Peter Green's Magic Scale with Jeff McErlain

Put some Green into your blues with the minor pentatonic major 6 scale.
Visit Jeff McErlain: jeffmcerlain.com
More Premier Guitar lessons: bit.ly/PGLessons

[@kingstumble]

Peter Green---master of taste and restraint. I was lucky enough to play with him when the Mac played our blues club just before the release of their first album.

[@seansrecords]

Man that’s cool ... I always wished I could meet and chat with peter. He’s always been my no1 player

[@UnitedElectric]

RAD

[@hazwaz6385]

@Leonel Johan what the fuck

[@rv6205]

please tell me he was super down to earth and friendly ???

[@kingstumble]

@@rv6205 Yes, they all were. I was playing bass in the resident band and it was a sort of tradition that at the end of the night everybody would get back on stage for one almighty jam. They were more than willing. John McVie let me use his bass rig while he went for a drink!

[@DJMerck]

#PeterGreen was and IS the greatest blessing EVER gained for guitar! SOOOOOOO much came from him and so few realize it. His roots support a family tree of some of the greatest musicians to ever grace the planet earth regardless if they display it or not. The roots and rabbit hole goes VERY deep with this one... Love y'all...

[@mikegallagher2732]

YESSSSSSSSSSS !!!!!!!!!! Back in the day EVERYONE said " Clapton is god" , BUT..... Peter was MINE... NOTHING is as good as the "ORIGINAL" fleetwood mac...DEFINITELY NOT what they became later... UUUUUUGGHHHHHHH....

[@Hiwatt100W1]

I could not agree with you more. Years ago I saw him with the Splinter Group on the same bill as John Mayall (with Buddy Whittington on lead guitar). At the intermission after Peter's performance, I had to hit the john. My wife went up to him, he was signing CDs, and she went up to him and said " I don't know much about you, but my husband has talked about you our whole life". I never got to meet him or speak to him, but SHE did LOL!

[@megadave1197]

Peter Green was an incredible guitarist but it didn’t come from him. The music came from BB King, Albert King, Freddie King. Peter had the ability to perfectly imitate and mix their tones. He was a master but it’s imitation and not innovation.

[@stephenhanlin2388]

@@megadave1197Guess we could say the same about just about any other guitarist in the last 50+ years really huh?

[@jaykay6387]

@@megadave1197 I do not agree with that. Peter surpassed them all, no disrespect.

[@dyad9592]

My old (jazz) guitar teacher called this the 6 no 7 scale. I use it all the time mixed with other stuff. Sounds great in many situations, now I know why. Cool. Thanks.

[@slimturnpike]

I've been using the maj6 for years, but just wanted to say your phrasing within the scale is superb.

[@stevenjones6780]

It's so great to begin to hear and KNOW the chord tones in these phrases, almost as if you were playing thru jazz changes...

[@Gell1967]

Peter Green had an instinctive musical ability, most guitarists now play from memory not reacting to what the rhythm section is playing or the singer's melody, Peter's ears & hands were totally connected, having played bass at many Blues Jams it was a rarity to find a guitarist who could play rhythm, as most think of chords or riffs when in fact you're meant to play with the rhythm section & singer musically not mathematically. Peter's rhythmic mastery allowed him to stretch time, he could play before the beat, on the beat & after the beat with consummate ease, and rhythm is the basis that many instrumentalists overlook now.

[@buddhamus]

Thank you for this lesson. I use the "box 1" pentatonic shape a lot it's nice to learn a new way to use it to get me out of my rut. I greatly appreciate it.

[@jimmyheathmusic3779]

I really like your teaching style and the concept of "one thing". Thanks for the lesson. Your tone is great.

[@drothberg3]

When I discovered this, I thought of it not as a scale, but of mixing minor and major pentatonic.

[@Nickpaflas]

Exactly. When I learned the "Blues scale" it had this note in it. I know that's not the technical blues scale, but it should be part of your vocabulary from early on.

[@imannonymous7707]

Its finally coming to my ear.. that major minor third spot....funny how long it took me...god I love you tube....thanks jeff...the sixth is magic in minor pentatonic!

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the lesson!

[@CraigPaddockmusic]

And wonderful lesson. Thanks Jeff!!! I can see how this hints at the major pent and just weaving in and out of major pent to minor pent so seamlessly like BB always did.

[@JeffMcErlain]

thanks and yup!

[@cedricpierre8388]

Dude,you rock,your tuition is so useful and clear to understand,wish I discovered you years ago ,,thanks for the knowledge

[@stevenellis8365]

Thank you Jeff. Love your lessons, I always pick up some new insight with every one.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!!

