jayuya13
Verified buyer
12/19/25
This is a must have!
50 Power Pentatonic Licks You MUST Know
Tony's cherry-picked collection of 50 pentatonic gems will deliver double-bang for your educational buck
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About this course
What do the Aka Pygmies, Polish Highlanders and French composer Claude Debussy have in common with Eric Johnson, Bumblefoot and Paul Gilbert? They all tapped into the power of the pentatonic scale to ignite their music and pull listeners to their feet. The pentatonic scale crosses all genres and is embraced by all cultures -- five notes; infinite musical possibilities. And if you play any style of rock then the pentatonic scale is your #1 moneymaker and Tony Smotherman's 50 Power Pentatonic Licks You MUST Know is your personal Fort Knox.
Remember learning those first few pentatonic licks and how sweet they sounded cranked up over practically anything? So you learned a few more licks, and a few more after that but eventually they all start sounding tired and boring. Five notes; limited possibilities? Not for Shawn Lane, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Jimmy Herring, Tony McAlpine, Paul Gilbert and so many of their peers. These giants of rock guitar power up those same five notes, that same pentatonic scale, with a variety of techniques and moves, which transform their lines into fresh, compelling musical statements. And so can you!
Tony's cherry-picked collection of 50 pentatonic gems will deliver double-bang for your educational buck. First, they'll expand your vocabulary with 50 head-turning licks that alone will spark up some excitement in your solos and improvisations. But Tony also teaches you how to apply these techniques and approaches to craft your own lines from scratch. You'll learn how to apply tapping, legato, open-string lines, pedal points, odd and unconventional bends, barring, phrasing, sweeps, 3-note-per-string patterns, octaves and more in your pentatonic work all over the fretboard.
All of the licks are presented over a rhythm track for context and then followed by a detailed breakdown of the line along with the techniques being employed to perform it. Everything is tabbed and notated, plus you get all of the rhythm tracks to practice the lines over by yourself.
Five notes; infinite possibilities!
Remember learning those first few pentatonic licks and how sweet they sounded cranked up over practically anything? So you learned a few more licks, and a few more after that but eventually they all start sounding tired and boring. Five notes; limited possibilities? Not for Shawn Lane, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Jimmy Herring, Tony McAlpine, Paul Gilbert and so many of their peers. These giants of rock guitar power up those same five notes, that same pentatonic scale, with a variety of techniques and moves, which transform their lines into fresh, compelling musical statements. And so can you!
Tony's cherry-picked collection of 50 pentatonic gems will deliver double-bang for your educational buck. First, they'll expand your vocabulary with 50 head-turning licks that alone will spark up some excitement in your solos and improvisations. But Tony also teaches you how to apply these techniques and approaches to craft your own lines from scratch. You'll learn how to apply tapping, legato, open-string lines, pedal points, odd and unconventional bends, barring, phrasing, sweeps, 3-note-per-string patterns, octaves and more in your pentatonic work all over the fretboard.
All of the licks are presented over a rhythm track for context and then followed by a detailed breakdown of the line along with the techniques being employed to perform it. Everything is tabbed and notated, plus you get all of the rhythm tracks to practice the lines over by yourself.
Five notes; infinite possibilities!
What you'll learn
- Apply hybrid picking to interval playing
- Combine sweep picking with traditional blues licks
- Use chromatic movement musically
- Learn to slide between positions using fifth intervals
- Resolve position shifts with pentatonic ideas
Release date: 03/02/2013 • 2h 14m runtime
Sample lessons
Gravity Pull
Lick 10
Gilberto
Lick 19
Whack Attack
Lick 20
Jan's Wheel
Lick 23
What's included
52 lessons • 50 charts • 50 Jam Tracks
50 Power Pentatonic Licks
Welcome to 50 Power Pentatonics Guitar Licks You Must Know! This course is designed to inspire and open your mind to all the great possibilities to this simplistic yet exciting scale. The 50 licks in this course were created to breathe new life into the pentatonic scale with a myriad of ideas to explore and use in every day musical situations. We'll cover topics like 3 notes per string ideas, using odd and unconventional bending techniques, tapping, legato, hybrid pentatonic ideas and much more. This course will arm you with a powerful and truly enlightening command of the famous 5 note scale. Let's move aside all those worn out applications of the Pentatonic scale and look deep into its possibilities. Armed with your guitar, an open mind, and the Power Pentatonics Course, you will begin to unlock a whole new world of ideas that were sitting underneath your fingers the whole time.
