In keeping with understanding the fretboard and juicing every bit of the pentatonic scales,its very important that you learn them in all positions all over the fretboard and learn how they work over different chords. Also when you play a scale with 3 notes per string try leaving out the note in between the two extreme notes on a string giving you a wider intervallic sound. This will change the way you perceive the scale and change the way you sound using the scales you are familiar with. The great teacher Don Mock had compiled a white paper on pentatonics and its here for your perusal.Any scale must be understood and its application maximized to truly progress,this is true with anything.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5qJqMU7g1nHMVZWUHVVMXZiWW8/edit

if you truly want to burn diatonic harmony into your mind and you love technology here is what you can do.Most phones have mp3 playback.All you have to do is record different mp3's with one chord each i.e Cmaj7,Dm7,Em7,Fmaj7,G7,Am7,Bm7b5.Now put these fellows in a playlist and click shuffle.Put on your earphones and call out the chord if you recognize it.Soon you will be superb at this. Change the inversions and do the same. You will master this too.If you have a better randomizing tool even better,the shuffle is predictable :P.
Then pick another key and work with it the same way. Then scramble keys and work. Work on your ear it's really great fun and in this age of technology we can use everyday appliances to create some really helpful tools.
Learning how this harmony works is a real blessing.Sing a random song as the shuffle plays and you will see how random chords will kick your mind around.Do enjoy :)

Take a simple progression with say 2 chords :).Cmin7/ Eb min7.Learn how to phrase over this simple structure by understanding the notes that make up each chord and the fact that these notes will be separated by minor 3rds,all of them.Now using the scale chart that I have posted please look at the options needed to phrase over min7 chords. Starting with our favorite minor pentatonic scales that made Slash a millionaire,you will see that over a minor 7th chord the pentatonics that can be used will be of the 1st,2nd and 5th degrees. i.e for Cmin7 you can use C,D and G minor pentatonics.Try these options out and mix them all over the fretboard.For Ebm7 you have Eb,F and Bb.Use all these devices to make some really cool ideas emerge with string skips etc. Please plot each of these scales on your fretboard charts.
Use this online device to plot fretboard diagrams.
http://www.theguitarwoodshed.com/mymusicstand

every melody you hear be it 4 notes or 32 notes has the potential to be a lick and an enhancement to your vocabulary. Jazz musicians have for a long time quoted from melodies in their solos.Try this...take the corniest melody you know and practice only this in all 12 keys. Then mutate the melody to work over a minor chord,major and then dominant to instantly give you 36 licks.The slightest mutation in this melody either rhythmically or otherwise will generate more.This is a fundamental way to enhance your vocabulary,so do NOT scoff at a melody citing it to be 'Bollywood' or whatever,just take it and noodle it and then own it.Creativity is completely in your hands.

Modes from the Commode

   There was a family. Daddy, Mummy,Grandpa and 4 children one of which was mildly autistic.Grandpa was a loudmouth but was harmless.Daddy earned the money to run the household,and wrote the rule book for the house.To live in peace in this house,everyone had to understand that Dad was boss.So at any given time any of the other members of the house could instantaneously be in the good books of daddy by adhering to his laws.This is an introduction to modal theory where Daddy and Mummy were Majors,Grandpa was dominant (only in speech),there were 3 minors and an autistic half diminished sister.We will study the relationship of these family members in time and realize that its really quite easy.So welcome to the New Year and an easy introduction to modes and commodes.

       ...so when daddy and the family went out,they stayed together and followed his rules.The kids listened,mum made sure they stayed in line and Grandpa talked loudly every once in a while.When people asked them for a resume it was always...My name is ------ and I do ---- and I love -----,however all the ---- were lines coined by daddy.This was the way it was in daddy's world.Their names and identities were unique but when they stayed and travelled together the data that they put out was the same so as to make daddy happy.They lived in harmony like this.

     Now take daddy's rule book to be the major scale.And this is THE only syntax we have to follow. Lets always take just the C Major scale which I have told you to plot on a fretboard diagram.

The family has Daddy= Cmaj7, Mummy= Fmaj7, Grandpa= G7 (gets altered when he is unwell),Child1 =Dm7,Child2=Em7

Child3 =Am7,Lil autistic sister=Bm7b5.

     Let us take a random family member and say Child1 wants to say something to daddy and the rest and not be rude. She will be speaking with the notes D,E,F,G,A,B,C.Always starting with the note that is her name in this case Child1=Dm7 so,the note D.

If it were Grandpa asking for a sweet and hoping to get it he would ask using G,A,B,C,D,E,F. As grandpa=G7.Please now understand that this is the mode of speech to be in daddy's good books.

      So what do we do to understand how it sounds when say Grandpa speaks? We play Grandpa's chord as the background sound...and over that we play G,A,B,C,D,E and F. We can play these notes in sequence and out of sequence but preferably starting with G.This sound will be the essence of Granpa's speech.The notes played over the chord IS that sound.

      The Ancient Greeks gave these sounds names and they were called modes.The names were twisters and made people in our generation feel that they had to be Greek or mathematicians to understand. They are just names NOTHING else.The sound is what I want you to get.

      Play the speeches of Child1,Child2 etc just like you did Grandpa's all over the neck always starting with the note that is the ID of that family member.You will hear how cool they sound.

      This family is a family with no real gender or age differentials. They are people with name tags 'Daddy','Mummy' etc. They can switch tags anytime in a song.There can be 2 Mummy's it could be all autistic people in a family,in some really weird songs....but yeah get the drift.

      Moral of the story: G Mixolydian are the notes of C major, D Dorian are the notes of C major and so on.Will do the name associations later. C Dorian will be Child1 of Daddy Bb and so on. If you imbibe these sounds your knowledge will be unshakeable I promise you :).

This is what I did to understand time and playing 'in and 'out' of time. There is NO such thing as absolute time because even the most precise clock drifts. That having been said its best that we eventually learn to play in 'sync' with each other and to minimize drift when we are alone.There is a lot of malarkey about all of us having an internal clock and time comes from within.This is honestly some philosophical stuff or else we would have had everyone never going 'out' of time,something that we know is just not true.
So just like a clock drifts and so does a metronome and anything with a pendulum and mechanical moving parts,we must pick a relatively stable reference. Say a digital clock with a perfect battery.Learn to count along with the least count namely the seconds count and do this along with the clock for 5 minutes.Turn the clock face after 5 mins and count 300 counts without looking at the clock.Chances are when you turn the clock to check you will be off +/- 10 seconds if you were concentrating.I say a digital clock because I don't want you to have the benefit of a tick or tock :). Continue to practice just this for 10 minutes everyday bringing down your error in a +/- 2 window.This is quick for some and not so for some.
When you master the second count you will eventually be able to gain control over a 10 second time interval and then 20. Eventually you will even be precise with a minute. This is feeling time once you have internalized some stable clock with focus.It will teach you concentration and relative reference making you alert to other people and their drifts.
Assuming you have now developed a clock that works we can talk about funk and stuff that makes you dance and feel good. Have a great New Year and hope you benefit from whatever little information I put out.

start a tune of your own in any key. Play a Major chord and just make up a melody starting from a note.Start from the same note and now play a minor chord and see how your melody deviates. Now do the same with a dominant or seventh chord. These variations are what these different family of chords make you do.Training your ear to atleast hear the different families,major,minor and dominant is a must to be able to phrase well and make stuff up.