[@letterli]

Jeff: love your lessons SOOOO MUCH!! Thanks!!!

[@billwilkat5585]

Love this--I've worked on some of these in the past and chose the key of C as well--it opens up our playing!

[@JeffMcErlain]

🙌

[@JS-nf1sn]

Thank you so much. What a great lesson. I feel like my note selection is forever changed.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Excellent!!

[@pg123ab]

Great lesson, that note makes the scale so more refined. Thanks.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@sthengr]

Jeff, you are an excellent teacher, thanks!

[@adylp7818]

Superb lesson! Thank you for sharing this absolute gem.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!

[@MrFiddler11]

This is a great lesson. I have loved Peter Green since I was a boy. If you listen to his licks and break them down, he has passing notes that in isolation sound so 'off' but his resolutions and responses to call and response licks are gold.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you! He’s such a hero of mine too.

[@thestereoclub6735]

This is a beautifully constructed lesson- the presentation is as smooth as the playing.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!!

[@shannonjones3714]

Excellent video! Thank you for sharing these ideas with us!

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!!

[@samstamos427]

Jeff. Again thank you for all that you do. I really enjoy your live streams on Wednesdays at 4pm est. I was surprised to learn some time ago that Peter Green wrote the song "Black Magic Woman." An interesting and expressive player. RIP....

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thanks Sam!!

[@aucourant9998]

Peter Green my favourite guitarist, so sweet, so clean.

[@pkauppila]

Great lesson, very clearly presented! Thanks!

[@slowpro5201]

Great lesson, I like the shorter videos so much to take in. I have just discovered you. You regally up there with the best teachers

[@utahprepper8925]

Coincidentally, just the other day I did the Peter Green mod to my Lester. Sounds great - lots of excellent tones to be had. This maj6 scale lesson was that much more enjoyable!

[@EricCirca]

Great lesson! Thanks Jeff!

[@A-Jay.]

Thank you for this. Great lucid explanation ... and awesome tone and touch!

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you. 🙌

[@adiohead]

Sweet sounding!

[@JoshPaterson]

Nice lesson. Easy to visualize and gives a nice flavor to sweeten up the blues playing.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thanks!

[@5150show]

Outstanding thank you Jeff . Rest In Peace PG

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you.

[@paulbrown7775]

Really good explanation of what's going on with the notes! Thanks for this.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!

[@briankierans2926]

Brilliant! Can't beat that sweet sound that Peter Green and BB King had. Just divine.

[@NINEWALKING]

Jeff sounds awesome every single time. Always true classic sound out of the guitar he chooses. Awesome lesson to. One thing people miss often is that when mimicking someone's sound way person bends is crucial. Speed and how it accelerates and does it stop abd where it stops and vibrations in it is the character of that playing. Some stop on the dot some stop slightly under or over the pitch. Some stop bend into the mute. Some bend same speed. Some bend starting slow and then accelerating some do opposite. Some accelerate very fast some slow. It helps recognizing it. I am not great player but I am at the place where I do not think about it. I just hear it and way it was bend comes into my playing sort like a parrot but naturally sounding. Feel is the most important thing there. Seen so many players with perfect knowledge and super speed but missing the feeling making it sound awful. Soulless. Some players play few notes but every note tells the story. Playing those notes is not enough if you do not tell the story. Peter Green was all about feeling in those days and that was inspiring. Pitty he got poisoned in Germany. His brain was never same after it. Was sad seeing his late life concerts him being half way there. R.I.P. legend.

[@Mr351Ford]

Beautiful, thank you.

[@youssefkasim7556]

Jeff is such a great teacher.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!

[@maxjosephson8352]

thank you Jeff, great lesson

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!

[@Foofang65]

Jeff love your feel. Totally influencing. Me to work this out. Thank you.✌️

[@spideymarino]

Brilliant lesson Jeff as always. Strangely I’ve been working on this this week - licks from ‘if you be my baby’, ‘need your love so bad’ and ‘merry go round’. Great stuff! ..

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!

[@marksantostefano1637]

Always loved Peter

[@ggman946]

Terrific lesson. Thank you 🙏🏻

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you and you are welcome!

[@IvorThomas]

I like the sound of bending #5 to 6th, as well as 6 to 7th. Endless fun.

[@mikegallagher2732]

THANK YOU JEFF !!!!!! As a HUGE Peter Green ( and Gary Moore) fanatic this is GREAT....

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thanks Mike!

[@sharplespaul]

Fantastic! Thank you!

