This blog article is a step-by-step guide for guitarists eager to explore the magic of the minor pentatonic scale. Dive into the theory behind this versatile scale, understanding its intervals and how it's applicable in various musical contexts.
From your first humble blues licks all the way to face-melting metal solos – the pentatonic shapes are at the melodic heart of most guitarists.
In this article, we’ll show the best way to learn the minor pentatonic shapes in all positions and give some useful exercises to help get them locked under your fingers.
How To Play The A Minor Pentatonic
The minor pentatonic is a five-note scale consisting of the root (1), b3, 4, 5, b7. It’s undoubtedly the most frequently used set of notes in the guitar world.
In the minor pentatonic scale, the 2nd and 6th scale degrees are removed. In other words, you reduce the risk of two notes clashing and creating dissonance.
Step 2: Let’s add the picking hand. If you want, try to alternate between downstrokes and upstrokes as you move across the strings.
How To Play The Pentatonic Scale On Acoustic Guitar
You can start any minor pentatonic scale anywhere on the fretboard, but to move it around between positions, you’ll have to adjust the pattern of the notes.
This is an important concept to understand and visualize. All notes on the 7th and 8th frets are exactly the same as the notes you played in the first position.
There are two ways to practice this: one will get you familiar with the shape and pattern; the other is great for finger strength and dexterity.
How To Practice The Pentatonic Scale On Guitar
The point here isn’t that you should always play this second position of the A Minor Pentatonic scale using these fingers. It’s a great way to build strength in your fingers while memorizing the scale patterns.
Here we’ll combine the first two positions and play three notes per string. This will also help you visualize and connect the larger pattern of available notes within the A minor pentatonic.
When you’ve become comfortable with these three notes per string you have a very good foundation for creating interesting melodic lines that aren’t just random notes put together.
Pentatonic Licks To Spice Up Your Solos
Again, these entire shapes are movable between different keys. So if you wanted to play in Ab minor, you’d just start one half step lower.
After practicing this for a bit, see if you can add this to the previous exercise so you have four notes per string.
As you see, these are the same shape but at different positions on the fretboard. That’s because they’re exactly one octave apart – this is the same for the next position too.
Mistakes To Avoid When Learning The Minor Pentatonic Scale
A good way to learn the minor pentatonic scale positions is to combine two at a time, just as we connected positions 1 and 2 in Exercise #3.
People who start playing the electric guitar typically want to do more than the basic open chords. The pentatonic scale is a great and easy way to open improvisation and introduce some melody to your playing.
We looked at Black Sabbath and AC/DC using the minor pentatonic scales in the examples above. Guns N’ Roses and Led Zeppelin are another two blues-inspired bands that use the minor pentatonic very frequently as well.
Guitar Scale Exercises To Start Making Music
The principles of it are the same: five notes with the semi-tones removed. The shapes and patterns are identical. The only difference is the context in which we view them – they have different ending and starting points.
If you’re interested in learning how to solo fluently with the pentatonic scales, check out a 14-day free trial to Pickup Music. Our guided Learning Pathways feature step-by-step instruction, daily practice exercises, interactive jams, and opportunities for personalized video feedback on your playing. With lessons for every level, you’ll know what to work on at every step of your guitar journey..Pentatonic scalesare scales with five notes per octave. They are frequently used in music all over the world. The word pentatonic comes from the Greek word
Talk of the pentatonic scale generally make reference to the major pentatonic scale and its relative minor. It's a mistake, indeed there aremany types of pentatonic scales (Egyptian, Ritusen, Man gong, Altered, Locrian...).
Bass For Beginners: Major And Minor Pentatonic Scales + Exercises: Learn, Practice & Apply The Most Popular Scales In Music (music Lessons For Beginners)
The best known are surely themajor pentatonic and the minor pentatonic scales (also known as the relative minor pentatonic). They do not have semitones they belong to the anhemitonic family. They contain the same notes, for every major scale, there is a relative minor scale and for every minor scale there is a relative major.
Let's take an example with C major pentatonic (C - D - E - G - A). Ithas the same notes as the A minor pentatonic (A - C - D - E - G). The sixth degree of C major pentatonic is the tonic of A minor pentatonic scale.
Major and minor Pentatonic scales are commonlygrouped in five positions named boxes corresponding to the five pentatonic modes of the major pentatonic scale. Learning these boxes can be useful when you want to cover all the guitar neck. Here they are :
A Minor Pentatonic Scale Practice With Backing Chords
However, the most efficient way to master pentatonic scales is to play them in one octave shapes and transpose them in the twelve keys. Any guitar student must be able to play any pentatonic scale in one-octave shapes starting on any string at any fret. This also applies to every scale.
Now that you are familiar with the common pentatonic shapes both major and minor, we will see how to develop them on the guitar neck.
Many beginner guitarists used to practice scales in two directions only, generally up-up and down-down. It is a good place to begin. However, it is important to practice them in all four directions :
Handmade Guitar Scale Chart E Minor Pentatonic Scale Fretboard Diagram Printable Chart
You must be able to play the major and minor pentatonic scales (and any other scale) in all four directions using the one-octave shape diagrams previously seen. This is an excellent warm up exercise.
Now you can try to play pentatonic scalesfollowingthe circle offifths. The circle of fifths is a useful device when you want to practice scales, chords or arpeggios over the 12 keys.
Generally it is presented in the formof acircular diagram that shows the sharps and flats in each key, and show how akeyworks in relation to one another. You can check the interactive circle of fifths by Rand Scullard.
Guitar Scales Chart
The first example below, show you how to play the major pentatonic scale following the circle of fifths in up & up movement, whereas the second is up & down.
The circle of fourthsis also great for practicing scales, chords and arpeggios.It is very efficient to learn about the guitar neck and give the student a solid intuitionof chord progressions.
This is the relationship between the twelve notes of the chromatic scale. Every note resolves to another note a fourth above it. In other words, by following the circle of fourths, you play all the notes separated from each other by five semitones (a fourth).
If A Guitarist Is Not Well Trained With The Pentatonic Scales, What Other Unique Techniques Might They Use In Improvisation?
While the cycle of fifths moves from left to right, if you move from right to left, then you havethe cycle of fourths.
So now, try to play the major and minor pentatonic scales following the circle of fourths in all four directions (up & up, down & down, up & down, down & up).
Another good way to practice the pentatonic scales consist to play them by intervals (seconds, thirds, sixths and sevenths) following once again the four directions previously seen. You can check out this page thatlists the intervals.
The Pentatonic Scale: A Complete Guide For Guitar
A melodic pattern is a repetitive sequence or a figure that can be used with any scale. Melodic patterns are very useful for learning scale fingerings and develop your sense of improvisation. The concept is simple, the variations endless.
The principle is to play the notes of a scale in a certain order. For example, with the C major pentatonic scale which is C-D-E-G-A :
The possibilities are endless. Now that you have understood the principle, try to create your own melodic patterns by playing them in intervals following the four directions.
Free Guitar Scales Chart
Please note that all these exercisescan be applied to any scale. Don't forget to vary the rhythm and the fingerings on the guitar neck in order to create your own exercises.
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