In this third installment of our exploration of utilizing the major third of E, G#, as an additional tone within licks based on the E minor pentatonic scale...
In this third installment of our exploration of utilizing the major third of E, G#, as an additional tone within licks based on the E minor pentatonic scale (E G A B D) and E blues scale (E G A Bb B D), we will focus on ninth position. (By the way, you'll find parts 1 and 2 under RELATED ARTICLES below/left.
The reason the major third is such a welcome sound is that, when playing over the tonic, or “one” chord in a blues progression in E, E7, it represents an important, defining chord tone.
Of the four notes that make up an E7 chord—E, G#, B and D—only E, B and D are present in the aforementioned scales, so the addition of the G# notes strengthens the connection between the melody and the underlying E7 chord. If we add G# to the E blues scale, we get a hybrid scale that includes a chromatic row between the minor third, G, and the fifth, B; the notes of this hybrid scale are: E G G# A Bb B D, spelled, intervallically: 1 b3 3 4 b5 5 b7.
As I demonstrated in the previous two columns, the placement of the major third, G#, in a melodic line should ideally come after the minor third, G, as a means to highlight the presence of the chord tone. This is the case whether the line is ascending or descending.
Remember that you can incorporate the sound of the major third by either fretting the note normally or bending the minor third up a half step. String bends always sound genre-appropriate and expressive when playing blues or blues-rock, and the technique serves to lend a vocal quality to an improvised line.
FIGURE 1 is a 12-bar solo played over a slow