[@BobMaulucci]

Thank you Jeff! Great leson.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thanks!

[@SeikoticTV]

I love Peter Green - why have I never noticed this before? Thanks so much for pointing this out. My riffing just improved by at least fifty percent!

[@2309612]

Thanks Jeff!!

[@petey604]

This stuff is gold dude. cheers!

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thanks!

[@SouthpawSatch]

Great lesson 👍 I'm a Satriani fan and I've also heard him use this scale in his bluesier playing too

[@chrisforrest4581]

Great lesson Jeff !! your doing Greenie proud

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!!!

[@SONICBOOMERSOONER]

Jeff, i bought your Truefire Blues Arpeggios and Advanced Blues Soloing courses. As a hobbyist who's noodled for decades and has devoloped an amazing facility with "learned licks", I imitated you quickly against the backing tracks, but still how I struggle to play the changes. I'm particularly exposed a capella! I understand that the blue b5 is the same as the Country minor third in either face of the blues scale, and I can rip up and down the penta in "a key" but mixing major and minor seemed more of an effect than an art form until this lesson. Thank you so much for the way you broke this down. I sat and jammed on a triplet feel for over an hour with all manner of chord stabs that I had no idea were in my repertoire, mixing quick change and regular 12 bars for fun at a whim. I'm hearing the changes, and a whole new world is waiting...

[@JeffMcErlain]

Hey! Thank you so much for letting me know! I’m so happy this and the courses are helping! 😀

[@SONICBOOMERSOONER]

@@JeffMcErlain You've played and taught many great things, and for each lesson those students who were ready likely grew in epic ways. But I'm biased, and since this was that lesson for me, I consider the lesson epic. Please take more feedback and consider my position. 😉

[@mrcali68]

GREAT lesson! Thank you!

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thanks!

[@spivvo]

Good god.... just tried this...... I LOVE IT!

[@JeffMcErlain]

Excellent!

[@panabluesman]

Amazing lesson! Thanks!

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thanks!

[@williamthompson8374]

Nice work Jeff

[@sandrambergson]

wonderful thankyou xx

[@lamgefyoutoob]

Great lesson.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you.

[@stuartgodfrey5000]

More lessons from Jeff, please!!!!

[@JeffMcErlain]

😉🙌

[@brownsfan7753]

I love this!!!

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!

[@sober-southoftheborderever3591]

I am new to blues, know just a little bit, but this lesson, even though not for beginners, is amazing, wonderful! Thank Jeff. I love Peter Green. RIP

[@randall9000]

That is one of the most beautiful Les Pauls I’ve ever seen

[@sacredgeometry]

Why? It looks like every other Les Paul.

[@randall9000]

@@sacredgeometry combination of beautiful top, dark fretboard, tuners/pickguard/pickups and other hardware look naturally aged, golden Gibson logo

[@iannicholls7476]

@Randall Fansler I agree. The top has just the right combination of amber and deep red.

[@cjgonzalez9181]

@@sacredgeometry looks like the perfect les paul to me

[@brucethomas6886]

Well done. You've got it.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you!

[@los_rubos]

Nice touch and light strings. You don’t have to play hard and heavy to get sweet blues tones. Great lesson 👍🏼

[@sl.is.google]

Lovely tone man.

[@stevelarsen4526]

Good stuff, Jeff.👍😊🎸

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thanks!

[@thepaganaut]

Thanks so much for talking us through the details without being pedantic or hyberbolic. Great blend of explanation and inspiration! I hope that this short and to the point lesson format becomes a regular thing on this channel. Cheers!

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you very much for the thoughtful comment. I really appreciate it.

[@patrickcarr882]

This. Lesson. Rules.

[@JeffMcErlain]

🙌

[@alexhuevera939]

cool thanks

[@corkleijn4493]

This is the good stuff!

[@tomminet]

Some little things that make a big difference! Jeff has a bunch of really great courses on TrueFire, if you all thought this was cool.

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thanks Tom!!

[@iannicholls7476]

Great lesson! Also enhanced here in the UK by an ad break for Mark’s and Spencer which was using “Albatross” as the backing music. Uccanny! Or is it all down to some secret KZbin “blues” algorithm?

[@TheDeedeeFiles]

Sounds amazing.

[@fivechordmusic]

Nice touch

[@tomscotland]

He used that 6th voicing beautifully on Stop Messin Around as well as countless others.

[@panicandfreakout-]

For all the British cats who wanted to play like the blues like the Black artists from America, Peter Green was the one who did it!

[@DMSProduktions]

Sweet!

[@graemero5532]

Best guitar tutor on the Tube

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you Graeme!!!

