In this video
In this genre studies part of the intermediate course, we look at ‘Rock and ‘Indie’. This should help to choose which genres you wish to specialise in after doing this course.
The core elements of most rock style music include;
Pentatonic note choices in riffs and lead playing
Blues scale, Myxolydian mode and major scale note choices are also always possible
Lead guitar techniques such as string bending, double stops and other rock style phrasing
In most poplar styles of music, the major scale is used as a framework to give us the chords in a key and the melodic notes that will work over those chords. In rock music, it is more common that the Minor pentatonic is used to give us not only the lead note choices, but also the root notes of the chords in the song too. Here is an example of how this is done in the Key of A.
Interactive TAB
This concept applies to all the core rock genres including (but not limited to!)...
50s/ 60s rock n roll
70s Classic Rock
80s metal
90s grunge
00s indie/ garage rock