Pent Up Pedals
Our first lick jumps right into a wacky right hand approach to a revolving pentatonic motif. This idea is in the key of E. Our reoccurring pattern is going to stay stagnant as we ascend up the scale. This will prove to be a great work out for both your playing hand and your picking hand. Try moving to different keys, it always feels different playing in other positions!
Triple Skip
Lick # 2 is a crazy string skipped pentatonic idea utilizing 3 notes per sting. This lick is a lot of fun to play fast because of its interesting shapes on each string. It's fast ascending pattern reminds me to a video game when you reach the next level. Always try to finger in new ways to re work that old pentatonic box. As you can see this is not your typical pentatonic lick, fortunately there is so much more territory to cross with this stuff. Think of this as just the beginning.
Sequencer
Example 3 takes lick #2 into new territory. Although it's derived directly from it, you can see how easy it is to break the notes up into a sequence to create some truly crazy and wild tonalities. Once I get the lick rolling, staring from the second bar I sequenced the lick in 4 note groupings. This creates a very unusual and unpredictable feel to the lick. Couple that with the note choices by string skipping and you have a very exciting way to sequence any 3 notes per string scale.
Hybridonics
Here is an unusual way to play a pentatonic idea. This lick revolves around the picking hand more so than anything else since all the work is really coming from there in this lick. Start by picking the first note. Pluck, the octave with your middle finger, pick the next note and alternate pick the last note (pick twice on the last note) this is where this lick actually comes to life, from here we'll move some shapes around. I know sounds crazy but this actually really easy to execute once you try it!
Chuck's Flat
I stumbled upon this example when taking an old Chuck Berry lick and stretching it out so far I reached the flat 5. The outcome was truly something unique. This is a great head turner live, People recognize that "out" sound right away. Where some repeat licks get old after about 3 or 4 times, not this one. Sounds better 7 or 8 times in a row. There is however, some stretching involved and your fingers will feel it. On the right hand you’re going to pluck the first note with you middle finger, Strange, I know, but this is really important to get the lick to it's full potential, the picking is "pluck , pull off, pick " wanna experiment? Try reversing, pick, pull off, and pluck. Always search out every option you can!
Two On Tap
Pentatonic's sound great linear. This scale lends itself well to multiple notes on one string. Which in this case are going to be tapped, not with one finger but two? You'll break this lick out all the time, guarantee it. On the left hand we'll ascend a minor pentatonic scale with the left hand and continue up with the right hand using the middle and ring figure to extend the notes of the scale up even higher on the high E string. One of the benefits of symmetrical shapes such as this one is that every 2 string sets are the same lick on all six strings. So what you play on the 1st and 2nd string is exactly what you play on the 3rd and 4th just one octave down. The same for the 5th and 6th string, one octave down from the 3rd and 4th string.
+ 45 more lessons
Reviews
11 results
ezmaypop
Verified buyer
04/11/25
Hybrid picking
It's the course I needed because I want to improve my hybrid picking in the soloing. .
Fazzeli
Verified buyer
05/08/23
GREAT COURSE
It's a great course to learn the power of pentatonic scales, definitely we really need not only to know but also to record in our minds where are the 5 pattern located , in that way we can improvise with confidence
Osokin
Verified buyer
04/04/23
Pentatonic Inspiration!
Tony Smotherman is a monster guitarist and an excellent teacher, and in this set of lessons he demonstrate 50 licks that will massively expand your ability to generate fresh sounds and ideas using the pentatonic scale. Very inspiring!
Dickdock
Verified buyer
11/15/22
Hey Guys I Cant review most of the Licks. I have 60 disks to look at. That will take some time. Once I look at them I will let you know. Thanks
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