Learn A Simple Three-String Shape To Add Power, Groove, And Flow To Your Solos

Want a soloing shortcut that actually sounds bigger, bolder, and more musical? We break down a simple three-string shape in A—5-7-8 across the third, second, and first strings—and turn it into patterns that inject rock grit into blues vocabulary. You’ll hear how one added color tone and the classic “blue note” open the door to fresh phrasing without leaving home base on the fifth fret.

We start by mapping the shape and then move past straight up-and-down runs into ideas that create momentum: groups of four for push, six-note loops for flow, and a slick string-skip that instantly widens your sound. Along the way, we talk technique freedom—alternate picking for bite or legato for smooth speed—and how to keep everything even so your tone stays clear at any tempo. You’ll also learn a tension-forward motif that begins on the blues note, a great way to grab attention before resolving to a strong tone.

The real secret is knowing when and how to exit a pattern. We share practical “escape routes” that let you land on chord tones, slide to a new position, or pivot into a familiar pentatonic lick, so your lines resolve like musical sentences instead of running on. Expect actionable takeaways you can practice today: symmetry that simplifies navigation, repetition that builds energy, and phrasing choices that sound professional on stage and in the studio.

Grab your guitar and try the 5-7-8 grid with us. If this lesson helps your phrasing and confidence, follow the show, share it with a guitarist who needs fresh ideas, and leave a quick review to tell us what pattern you’re working on next.

Links:

Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/

• Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
• GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
• Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .

Chapters

• 1:10 The 5-7-8 Shape In A
• 1:39 Adding The Blues Note And Sixth
• 3:00 Moving Beyond Up-And-Down Playing
• 3:50 Technique Choices: Pick Or Legato
• 4:28 Pattern One: Groups Of Four
• 5:11 Pattern Two: Six-Note Loop
• 5:39 String Skips And Combinations
• 7:21 Advanced Motif And Exits
• 8:26 Jamming vs Sequences Mindset
• 9:46 Find Your Way Out And Sound Pro
• 11:49 Encouragement And Academy Invite

Transcript

Steve: 0:35

Alright, this is Steve Stine from Guitar Zoom Academy, and I want to show you something kind of cool that you can use. It's a shape that you can use on the guitar when you're soloing and you want something to sound a little more rock and roll, even spicing up your blues or whatever it might be. And so what I want to show you is how simple the shape is, and then some different ways that you can manipulate this to make some fun patterns for yourself. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna be in the key of A. So I'm just gonna head over to the fifth fret, and we could look at this as pentatonic, but we're gonna expand this. So what we've got here is if we play the pentatonic scale, what we're gonna do is we're gonna go on to the third string, and instead of playing five, seven, we're gonna play five, seven, eight. And a lot of people would look at this as being the blues note or the blue note, which is great. It's a passing note or a blue note that we can use. Um but what I want you to be more concerned with is the fact of the shape that we're making. So we've got five, seven, eight. And then on the next string, we're also going to play five, seven, eight. Where normally we'd play five, eight, or we're adding in this seven. Now we could look at that seventh fret there as like the major sixth coming from maybe the Dorian mode or something like that. And again, if you don't know what that is, it's perfectly fine. What I want you to notice is we're just making this symmetrical shape of five, seven, eight, five, seven, eight. And on the next string we have five, of course, seven, and then eight. So the new note is going to be this seven again. And that could be coming from uh Dorian, it could be coming from natural minor. There's a whole host of reasons we could or uh definitions we could give that. But what I want you to think about is the five, seven, eight shape, you know, even just playing it like that, you can hear that it's got some cool sounds to it using that blues note in there. And what we could do is we could simply explore these different notes in different ways instead of just playing it straight up and down, which there's nothing wrong with. But we could start making different shapes out of it. Maybe I start going or the other direction. So what I'm doing there is I'm just ascending or descending in groups of four. Okay? So that's something that we could do. Another thing that we could do is use a series of. Now I want you to understand this. No matter what it is we talk about today, you could use hammer ons, pull-offs, pick, whatever it is you want to do, whenever it is you want to do it to make it comfortable for yourself when it comes to executing ideas. Now, from a general sense of just jamming, right? Not coming up with patterns or anything like that, obviously you can get in there and there's lots of different things that you can do just playing with these notes. But what I want to show you today are different kinds of patterns or repetitive ideas that you could work on and you could expand from there. So the first one we did was those groups of four there. The next thing we're going to do, I'm gonna start down here on the fifth uh fret of the third string, and I'm gonna play five, seven, eight, and then go to five of the next string. And again, please remember you can hammer on, pull off, pick these, you can do whatever you want once you get it up to the speed that you want them at.

Speaker 1: 4:13

So I'm just gonna play up to that five, and then come back down.

