Playing on the 2nd Beat To Sound Better By Doing Less

By now you should know your pentatonic scales and how to add bends, vibrato and double stops. If you want to try doing something that will make you sound a little different than the way you normally would try starting your licks on the 2nd beat (2 in the count) every few phrases.

Let your teacher play a progression in a 4 beat timing and count along with them. Now try adding licks from the pentatonic scale – which generally will start on the 1st beat (the 1).
Now as an exercise – try to only start each phrase on a 2 and finish on the 4.
Now continue doing this, however do it every other time.
In reality you can use it as much or as little as you feel the solo or lick needs it, so experiment. The great thing is you’re doing less work to sound even better!