good observation. Modes = moods, here's our next lick:

michael: Pentatonic scale?

Michael: We're in a related pattern, this time though we alter a bit, however this is actually the E Phrygian.

michael: Nice Spanish sound..

Michael: It does have a nice Spanish sound. Here's the E Phrygian pattern.

Michael: Notice in this mode there are all natural notes vs. the F# in the A Dorian, it's a good pattern for you all to practice. Here's lick 6:

Michael: Notice the arpeggio at the beginning, you can rake your pick downwards on that section.

michael: Rakes sound awesome!

Michael: Yes they do Michael, notice how you jump into the octave pattern for the A Minor Pentatonic scale. Here's our last guitar lick:

Michael: Notice how you jump from pattern to pattern on this lick.

Rich: Thanks. Great Lesson!

chaz: 50 years I have been fooling with guitar and these lessons are my salvation so thank you very much stay well!

Michael: That's great to hear chaz! See you next lesson!

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