Rock in E minor

Jam track · Rock · Rock · E minor pentatonic

Now

E5

Next

E5
  1. E5
  2. E5
  3. G5
  4. A5
  5. E5
  6. E5
  7. C5
  8. D5

E minor pentatonic · box 1

Orange dots are E, the home note.

151712EGABDEGABDEG

Power chords have no third, so the minor pentatonic fits every bar. Repeat a short riff and change one note.

120BPMJam tempo

Rock in E minor backing track

A rock in Em at 120 BPM, with a rock groove on drums, bass and rhythm guitar. The loop is 8 bars long and uses 5 chords: E5, G5, A5, C5, D5. Solo over it with the E minor pentatonic box shown on the fretboard.

The chords

  1. E5
  2. E5
  3. G5
  4. A5
  5. E5
  6. E5
  7. C5
  8. D5

What to play

Power chords have no third, so the minor pentatonic fits every bar. Repeat a short riff and change one note.

The orange dots are E, the home note. While the band plays, the notes of the chord playing now light up. Ending a phrase on one of them sounds settled.

Learn the box firstScale drill

How to practise with it

  1. Play the box up and down once with the band, one note per beat, to hear how it fits.
  2. Make up a two-bar phrase and repeat it. Change one note each time round.
  3. Leave gaps. A phrase, then a bar of rest, sounds more like music than notes all the way through.
  4. Turn the guitar off and play the chords yourself, or slow the tempo down to learn the changes.

Drums: Sonic Pi sample library from freesound.org, CC0. Bass and guitar: MusyngKite soundfont by Benjamin Gleitzman, CC BY-SA 3.0.