Tag: John Mclaughlin

CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

Please watch video above for in depth analysis:

Hi Guys,

Today, a quick look at exploiting the Em scale for John McLaughlin’s and Shakti’s composition “Lotus Feet”.

The key to making a solo sound interesting is to highlight the prominent notes of the scale: In this case it is the semitones F# G and B and C.

Here are the semitones ascending:

Here, they are descending:

Also, take into consideration that the F# note will make the Cmaj7 Lydian:

Now, let’s add one extra note to the semitones and create an imitated phrase going through the octaves.

Now, we will connect some scale to the semitones ascending:

Here we will connect three tetrachords in 3/4 creating a smooth pentatonic style line:

ARPEGGIOS FROM THE SCALE:

Another key component when improvising is to exploit the arpeggios within the scale:

Two arpeggios that work well for this composition are Em and Bm:

E minor:

Mixing the scale with the arpeggio also works really well.

PENTATONIC’S FROM THE SCALE:

It’s always a good idea to have a few pentatonic’s from the scale at hand:

Here we can manipulate the Em, Bm, and Am to good effect. Again we can make them more unique by adding the semitones:

Em Pentatonic:

Bm Pentatonic:

Am Pentatonic:

Now, lets connect two fragments together:

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD:

IF THIS LESSON WAS OF USE TO YOU THEN PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO US BELOW ON YOUTUBE, THANKS!

CLICK SUBSCRIBE!