May 19, 2014: Dickey Betts visits the Gibson factory in Nashville. Forrest Richard “Dickey” Betts, founding member of the legendary Allman Brothers Band, successful solo artist and leader...
May 19, 2014: Dickey Betts visits the Gibson factory in Nashville.
Forrest Richard “Dickey” Betts, founding member of the legendary Allman Brothers Band, successful solo artist and leader of his own ensemble, Great Southern, possesses one of the most distinct and influential guitar styles in the history of rock.
Combining elements of blues, rock, jazz, country, folk, bluegrass and world music, Dickey Betts forged his signature sound while laying the groundwork—along with Grateful Dead guitarist/leader Jerry Garcia—for the unique, progressive and forever mysterious genre known as “jam band” music.
In this edition of In Deep, we’ll take a look at a few of the scales Dickey relies on most when weaving his classic solos and melodic patterns.
One of the scales closely associated with the Dickey Betts sound is major pentatonic, the five-tone scale built from the first, second, third, fifth and sixth major scale degrees. FIGURE 1 illustrates G major pentatonic (G A B D E) as played in “open” position, using open strings. This pattern is used very often for soloing in bluegrass and country music, and Dickey learned about its use in this context as a young child, playing acoustic “string music” with his father and uncles.
A common technique when soloing with this scale is to use the minor, or “flatted,” third as a passing tone between the second and the major third. In the key of G, the minor third is Bb and the major third is B. FIGURE 2 presents a Betts-like bluegrass-style three-bar solo that features the use of the flatted-third passing tone as well as many hammer-ons, pull-offs and finger slides, used to yield a smooth, legato sound.
As is the case when studying any scale, it is essential to plot it out