Steve: 4:21

And when I get to the bottom again, I'm not gonna re-pick the five on the third string. I'm just gonna continue going up again so I get this. So I'm playing five, seven, eight, five on the second string, and then I'm just returning. So I have five, seven, eight, five on the next string, back to the eight, back to the seven, and then I start all over. Five, seven, eight, five. Now if you listen, I have one, two, three, four, five, six notes. So it's like playing uh a group of six or two triplets. Now the next thing I could do is exactly the same thing, but this time instead of going to the fifth fret of the second string, I'm going to skip that string and go to the fifth fret of the first string. Okay, so now I'm getting a string skip. And again, don't feel compelled to have to pick them. If you'd rather do hammer ons and pull-ups, you just want to keep them as even as you can in terms of your technique. Try and you know, keep them even so you don't get you know erratic rhythms and things like that. Again, unless that's what you're looking for. But try and play it straight first, and then if you want some different kinds of rhythms, you can certainly do that from there. So now I could combine those two together and get something like this. You could add some palm meeting. You know, there's all kinds of fun stuff that you can do with these kinds of patterns. The first thing is just get used to being able to play them kind of straight in a sequence. You know, the next thing is just get used to screwing around with them a little bit in your normal jam. All that kind of stuff. And then the next thing is start making some patterns that you like. Groups of three or groups of four or whatever it might be. But there's lots of really neat things you could do. Let me show you this one. So what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna play on the second string. Uh let's actually start on the third string, eighth fret. So what I'm gonna do is play eight, and then I'm gonna go to five, seven, eight of the second string, and then I'm gonna go to five of the first string. So I'm starting on this awkward blues note here of the eighth fret of the third string, playing five, eighth, uh, five, seven, eight of the second string, and then going to five of the first string. Now, what's kind of cool about a pattern like that is once you're playing the pattern, you just have to know at some point you're gonna have to come out of that pattern. So you might come out of it on the bottom side like this, you know, and resolve it or whatever you want to do, or you can go out on the top side and come up there and do it, and do whatever it is you want on the top side of that. But the point is, is as you build patterns and you build this repetitive concept, always be aware that when you're doing that repetition, you're going to have to find what I like to call the skate routes, which is when you get done or you feel like you want to leave, you've got to find a way of getting out of that and going into something else. Maybe it's another lick, maybe it's just your jamming or whatever it is that you might want to do. Um you know, in the academy, we talk a lot about the difference between the the general playing, jamming improvisation ability, okay, which is for me is like the meat and potatoes of your playing, okay, and then the kind of elevated licks, patterns, and sequences way of playing. And so as a guitar player, you're often, you know, shifting in between these worlds of just kind of jamming and moving around and playing some stuff and connecting to the chords or playing some groove or whatever, and then you throw in a pattern or a lick or a phrase or whatever it might be, and then you come back out again and you move back and forth between those worlds. Well, we can see that in action inside this shape is that we could do both of those things. So when I'm playing a pattern or a sequence or a repetitive idea, if you will, at some point I've got to find a way out. I can't just play that forever. So that's where you start going, okay, well, how am I gonna get out? You find, you know, a tag on the back side, whether it's you know, moving, you know, into the lower pitches or moving into the higher pitches or shifting into another position, or again, there's a myriad of things that you could do, but I just want you to be aware of that. So that might be a really fun thing for you to explore and just see what kinds of things that you can come up with inside that three-string symmetrical shape to use in your rock and your blues and different kinds of things like that when you want to create some more power, some more energy with repetition. Just be aware to always figure out a way that works best for you. You don't have to learn 50 patterns or 50 licks in there, just learn a couple things that make sense to you that you're able to execute either through hammer-ons, pull-offs, legato playing, or through picking, whatever it is that you'd like to do. You don't have to be, you know, uh uh locked into everything that I do has to be picked, or everything I have to do has to do this. Again, if that's the way you feel and that's that works for you, I think that's wonderful. But if it doesn't, explore other things. See if there's more of a legato way that works for you. Um, you know, people will always ask me, well, if I do this, you know, can I do this afterwards, or do I have to do the same thing? There's no so much about guitar playing is very gray. It's not black and white. It it's it's finding a way that executes that that you're able to execute what you want to do. And it sounds smooth, it sounds comfortable, it sounds, you know, I use the word professional, and for me, professional, I could care less if that has anything to do with making money or how many shows you play a year. Professional is how something sounds. When somebody hears you play, they just go, oh yeah, that sounds great. That's exactly what what real playing should sound like. That to me is what professional is. And so when you're doing something, you know, whatever it is. You know, whatever it is that you like, find a way of being able to execute it through picking, through legato, whatever it might be that best suits you. So anyway, take care, uh, have a great day. Stay positive, keep practicing. And if you're interested in checking out more about the Guitar Zoom Academy, working with me, my other seven instructors that I've got in here, um, you know, getting you to the goals that you've maybe wanted to achieve for a long time, but you've just been struggling with, all you have to do is have a conversation with one of us and we can talk to you about what it is, how it works, and see if it fits you. So take care and I'll talk to you soon.