Introduction to the minor pentatonic scale zombie guitar. The fifth position of the g minor pentatonic scale begins with the second finger on the sixth string, thirteenth fret. We use scales to create music, study music theory, understand music, build chords, progressions, arpeggios and learn soloing and improvisation so how do you build a scale with a formula, how do you figure out. The 2nd and 6th notes of the minor scale are not used. For example if you play this scale starting at the fifth fret on the low e string it is an a minor pentatonic scale consisting of the five notes a, c, d, e, and g. The minor pentatonic scale has 5 different shapes, or positions, that can be played on the guitar. The best known are the major and the minor pentatonic scales but.
The natural minor is the aeolian mode of the relative major scale. Oct 12, 2014 this entry was posted in resource and tagged 3 notes per string, arpeggio, chord, download, fingering, maj7, major 7th, minor pentatonic, pdf, pentatonic scale, positions, scale on october 12, 2014 by jens. Scale major 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 fullth pattern root note c guitar tuning. You can play a pentatonic scale by walking your fingers across the neck at any one of these positions, playing 2 notes per string. What weve done here is revamped the 3nps scale system and turned it into an incredibly effective means to learn a wide variety of scales all over the fretboard by streamlining the number of patterns, as well as the picking system. Playing 3 note per string scales can lead to new combinations of notes and can help you to find new sounds in your solos. Out of the five positions of the pentatonic scale, this is the position that primarily represents the minor key. A minor pentatonic scale 5th position once you have all mastered all five positions, you will able to visualize and more importantly, play the minor pentatonic scale over the entire fret board. By combining pentatonics with fuller, seven note scale phrases, you instantly give your solos more variation and, because most pentatonic scale patterns use just two notes per string, you can inject quick runs that sound less linear and. You would simply play pattern one again at the a note on the 17th fret. Adding scales to your daily guitar practice routine is easy and the benefits are well. Minor pentatonic five positions guitar lesson sc024 how to play.
The c major a minor pentatonic scale is the c major scale minus 2 notes 11 and 7. Click here to gain instant access to pdf filled with pentatonic scales. On this lesson i have five licks using the g minor pentatonic scale in the five positions. The 7 and 11 are omitted, which gives this scale a bit more basic and less colorful sound.
Jan 31, 2014 free minor pentatonic blues scale chart. How to jam with the c major scale and create awesome solos. This exercise is a simple scalar pattern based on the a minor pentatonic scale, but spanning 3 of the common box shapes. C d e g a c formula 2 2 3 2 3 now lets look at the complete, 5position diagram of the pentatonic scale. Technically, a pentatonic scale could be any 5 tone scale, but in practice when guitarists refer to the pentatonic scale, 99% of the time they are referring to the minor and major pentatonic scale. Pentatonic songs 3rd grade, folk songs, index, melody, solfege, visuals the pentatonic scale, a 5note scale, is the basis for countless folk songs around the world. Using minor and major pentatonic together effectively minor and major pentatonic work great together in major keys and can say a lot more than if you were to just use one scale. This article serves as a reference for navigating major pentatonic scales all over the guitar fretboard. You can also look up the scale chart that i made here. We also give you a 17 page pdf which details the 5 pentatonic shapes.
A minor pentatonic guitar scales guitar scales chart. Use the e minor pentatonic scale when playing 12 bar blues in. How to tell when you can use the e minor pentatonic scale in a way that musically works and actually sounds good. The solution below shows the a minor pentatonic scale, on the piano, bass and treble clef. The minor pentatonic scale is quite possibly the most used and, suffice it to say, overused scale on the guitar. Nov 07, 2017 get minor pentatonic scale position 2 under your fingers with a simple exercise that joins pentatonic box shapes 1 and 2 together. Keep in mind that this is all based on the a minor pentatonic scale, but this scale pattern could be applied to any key on the guitar by moving the root note of the scale to the desired fret. Pentatonic scales are very common and are found in musical cultures all over the world.
The minor pentatonic scale is made from the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th notes from the natural minor scale above. I have quite a few students who are fans of playing the blues. The 5 minor pentatonic positions deft digits guitar lessons. If i harmonize the a natural minor scale above into 7th chords i get am7 bmin7b5 cmaj7 dm7 em7 fmaj7 g7 am7. Pdf file of this beginner scale lesson in tab and standard notation. Ill take an exercise that is typically used to play minor. After the major scale the pentatonic minor is the scale to know. Intro to the minor pentatonic scale, the caged system.
Shown on all five positions on a 20 fret guitar neck diagram. This means that a g minor pentatonic scale can be played over a g minor chord progression, and a b minor pentatonic scale can be played over a b minor chord progression. For this chapter we will be considering minor pentatonic only. The minor pentatonic scale consists of the same 5 notes of the major pentatonic. Follow through the rest of the pattern as shown above. Keep in mind that the very first note in this position is the root note. Since our weather has been so blue up here, i thought it might be fun to work on our improv skills with minor pentatonic blues scales. Aug 27, 2014 coincidentally, when i first started learning to improvise between different positions it was focused on a minor pentatonic as well. Minor pentatonic can be seen as a stripped down version of natural minor, dorian and other minor scales. An easy guitar solo in the major pentatonic scale key of.
