Since the pentatonic scale has five notes then there are five chord possibilities. Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient chinese civilizations. Those extra notes turn your pentatonic scale which just means a scale with only 5 notes into a full on e minor scale. There is a major pentatonic scale and a minor pentatonic scale. The blues scale is very closely related to the minor pentatonic scale, and is used unsurprisingly in blues. And the minor pentatonic took 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 degrees from the minor scale.
Minor pentatonic scale pattern 15 for guitar interval. The solution below shows the a major pentatonic scale on the piano, treble clef and bass clef. Although technically speaking, any combination of 5 notes could theoretically be called pentatonic, it is common usage to mean a specific pattern of 5 notes, and it has a specific intervallic structure. In this lesson, legendary guitar educator wolf marshall shows you how to add 2nds and 6ths to the minor pentatonic scale, to give your lines added flavor. This is a g minor pentatonic scale because the first note we play sixth string, third fret is a g note. The blues players often ad an attitional passing note to the pentatonic scale which is technically known as a flattened 5th that means an extra note in between notes 3 and 4 of the pentatonic scale.
For a quick summary of this topic, have a look at pentatonic scale. The note added is the diminished 5th o5 measured from the scale tonic. Awesome blues guitar licks by adding the major third. These two little notes i call pentatonic pairs, form melody chains that are easy to hear and play through the changes. The most common pentatonic scale is the pentatonic minor scale, the scale that weve been discussing throughout this page. Adding extra notes to the pentatonic scale is a common thing in soloing and will make your playing a lot more fun and interesting to listen to. Blues scale lesson, blues scale in all keys by michael. The two notes that the major scales share are enharmonically f and b which are a tritone apart and have the scale degrees 4 and 7.
How to use pentatonic scales over major and minor chords. The first thing to note about the pentatonic scale is that it only has 5 notes hence the penta in its name. There are 5 pentatonic scale notes plus the octave of the tonic note a total. If you know your scales that makes finding another pentatonic scale easy its just a major scale with two notes missing notes 4 and 7 understanding tones and semitones. Seems that several of you want to know more about using major pentatonic scales over a 14 5 progression. A pentatonic scale is 1,2,3, 5,6 basically a major scale without the 4 and 7. Before incorporating these two notes to our pentatonic scales, lets take a closer look at the nature of these additions. That is, a natural minor scale without degrees 2 and 6. How to tell when you can use the e minor pentatonic scale in a way that musically works and. Notice that the major pentatonic took 5 notes from the major scale, as we said, and were 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 degrees. So pentatonic is just a fancy way of saying five notes.
Play sax by ear using the 5 notes of the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is not a major scale with notes missing it is simply a scale with 5 notes, penta means 5. Two notes are missing to that scale to make it a full seven note scale. So in e minor pentatonic you would have the notes e, g, a, b, and d. However, if you played the c major pentatonic scale, you would use the c note for the home note and the c chord as the tonic chord. Jul 29, 2016 in this lesson, legendary guitar educator wolf marshall shows you how to add 2nds and 6ths to the minor pentatonic scale, to give your lines added flavor. So, let us deconstruct this scale and look at the intervals that make up a minor pentatonic scale.
Theyre sometimes referred to as modes of the pentatonic scale. There are different types of scales like major, minor, major pentatonic, minor pentatonic and blues to name a few. The generic structure makes us enable to scale up our system easily by. I wish i learned all my scales this way blues guitar. Lets first learn the building blocks of major pentatonic and where it comes from. Shoot me a pm when you have your major scale down and i can give you a quick lesson on how to use the modes, when you know the scale shape for the major scale it will seriously make everything about basic theory ridiculously. The minor pentatonic scale can also be used over major chords like in a blues chord progression. There are a number of different pentatonic scales as you can imagine given that its any scale with 5 notes in the octave. But you must maintain the root note for the key signature desired. For a quick summary to this topic, have a look at pentatonic scale.
E minor pentatonic is great, but having all the open notes in the scale can be a bit of a crutch. Im just spitballing here, but i think it has to do with tritones. Starting on c this produces c d e g a a five note scale, hence the name pentatonic. The tonic chord is the main chord or the chord that usually designates the key you are playing in. For this chapter we will be considering minor pentatonic only. Back to scales, theres just so many scales, its hard to make heads or tails of them. Slow blues guitar lesson using the 5 notes of the minor.
This is also the root note fret position for the a minor pentatonic scale. They are still used all over the world, for example traditional music, country music, blues and metal. Bobby mcferrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale. By using just 2 string fragments with 3 notes on one of them and 2 on the other, you can cover the whole scale on just two strings. The 5 major pentatonic positions deft digits guitar lessons. It is a very useful scale for improvising over major chords because, of the. The pentatonic scale is made up of five notes and is also called a five note or five tone scale. The pentatonic scale chose 5 from these notes and created another scale, this is why it is called penta.
The big list of chords and scale notes scale notes. The lesson steps then explain how to construct the scale using the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th minor scale notes. The first major pentatonic scale shape starts with our g root note on the 3rd fret. The fretboard is shown with the lowest pitch string at the bottom and the highest pitch string at the top unless youve tuned your instrument differently. The am pentatonic scale has the same notes and fingering pattern as that of the c major pentatonic scale. Pentatonic scale has notes that when played generate a. The 5 minor pentatonic scale patterns learning to play the.
