Being driven slowly insane by the A minor pentatonic scale

You're right, keep practicing and you'll get. Practice slowly. If you aren't able to play it at 60 bpm, try at 50 bpm. Don't be in a hurry. Think about you are playing, name the note, and think what is the next one.

I guess you are using the usual patterns. Practice each one until you get it. Then, start with a new one but keep practicing the others. When you get two or more, play them together. For each pattern, you can learn the notes in each string separately.

Practice :D

The book 'Blues you can use' by John Ganapes dedicates many pages to the minor and major pentatonic scales. It could be very useful.

I'll second Nuno's advice about practicing slow. In fact, if you are making mistakes at 60bpm just turn off the metronome for now. Play it free time for a little while. Work it slow and extremely carefully to place the fingers just right. Do only that for a few days and then go back to the metronome but keep it slow - maybe slower than 60bpm. And start with some of the super careful slow free time practice before turning on the metronome.

You want to imprint the correct finger placement and movement and if you play too fast and make mistakes then you are "programming" things up wrong. That wrong "programming" has to unlearnt so it's better to get as little of it as possible. This super slow but correct practice can be used for anything you are trying to work on later - chords, other scales, solos, etc.

Thanks guys, thats really helpful.

Will go and put that in to practice now.

Cheers

J

When I am learning a difficult riff/lick, etc., I will often break it up into smaller chunks & learn them separately at first. Maybe into 4 or 6 note patterns. When I am proficient at the small chunks, I will then add them all together for the awesome sounding finished product.

Many musicians I know will do the same thing. All together, the riff may seem overwhelming, but when broken down into smaller parts, it is not all that difficult.

I think it takes years to comfortable & know where you are & what options you have next.

At least it did for me. I always practiced the A,D & E, blues, minor & major. They all help with the comfort zone. Then mix them up. Also, as you are playing the notes, see what position of the chord which is inside the scale. After a while, you'll spot them all.
A wise man, Dickey Betts, once said to choose your lead notes around the chord. Try it....you call play in I-IV-V without hardly moving your hands.

Thanks - for some more excellent advice.

I've been trying out the earlier advice and last the 2 nights I've been a lot better, I will definitely try that too, I've just got the music for Sweet Child of Mine, so I'll try breaking it down to small groups of notes, and then try and put it together...

Then in about a year I might actually be able to play it LOL - hopefully sooner!

Thanks again for some really helpful advice.

Whenever you are learning a new figure practice it at whatever tempo allows you to make every move without error. Pay attention to each movement of your fingers. Then slowly speed it up. If you make a mistake take it back down to the tempo you can deal with and start the process again. Store each movement of your fingers in your mind. Only when you are aware of each individual movement in the line can you play it without having to slough over something. I call this breaking a line down to it's "atomic" level, meaning an irreducible level. Then when you have all the movement nailed, start to play it with attitude!
Garth~

I did read this page right now. It is a bass player site but the advices are good for any instrument.

http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2010/05/24/practice-techniques-utilizing-metronome-to-improve-facility/

Thanks again for more excellent advice, the link was also extremely useful :D