The lesson steps then explain how to construct the scale using the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th minor scale notes. The guitar neck diagram shows you the big picture for the e minor pentatonic scale. In this vid i show you the five positions of the minor pentatonic scale and. Above is the a major pentatonic scale shown in 5 positions. The a minor pentatonic comes from the natural minor scale. Minor pentatonic scale in all keys the key to playin in key. If you were to play this scale on the 8th fret it would. The aeolian mode natural minor is the 6th mode of the major scale. For example, the relative minor of c is a minor, and the notes which form c major pentatonic and a minor pentatonic are the same. Try to use the minor pentatonic scales to achieve different qualities and textures for your music. It is composed of all the same notes of the minor scale above, except without the 2nd and 6th notes.
As with all the positions, play this scale slowly and evenly, forwards and backwards, memorizing as you go. Must know minor penatonic lick plus the 5 pentatonic scale. Why pentatonic scales are essential for all guitarists. The 6th note is the octave of the tonic note, where this scale pattern begins to repeat itself up the piano keyboard. A must know if you ever want to have a good jam session. Minor pentatonic scale basic box the key signature is determined by which root note is played. A minor pentatonic contains scale degrees 1, b3, 4, 5, and b7.
Beginner acoustic guitar lesson tom petty i wont back down how. Many guitarists get stuck in a rut playing the minor pentatonic scale. This is in a minor, but the scale pattern is moveable. G major scale charts for guitar and bass music motivated.
You can get more diagrams in the tuning of your choice by using my interactive web app here. How to join minor pentatonic scale positions 1 and 2 youtube. Register on the site still free get pdf downloads for many lesson. Free minor pentatonic blues scale chart saras music studio. Minor pentatonic scales to introduce a novice guitar player to the world of rock music requires that he learn a series of scales, which we can call the tools of the trade. All the fretboard diagrams below show c minor pentatonic, so the notes built on that root are c e. The root notes in this case a, are shown by the black dots, the other notes in the scale are shown by the red dots. Min6th pentatonic scales in positions it is also available as a pdf download. Below are those notes numbered 1 to 5 on the piano keyboard. This lesson will help you build licks that move smoothly between the two scales, in a blues context but you can use what you learn in any style. Still, this scales importance cannot be underestimated, as it is. Jan 06, 2017 this feature is not available right now.
Lesson minor pentatonic scale all 5 positions duration. Play through the lick and work on visualizing the pattern of the 2nd position before moving on to the next lesson. The same notes as the above c major scale, but in a more common 4 fret spread. Heres a little something that ive been working with in the studio this week. In this tutorial were going to study one of the most fun scales. In this lead guitar lesson, well go over the five pentatonic scale shapes. The open strings themselves even make up the notes of the e minor pentatonic scale. These charts highlight the notes and chords of g major scale on guitar and bass fretboard. Using minor and major pentatonic together effectively. The 5 major pentatonic positions deft digits guitar lessons. Cs relative minor pentatonic scale, a minor pentatonic, begins on the 6 th scale degree of the major pentatonic scale shown above. This scale is sometime called the the country scale or the country and western scale. One other chameleon quality the minor pentatonic scale has is its ability to fit perfectly over any straight minor chord, no matter where it is in the chord progression.
Oct 20, 2010 ok a question why do people refer to the five positions of the pentatonic scales which would suggest to someone who is just delving into them that they are played in five different places on the fret board when in fact they should really be called the pentatonic shapes be that major or minor as it is the shape format that can be transposed down the neck. The key to understanding the minor pentatonic scale. You can also download the chart as a pdf by entering your. Bass lessons pentatonic scales bass tab here are some basic pentatonic scales for bass. Apr 16, 2016 the minor pentatonic scale in the 1st position. Pentatonics can also be used in a variety of ways from a one scale fits all approach to using a. The most important of these are both major and minor pentatonic. Its a great scale to start with on guitar, we can use open strings and that makes the scale easy to learn.
This will help you learn how to play melodies and chords on a guitar and bass within the key of g major. To play the minor pentatonic scale in a certain key first locate the note on the low e string and use pattern 1 as your reference point. Notice that the minor pentatonic scale has the following spelling. The pentatonic scale, major and minor free piano lessons. Guitar scales the pentatonic scale is a favorite of many guitarists and its easy to see why. The basics of the minor pentatonic scale for guitar soundfly. I just told you that you can use the same patterns, but the difference is where they start. Chord progressions for minor pentatonic soloing guitarhabits. What is a scale formula and how to use it for guitar.
Want to make pentatonic scale 7 positions sound awesome on your harmonica. This pdf contains the diagrams for all the major and minor pentatonic scales in all keys for guitar in standard tuning. This scale is transpositional and can be played in, and should be practiced in, all keys. Notice when playing a minor scale it has a slightly darker sound. Because it is only five notes this scale can be played in a minor, major, and dominant context, it is a very versatile scale. Guitar scales charts for major, minor, penatonics and more, for all levels and. Minor pentatonic scale licks in all positions guitar. A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five pitches per octave, in contrast to a heptatonic sevennote scale such as the major and minor scales. May 12, 2019 the minor pentatonic scale is the most used scale for soloing and it is used in a wide variety of music styles like pop, rock, country, metal, blues and more. Different pentatonic scales for guitar altered pentatonics. Although various hemitonic pentatonic scales might be called minor, the term is most commonly applied to the relative minor pentatonic derived from the major pentatonic, using scale tones 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 of the natural minor scale. Its a great scale because its fairly easy to play which makes it a perfect beginner scale for soloing, but it also has the functionality. Intro to the minor pentatonic scale, the caged system, scale degrees vs.
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