# Pentatonic Sweeps



## MetalMike (Jul 30, 2006)

I was just transcribing some pentatonic sweeps from Jason Becker on A Little Ain't Enough and thought I'd share them with you guys. 

A Pentatonic:

E||--15-10----------------------------------10-15-||
B||--------13----------------------------13-------||
G||-----------14-12----------------12-14----------||
D||-----------------14----------14----------------||
A||--------------------17-12-17-------------------||
E||-----------------------------------------------||

G Major Pentatonic:

E||--17-12----------------------------------12-17-||
B||--------15----------------------------15-------||
G||-----------17-14----------------14-17----------||
D||-----------------17----------17----------------||
A||--------------------19-15-19-------------------||
E||-----------------------------------------------||


I guess in a way they take away the point of using a pentatonic scale in the first place, at least according to those that try to make a case about playing and not playing with emotion .. but they certainly are nice to throw in.

These are relatively easy to play fast once you get the hang of it. Throw them in when your in a blues situation. (Traditional blues players of all types will love you )


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## DelfinoPie (Jul 30, 2006)

Admittedly I can't sweep for shit so I can't actually play this, however I did accidentally add a note when attempting it that sounded pretty sweet so I will share.


E||--15-10------------------------------------------10-15-||
B||--------13------------------------------------13-------||
G||-----------14-13-12----------------12-13-14-----------||
D||---------------------14----------14--------------------||
A||------------------------17-12-17-----------------------||
E||--------------------------------------------------------||


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## MetalMike (Jul 30, 2006)

DelfinoPie said:


> Admittedly I can't sweep for shit so I can't actually play this, however I did accidentally add a note when attempting it that sounded pretty sweet so I will share.
> E||--15-10------------------------------------------10-15-||
> B||--------13------------------------------------13-------||
> G||-----------14-13-12----------------12-13-14-----------||
> ...



Sounds good. You can never go wrong by adding chromatics.


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## distressed_romeo (Aug 2, 2006)

Great stuff. I love that song!
It's a shame Jason couldn't get the tone he had on that album on his Shrapnel recordings...


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## MetalMike (Aug 7, 2006)

distressed_romeo said:


> Great stuff. I love that song!
> It's a shame Jason couldn't get the tone he had on that album on his Shrapnel recordings...



 I think it had something to do with both his new Jason Becker prototype model or whatever he was using at the time that weren't carvins and I'm assuming his amp choice was quite different basically because he had to match or better both EVH and Vai.


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## distressed_romeo (Aug 7, 2006)

^ Or the fact that it was someone other than Mike Varney behind the mixing desk, lol!


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## MetalMike (Aug 7, 2006)

That's the most likely reason. 

I'm still against his Carvin setup though after listening to his jams cds and hearing a few awful clean out of tune compositions. Don't get me wrong there's some great stuff on there too but some sections were like wow I can't believe he didn't realize how out of tune he was. But then again, for the most part in the 80s the majority of shredders with locking systems didn't realize how out of tune they were. Frankly, you wouldn't know anyway unless they played slow and clean passages which they didn't but Jason Becker did on that album.


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## Metal Ken (Aug 8, 2006)

distressed_romeo said:


> ^ Or the fact that it was someone other than Mike Varney behind the mixing desk, lol!




Or the fact that he said he could barely finish the album cause of ALS?


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## MetalMike (Aug 8, 2006)

Metal Ken said:


> Or the fact that he said he could barely finish the album cause of ALS?



We were saying his tone is an improvement from his shrapnel stuff. There's a few parts on ALAE where Dave must of said do anything you want where he did do some of his coolest licks he's ever done in a less metal scenario with much better tone IMO. I guess that was recorded before the ALS hit him hard. I remember reading about how he could barely hold an acoustic yet he did some signature Becker licks on some parts of the album. I'm assuming sometime during the middle of the session is when it hit him hard. I could be completely wrong though.


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## Metal Ken (Aug 8, 2006)

metalmike23 said:


> We were saying his tone is an improvement from his shrapnel stuff. There's a few parts on ALAE where Dave must of said do anything you want where he did do some of his coolest licks he's ever done in a less metal scenario with much better tone IMO. I guess that was recorded before the ALS hit him hard. I remember reading about how he could barely hold an acoustic yet he did some signature Becker licks on some parts of the album. I'm assuming sometime during the middle of the session is when it hit him hard. I could be completely wrong though.




My bad, i meant to qoute the thing about the out of tune thing. He barely finished recoridng a little ain't enough before he got really affected. he said could barely hold a guitar by the time he got the album done.


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## MetalMike (Aug 8, 2006)

Metal Ken said:


> My bad, i meant to qoute the thing about the out of tune thing. He barely finished recoridng a little ain't enough before he got really affected. he said could barely hold a guitar by the time he got the album done.



No big deal man. That's what I heard too, but I figured the out of tune stuff on the rasperberry jams where done in his spare time before he had ALS. I have a feeling I'm wrong though.


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## Metal Ken (Aug 8, 2006)

metalmike23 said:


> No big deal man. That's what I heard too, but I figured the out of tune stuff on the rasperberry jams where done in his spare time before he had ALS. I have a feeling I'm wrong though.



A lot of stuff on both jams disc was done after he started to lose strength.. the "Black Stallion Jam" is the very last full song he recorded (Or so i think he said).


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## MetalMike (Aug 8, 2006)

Metal Ken said:


> A lot of stuff on both jams disc was done after he started to lose strength.. the "Black Stallion Jam" is the very last full song he recorded (Or so i think he said).



At least he recorded something that showed all the "nay-sayers" that he could play with a hell of alot of emotion. It's terrible what happened to him. When I hear people use the term "mindless shredding" it bothers me to think that that term has probably been applied to him in an internet forum or somewhere. He's the most emotional shredder IMO. He was gifted to the point where he could convey his emotions on guitar in a genre that few untrained ears could see emotion in.


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