Southern Rock Legends - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Michael Johnson >> Southern Rock Legends >>

Lesson Subject: Southern Rock Legends I

What you learn: Lynyrd Skynyrd Style Part 2

Michael: Michael Johnson

Michael: Welcome class to the lesson series on Southern Rock Legends! This is the 2nd lesson in a 2 part series on the style of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Skynyrd is great a layering guitars, the first part of the lesson you will learn standard country rock type licks and the 2nd part will cover playing movable scale patterns to play over the chords of a progression. You can hear the licks you will learn in these lesson in the lesson sample.

Michael: We will start with the rhythm guitar patterns first and move to the guitar licks next. Here's the rhythm guitar section:

Michael: You start by picking a D, then A and G. You repeat by playing D again and A, but the next time you play Bm and G. Here's the looping jam track you can practice over.

Michael: OK, here are some licks you can play over this rhythm pattern.

Michael: You are basically playing in a D Major and Major Pentatonic pattern. In bar 1 you start by bending the 15th fret/1st string one whole step and play in the neutral position on the same fret. After that you descend the D Major scale pattern. Here's the scale pattern.

Michael: Let's jump to the next lick:

Michael: Now this lick uses the the D Major Pentatonic scale pattern. The root note of the pattern starts on the 5th fret/5th string. Here's the pattern:

Michael: The D Major Pentatonic scale pattern fits nicely with the D Major barre chord. Notice you play a descending run in bar 2 where you use a Min 3rd note as you descend. This gives the run a chromatic feel. In bar 3 you bend the 9th fret/3rd string with your 3rd finger and then immediately play the notes on the 10th fret/1st & 2nd strings using your 4th finger. This is a pretty common country type lick. Let's jump to the next lick:

Michael: This is a pretty cool guitar lick! You play in the D Major Pentatonic scale pattern on the upper position of the neck. Here's the scale pattern:

Michael: Notice in bar 2 you use the same descending type run that you learned in Lick 2, but this time you are playing an octave higher. In barre 3 you play 4 notes that repeat a descending pattern. you use a pull-off on the 2nd string.

Frank: Tell me Michael, is there any advantage to using a lead pattern, per se, versus a chord pattern to play the same thing?

Michael: Frank they are interchangeable. Chords are a by product of the scale pattern. So they all inter relate. It might help you to visualize using the chord patterns in your head for arpeggios and movable licks like we are going to cover in the 2nd part of this lesson. Let's jump to lick 4.

Michael: Notice you use A as your tonal center, this note is the V of the D Major scale. You repeat pull-offs on the 1st string and repeat back to the A. In bar 3 you basically use the D Major chord while playing double stop notes in that chord position. In fact Frank brought up a great question earlier about visualizing the chord pattern vs. the scale pattern. This is a great example when it's best to visualize the chord pattern to play licks within those notes.

Michael: OK, let's move to another rhythm pattern and set of new licks. In this section you will learn how to play movable scale patterns to play licks over the chord progression.

Frank: Also, I've noticed I can play a similar pattern further down on the neck using the next chord pattern...I tend to visualize them, too!

Michael: Great Frank, very insightful observation! Here's the new rhythm pattern:

Michael: This is a common rhythm and blues pattern starting in D (I) and then to G (IV), back to D (I) and then you play a descending run and then to A. You continue back to the D (I) and G (IV) and to E (II). Then it continues with D (I) and A (V) and back to D. Here's the looping jam track:

Michael: OK, knowing the chord progression is important when you play the next guitar licks, remember D, G, D, A, D, G, E, D, A & D. Here's our first lick:

Michael: Now notice the chords in each bar. starting with D, G, D then the descending riff and A. Know here are some of the movable Major Pentatonic scale patterns that are used in the licks. First in bar 1 we use the D Major Pentatonic box pattern:

Michael: Now in bar 2 of the last lick you adjust by playing G and the G Major Pentatonic. Here's the pattern:

Michael: In bar 3 of the last lick you repeat using the D Major Pentatonic and in bar 4 you play the descending riff and end with the A. Try playing over the last looping jam track to see if you can follow playing these licks over the rhythm guitar. OK, now let's continue the rest of the guitar licks for this progression. You start back with D again for this section.

Michael: More of the same type of licks! Make sure your 4th finger covers the notes used on the 1st & 2nd strings, while the 3rd finger is on the 3rd string as well as using the 1st finger to play lower notes on that same string. The videos will give you a better idea of how to position your hands while moving to various positions to play over the chord progression.

Michael: Here's on last set of licks. You can follow the chord progression as well, by playing intervals sequences on the middle two strings (3rd & 4th). This is actually easy to play. Here's the licks:

Michael: Notice how the intervals correlate with the movement of the chord changes. They are easy to play if you know what positions to move to. You basically are playing the same lick and adjusting to the positions, i.e. D - 7th fret, G - 12th fret, D - 7th fret, etc...

Michael: Well it's time to go. I hope you all learned a lot from this lesson.

Frank: Great time, Michael, thanks a bunch.

Michael: Thanks! See you next lesson everybody!

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