At , we like to guide you through the perfect way to play guitar. This covers everything from getting hold of the right equipment to learning the theory behind what you’re playing. In this guide, we’re going to teach you everything you need to know about the pentatonic scales and how to use them to your advantage.
In this important guide, we’ll take you through the pentatonic minor, pentatonic major and the related skills you’ll need to use it.
If you’re on the lookout for a simple way to guarantee a nice melody or a beautiful chord sequence, then look no further.
How To Use The Guitar Pentatonic Scale
The guitar neck is made up of different scales and within those scales are different notes. Learning how to play scales is vital to a guitarists understanding of chords, music theory, and when creating riffs of your own. Scales are versatile and can help you improve your guitar skills in many areas using different exercises. Below, we will look at these exercises and explore one of the many scales going up and down the guitar neck: the pentatonic scale.
The most important first thing to be aware of when approaching the Pentatonic Scale, is what a scale actually is. In general, a scale is simply a series of notes arranged by pitch. In general, scales can be ascending or descending, and mean the same thing either way (though we’ll look at the melodic minor scale in a future guide, as this one changes when ascending and descending). Many scales are just the notes of a key organised into a row. For example, the D Major key is made up of the notes D, E, F#, G, A, B and C#, so the D Major scale is simply these notes arranged in ascending/descending order.
Today, we’re looking at the Pentatonic Scale (which we’ll get to in a moment) but there are hundreds more scales in existence. One way to look at scales is to imagine a piano. The white notes from C-C make a simple C major scale. Move up to D, and if you simply go from D-D without hitting a black note, you’ll be playing the Dorian mode.
Playing Major Pentatonic Scales (guitar, Multimedia Tutorials, Scales & Arpeggios, How 2 Play Guitar)
The important thing to remember when considering scales is that they can be transposed with ease. For example, a C major scale is built on a set of distinctive intervals that can be lifted and placed elsewhere to create a D major scale. Similarly, a D Dorian mode can be reduced to its intervals and moved anywhere to create the Dorian mode on any other note.
A minor scale is any scale (well, almost any, but don’t worry about that right now) scale that has a minor third and a minor seventh. Of course, there are a variety of complex modes where these rules change somewhat, but these are a couple of general pointers to keep in mind when identifying minor. The easiest way to hear a minor scale is to look out for a general ‘sad’ tone.
A major scale can be identified by the opposite methods to that of the minor scale. This means the easiest ways to hear a major scale is to listen out for a happier sound, while using major seventh intervals and major thirds.
Which Sequence Of Scales Should I Learn First On The Electric Guitar?
You will find that most scales encompass 7 notes, this is called a heptatonic scale, the pentatonic scale, however, only encompass 5 notes. This makes the pentatonic scale a valid starting scale for beginners as there are less notes to remember in the scale pattern. It is also beginner friendly because it can be played over any chord change as long as you play the scale in the right key. Should you wish to make up a nice melody to a guitar comp, the pentatonic scale is a good place to start.
Another funny anecdote that might explain the naming of the scale better is that penta is a loanword from greek that means 5, just as hepta which means 7.
The pentatonic scale can be defined by its name. The ‘pent’atonic scale has five notes per octave, as opposed to the ‘hept’atonic seven notes found in most traditional Western scales. Of course, this means that technically any scale with five notes is by default a pentatonic scale, but there is also a specific scale referred to as the pentatonic scale.
How To Play Pentatonic Scales On Electric Guitar
The differentiation between types of pentatonic scales falls to whether they include semitone movement or not, and the type we’ll be focusing on (anhemitonic). This effectively removes the possibility for dissonance within the scale, as the tritone interval and semitone changes are removed, allowing only for smoothness.
An interesting way of remembering a certain iteration of the minor pentatonic scale is by approaching it from an Eb perspective while looking at a piano. This version is made up of the black notes on the piano and nothing else. Technically you could smash your hand down onto a piano and only play black notes and you’d be using the Eb minor pentatonic.
For ease, however, we’ll be looking at the pentatonic scale using C as our starting point. This means you have a set of five notes to remember: C, Eb, F, G, Bb.
Guitar Scales 101: Mastering The Lead Guitar
The pentatonic scale comes in two keys/variations: Minor and Major. These variations can be used to apply the scale to different keys and musical styles depending on what kind of sound you want to create. Learning both of these will aid you in your understanding of the relation between notes on the guitar neck and how to quickly find the note you want.
Below you will find scale boxes for both Major and Minor. The boxes show the specific scale pattern as it moves on the guitar neck. No matter what key you play in the pattern will always be the same. For instance, if you play A minor pentatonic scale the first fret will be the 5th fret on the first position, while if you play C minor the first fret will be the 8th fret on the first position.
The numbers on the scale boxes are the finger you will use to play that note e.g. 1 being your index finger and 4 being your pinky finger. The blue notes are the notes naming the key of the pentatonic scale, for example should you play the A minor pentatonic scale all blue notes will be A.
Pentatonic Scale Guitar: The Ultimate Guide
Let’s have a look at the scale boxes and discuss them one scale at a time to get a clearer understanding on how they work.
The minor pentatonic scale is usually what people mean when they simply say “the pentatonic scale” as it works well over any chord. Above you see the scale boxes for the minor pentatonic scale as they progress up the guitar neck. To figure out where to place the scale boxes you need to look to the blue notes. If you wish to play A-minor pentatonic scale all blue notes has to be A. Looking at the 1st position of the scale boxes you will find the blue note As on the 5th and 7th fret; the 1s on the 5th fret and the 3 on the 7th fret. Looking at the next scale box, the 2nd position, you will see that the first 2 frets of the scale box overlap in pattern with the 1st position’s 3rd and 4th fret, we can then assume that the 2nd positions 1st scale box fret will be the 7th fret on the guitar neck.
It can be a bit overwhelming when looking at it like this but in my experience it slowly starts to make sense as you put it to practice. Focus on the 1st position first and move on to the next position as you get comfortable using the scale box. The more time you put into learning the scales properly the more you will be able to utilize them in actual play.
Major Pentatonic Scale: 5 Patterns
A-minor pentatonic is a reasonable starting place with the minor pentatonic scale and has the 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, and 14th fret respectively as the first fret on the different positions.
Here is a video that shows how to play the pentatonic scale in its 1st position across the guitar neck and how to use it.
The major pentatonic scale works just as the minor pentatonic scale when it comes to understanding and using the scale boxes. If you want to play A-major pentatonic scale all the blue notes has to be A. In the 1st position then it means that the 2nd fret on the scale box would be the 5th fret on the guitar neck as that makes all the blue notes A. In the 2nd position, the 2nd fret in the scale box will be the 7th fret on the guitar neck.
Major Pentatonic Scales
A-major pentatonic scale as a starting point can be found on the 4th, 6th, 9th, 11th, and 14th fret respectively as the first fret on the different positions.
The major pentatonic is just as simple and easy to understand as the minor. It also has five notes and is another anhemitonic scale, meaning it avoids the potential dissonances of involving
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