[@paulcooper5748]

Great lesson jeff jeff did you ever get to meet or see live jeff healey.

[@glenkepic3208]

Nice lesson. Mentioned Michael Schenker and Robben Ford. Peter Green and BB King,,,,i prefer to think of them as play by feel players. Sure, shapes were there but the less theory, the better.

[@roblarson9065]

Thanks for your shorter lessons. Those > hour is not why I tune into YT. Thanks again!

[@MisterTee]

Word on the mean streets of Bend, Oregon is that Peter Green was quite good

[@imannonymous7707]

Lol that ain't the only place...but tru dat

[@jimleininger8963]

Its also spread to Goldendale

[@JamieToddBand]

Nice tone. It would have been fun to hear the scales in that out of phase sound. Love that thin sound that always stands out so nicely.

[@JeffMcErlain]

I have the gtr wired that way actually. You may like this one kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3_diYCHp9mhfrM

[@jdm49max]

Nice tone? More like monster tone.

[@JohannesLabusch]

Might we ask for a download link for that backing track ..? Pretty please?

[@philfrank9226]

So cool, that you talk in notes and not, the 5th string of the 4th fret, well done.

[@waynegram8907]

Jeff McErlain, The peter green scale formula is 1-3b ( tweaked ) -4-5-6 which is called the "Dorian Pentatonic". The think the BB Box is a Major Hexatonic scale because there is not 7th degree. The BB Box is 1-2 ( tweaked 2nd )-4-5-6. The Tweaked 2nd bends to a 3b or 3. You should really do a video lesson about the Dorian Pentatonic, Phrygian Pentatonic, Lydian Pentatonic, Mixolydian Pentatonic, Aeolian Pentatonic, Phrygian Dominant Pentatonic.

[@alexbostelle287]

I ran across JOSH MEADERS on the tube, any thoughts on that dudes virtuosity.

[@rikyjo8966]

Liked, loved, subscribed and sub-scrubbed!

[@JeffMcErlain]

🙌

[@mikespainting291]

Also remember the cords, so the natural 6 is the 3rd of the 4 cord .and I will use the major third

[@roblarson9065]

Chords you mean.

[@mikespainting291]

Yes

[@davidhome4975]

Great sound but as a intermediate, i cant see where your fingers are on the fret board and 6th 7th and other positions are not familiar. Would like to know where exactly the 1st 4th 5th boxes lye on fretboard.

[@SDPickups]

BB KING!

[@jimmeymcgee2840]

How can I get the intro backing track to practice too?

[@amberwoodstudio]

Who was the first to flat pick those single note solos on the guitar. It seems like most blues players before bb king were playing more finger style?

[@JL5290]

I’m confused. Sort of new to theory. Wasn’t the last lick you played over the 5 chord out of the D minor pentatonic? Great lesson! I ate it up.

[@CraigPaddockmusic]

I need to know what year that les paul is...a reissue I'm assuming?? it sounds so bright and magical.

[@JeffMcErlain]

R9 with ThroBak pickups. The SLE101 set.

[@barryvallen1072]

👍

[@rickboquist6980]

Great lesson, and sounds exactly like a les paul should to my ears - any chance of a rig rundown on this one?

[@JeffMcErlain]

Thank you ! Here’s a rundown. R9 Les Paul with ThroBak sle101 pickups into a 1972 Marshall super lead into a Universal Audio Ox box with some reverb added in the recording.

[@rickboquist6980]

@@JeffMcErlain Thanks so much! Mighty tasty!

[@JeffMcErlain]

@@rickboquist6980 you’re welcome! You might like this video I did with @fivewattworld. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKG8qGqAjKxkrc0

[@rickboquist6980]

@@JeffMcErlain Awesome - checking that out now! So funny story, I'm running a MIJ Les Paul through one of the first super lead reissues (from 1989, with a PPIMV added), the pickups are definitely less PAF-type than the ThroBaks (definitely part of the equation) and I'm just not that good (also definitely part of the equation) - and I think part of it is just that I'm a rock guy trying to learn some blues and I'm just lost on EQ and other amp settings. Thanks again so much!

[@JeffMcErlain]

@@rickboquist6980 🙌

[@dspreis]

Thanks. Nice Les Paul. Is that an R9 or something?

[@elbowjames7625]

Anybody know what that guitar is? I see a very dark fingerboard; Gibson hasn't used that for a while.

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

Great vid, but....wouldnt it be B.B King's magic scale? ....or was it Lonnie Johnson's magic scale? I heard them both use that note as well and Lonnie pre dates them both