SHELBY WILLIFORD

Hey everybody. Welcome to my latest lesson. Let me first just say thank you to everyone who has emailed me and offer an apology for not getting this lesson out sooner. A lot has been going on. For starters, I have a new band that I'm in the process of recording a CD with. Plus, I just finished college, (woo-hoo!). My band doesn't have a name yet, but I promise it'll be blazing solos and heart pounding metal all the way. I will also be resuming my work on my solo CD in September. But anyway, enough about me. Let's get to the lesson.

Early on in my playing, the "In thing" for shredders was 3 note per string scales. At the time, this was very fresh to most people because it allowed them to a: break away from the same old blues licks and b: extend the melodic range of their licks and thereby making them more exciting to the ear. I always wondered about adding the 4th finger into the mix but never really had the guts to try until I heard Rusty Cooley doing licks with 4 note per string scales in his lessons and music.

Since I first got some exposure to it, I've been experimenting with patterns and licks that fall in this very category. I came up with these patterns for each of the scales so that I can I can be able to have a solid foundation for creating my own licks. In my next lesson, I will actually show you some of my licks. But for this lesson, I want to show the foundation that I work from in creating my licks so that you can also do this. These are the scale patterns that I work from. I have also included a 3 note per string pentatonic scale pattern to get you comfortable with the working range of these shapes. The numbers on top of each pattern are the fret numbers and the red O's are the root note of each pattern. If this is too much of a stretch for you, simply shift the pattern/s up to a comfortable fret and make your way down the neck. It's OK if you don't get it at first. If you practice, you will. Well that's all for now. If you have any questions or comments, I can be reached at shredderdude@excite.com. One more thing. If I happened to mess up on any of these patterns, feel free to let me know and I'll correct it/them in my next lesson. Take care and keep up the quest for shredderdom.