Check out this great lesson by one of the best guitar teachers there is. Guthrie Govan has the natural temperament and utility to make even the most complex topics accessible. I had the pleasure of meeting him once and he was the most humble and down to Earth guys there is.

In this lesson Guthrie talks about creating odd note groupings to avoid the usual 3’s and 4’s. He mostly discusses 5’s and gives a few examples of how to approach them if you’re new to the odd grouping scene.

Below I’ve tabbed out a few licks that Guthrie uses as examples. They are:

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[lollum_list_element]Note Grouping in 4’s (0:36) Guthrie demonstrates a classic 4 note sequence in B Dorian.

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[lollum_list_element]Note Grouping in 3’s (0:43) Guthrie demonstrates a classic 3 note sequence in B Dorian.

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[lollum_list_element]Note Grouping in 5’s (0:55) This is the lick that Guthrie suggests practicing when first learning to play in note groupings of 5. It sticks to notes from the Bminor Pentatonic Scale.

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[lollum_list_element]Note Grouping in 5’s – Blues Scale(3:25) Guthrie encourages us to create our own licks in 5’s by playing along with the word “Hip-po-pot-a-mus” using a scale we know (the blues scale). This is the example he comes up with to demonstrate.

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[lollum_list_element]Sixteenth Note Grouping in 5 Note Phrases (4:21) This lick takes the idea of 5 note phrases and superimposes them over a sixteenth note pulse. Very progressive sounding stuff.

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[/lollum_list]If you have any questions leave them in the comments and please help our site grow by sharing this awesome knowledge with others.