Chords for Eric Johnson Joe Bonamassa Style Fast Pentatonic Blues Lick and Picking Technique

_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
[C#] _ _ [E] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ So this is another Eric [F] Johnson, Joe Bonamassa type of a lick.
_ _ They do this kind of thing quite often in their playing and it sort of gives that descending _ pentatonic scale, that rolling sort of sound.
So this particular lick is in groups of five.
[Em] _ _ _ It's just in the basic position one of the pentatonic.
You _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ can play it in any [A#] key.
_ This one I'm [E] doing in E just to get that opening note.
_ _ It sort of gives it that nice drone sound.
[G] Anyways, so how the lick [D#] works is we go in [B] groups of five.
So _ the first group of five is like so. _ _ _ _ _
One, two, three, four, five.
_ _ Okay. _
And the [Em] picking on that is, is it down, up, _
[Bm] down, _ _ [B] _ _ [D] _
down.
Okay, so you [E] have two downs in a row there. _
[F] _ So [Em] down, _ [Bm] _ _
down.
[Am] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
Okay, and that second down is the beginning of the next group of five.
Okay, so I'll play [G] two, two five groups here and I'll put that, that, that two down picks in a row in there.
So slowly it's like, [D] _ _ [F#m] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ okay.
So that's what you do.
You just go in groups [D] of five.
And that's the last one you go two down picks.
So it's really tricky to get this.
It took me a long, long time to get this fluent because I'm not used to [A] that _ _ two down [G#] picks.
I guess that's economy picking.
It's not.
[F#] I've always been more of an alternate picking sort of a person.
So to play that whole lick slowly and you watch the picking hand here.
You can see where I'm doing that, that two down stroke thing.
[D] Okay, so here we go. _ _
_ [F#m] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [E] _ [B] _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
And you just finish it off on [F] the octave there.
Okay, so that's basically the essence of those licks.
So when you do those fast, they [B] sound pretty cool. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ [G#] Okay, so and you can play that, you know, [F#] that's the first position [B] there. _ _ _
_ _ You can play [E] that up in the second position too. _
_ Okay, _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ [N] _ _ [E] _ so you can move it around positions.
You can play.
_ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [E] So you can also play this [Bm] lick without all that [E] picking with pull-offs and hammer-ons.
So I'll just show you [G] how that [B] sounds. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ Okay, so [B] you can see that's a lot smoother sound versus the picking version. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ Okay, so to slow down the pull [B]-off version, this is how I do it.
I just pull off.
_ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _
Okay, [E] so really all I'm doing is two down strokes.
So I'm doing, well, one down stroke [Bm] to start the lick.
_ _ [A] _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
And I can either hammer-on that octave or [Em] pick it.
So I'll go through that again.
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ So I picked that octave there.
[G] But sometimes I just hammer it on.
_ _ [D] _
This is technically easier to do because there's less to do with your right hand.
_ _ But it's really not about hard [F] and easy.
It's about how it sounds.
So if you want to get a really aggressive sound,
[E] you probably want to do the picking every note, right?
So this is more aggressive.
_ _ _ [B] _
_ [E] _ _ [A] _ And this is a [B] little smoother.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ Okay, so you can do it up here.
You can do it in any key.
I find the higher you go, [F#] the harder it is to do the pull-off version
just because it's a little harder [D] to pull off up here.
_ [F#] But I'll show you both up here.
First [A] picking. _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ So you can see the different sounds, right?
[A] The pull-offs work really well anywhere from the 12th fret down.
Like, [D] let's say you did it in B. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ [F#] You can see they're just completely different sounds.
[E] Yeah, you can throw this lick in.
Because it sort of floats above _ time, you can kind [F] of just throw it in there.
As long as you're landing on [E] time.
It's cool, you know?
So if you're just jamming along like [Bm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
a_
Okay?
So, yeah, it's a really cool lick.
Alright,