as you may or may not have seen,
i think the pentatonic scale is the most important for soloing….
but did you know that you can also take just one pattern of a pentatonic scale and with a little knowledge, which i’m about to present, play 6 scales?!
GETTING MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK WITH
the PENTATONIC scale
wanna know a way to know a bunch of notes that all work for a particular key :
let’s use the good old easy to understand C major scale as the example:
C D E F G A B C
according to the C major harmonized major scale,
there are 3 minor chords in the scale, A minor, D minor, and E minor
C maj, D min, E min, F major, Gmajor (or dominant), A minor, B mi7 b5
so take a look at the notes of those minor pentatonic scales…
Aminor pentatonic: (same notes as C major pentatonic)
A C D E G
here’s the most common way to play this scale:
——————————5-8————–
————————-5-8——————–
——————–5-7—————————
————–5-7———————————-
———5-7—————————————
—5-8——————————————–
Dminor pentatonic: (same notes as F major pentatonic)
D F G A C
—————————————-10-13—–
———————————10-13————
————————-10-12——————–
—————–10-12—————————-
———10-12———————————–
–10-13——————————————
E minor pentatonic: (same notes as G major pentatonic)
E G A B D
—————————————-12-15———-
——————————–12-15——————
————————12-14————————–
—————-12-14———————————-
——–12-14—————————————–
-12-15————————————————
amazingly, all of these notes are from the C major scale,
so if you get stuck, just play notes from the A minor, D minor, E minor scales.
here’s another way to play those scales, all kind of in the same area of the fret board
C major scale A minor pentatonic
————————————————7-8-7/5—————————————-
—————————————–8-10———–8^5————————————-
——————————-7-9-10———————–7^5———————————-
———————7-9-10————————————–7^5—————————–
———–7-8-10—————————————————–7^5————————
—-8-10——————————————————————–8^5^8—————–
D minor pentatonic E minor pentatonic
———————–5^8-/-10^7—————————————————————–
——————6^8————–10^8———————————————————-
————5^7—————————9^7—————————————————
——-5^7————————————-9^7———————————————-
–5^8———————————————–10^7—————————————-
——————————————————————————————
what if you’re not in the key of C?
to relate this example to other keys,
just play the minor pentatonic scales of the ii, iii, and vi
of the key you are in,
example…in A major
you’d have
A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G# in the major scale
if you were to harmonize those notes [see lesson on harmonized major scale here]
you would have
A maj, B min, C#min, Dmaj, Emaj (or Edom), F#mi, and G#dim (mi7b5 technically)
anyway,
just assign numbers to each scale note and you’ll see that
your ii (2nd note of the A major scale) is B so you can play B minor pentatonic
your iii (3rd note of the A major scale) is C# so you can play C# minor pentatonic
and
your vi (6th note of the A major scale) is F# so you can play F# minor pentatonic
one word to wise though,
don’t play notes just to play notes.
but, do use this stuff, to build on the things you already know.
i mean, think about it, if you know the A minor pentatonic scale in just one pattern, you can use that scale pattern, starting on different notes to play different scales!
[the C major pentatonic, D minor pentatonic, E minor pentatonic, the F major pentatonic, the G major pentatonic, the A minor pentatonic]