Click graphic to play audio deactivate arrows on your keyboard for page navigation with alt k. Pentatonic sequencing in groups of five notes youtube. A pentatonic scale is a scale with 5 notes, while the blues scale is a scale with 6 notes, also known as a hexatonic scale. Before i get into that i need to back up a bit and make sure that you understand that the typical boxes of the pentatonic scale that we learn are both major and.
The pentatonic scale consists only of 5 tones and it exists in a major and minor type. Pentatonic scales are considered to be transilient scales scales that have fewer than 8 notes. Middle c midi note 60 is shown with an orange line under the 2nd note on the piano diagram. As the name denotes, major pentatonic is a major scale with just five tones like every scale, major pentatonic can be given a whole and half step interval formula that tells us the distance between each tone in the scale. A pentatonic scale is a pattern of 5 notes plus the repeated upper tonic note 5 penta plus 1 tonic for a total of 6 notes. They are scales like the major scales, minor scales. There are two complete octaves available between the lowest tonic coloured green on string 6 to the highest tonic on string 1. A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave pentatonic scales were. The solution below shows the a minor pentatonic scale, on the piano, bass and treble clef the lesson steps then explain how to construct the scale using the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th minor scale notes for a quick summary to this topic, have a look at pentatonic scale.
Playing from e to e generates a sixnote series to complete. Its really not as complex as it seems and you can use this process with any scale. The e minor pentatonic scale is a useful and fun guitar scale to know. The basics of the minor pentatonic scale for guitar soundfly. Language sitemap guitar scale minor pentatonic scale interval minor pentatonic scale pattern 1 5 interval in a minor pattern 1.
The minor pentatonic scale for guitar jazz guitar online. Pattern 5 is associated with the pentatonic minor scale for the same reason. Pentatonic scales have just 5 notes within the octave hence the name penta which means five in greek. Note that in order to take a pentatonic scale and form a major scale of the same key, you must add the two notes directly before and after the pentatonic scale group on the circle of fifths. On the treble clef, middle c is shown with an orange ledger line below the main 5. Major scale masterclass learn songs, write music, and play. The solution below shows the a minor pentatonic scale, on the piano, bass and treble clef. Using major pentatonic scales over a 145 progression. The major scale is a pentatonic plus the two nextnicest notes i. 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. Starting with the low e string, the numbers correspond to which fret you should place your fingers on. Now since this is the first scale we have looked at in depth that migh not seem like a big deal, but in fact it is interesting because most scales you will learn inthe future have 7 notes in them.
Section three is identical to section two, except for the fact that a different pentatonic scale 305 is pluggedin in order to demonstrate the modular concept upon which this book is based. Pentascale or pentatonic scale pentatonic scale pattern. A minor pentatonic it is important that if you are going to learn to improvise with this scale that you learn how it sounds. Below, ive constructed four 5 note cells using the material of that pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is the key to any blues solo playing well, the probably most used scale in improvising is the pentatonic scale. Strum a g minor chord, then play the notes of the g minor pentatonic scale. How to construct major and minor pentatonic scales music. This is the formula for the minor pentatonic, as well as its notes in the key of f.
The minor pentatonic scale is 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 of the natural minor scale. Show me chords that sound good with a b major pentatonic scale. 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. Now lets play the g minor pentatonic scale in the second position. You can also access our site through your mobile phone. Ill show you how to play the 5 pentatonic scales shapes positions adding the major third and 5 licks to. In the key of e minor, the notes within the minor pentatonic scale are e, g, a, b and d. Lets take the notes from a minor pentatonic and try to stick as closely as possible to the 5 7 formula for each new chord, rooted on each note of the scale. Pentatonics vs blues scales effective music practice.
All the fretboard diagrams below show c major pentatonic, so the notes built on that root are c d e g a. One major chord, one minor chord, two suspended chords sus means to replace the 3rd with the 4th and sus2 means to replace the 3rd with the 2nd and it turns out that the last chord is a minor augmented chord which is just the root major chord inverted. This step shows the a major pentatonic scale on the piano, treble clef and bass clef. The illustration below, shows the notes of the a minor pentatonic scale. By adding just one note, you can convert that scale into the full fledged blues scale. It is called the blue note, and its the chromatic note between degrees 4 and 5 for minor, or 2 and 3 for major pentatonic. In order to change to the major pentatonic, you must maintain the root note of a. Learn how to construct and play this type of scale. There are other pentatonic scales including the pentatonic major scale, but as weve found, when most guitarists talk about the pentatonic scale, they mean the pentatonic minor scale. How to tell when you can use the e minor pentatonic scale. Pentatonic scale has notes that when played generate a pleasant melody, even if it is just the. It is useful for modern music because its wide intervals make for greater harmonic leeway, but on the other hand, its barebones harmony makes it in one sense naked. The lesson steps then explain how to construct the scale using the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th major scale notes.
Lydian, and mixolydian, and all contain scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. Scale pentatonic blues 1,b3,4,b5, 5,b7 fullth pattern root note a guitar tuning. If we sing a major pentatonic scale, it will sound like this, containing the notes. A major pentatonic scale diagrams a major pentatonic fretboard diagram. There are other pentatonic scales including the pentatonic major scale, but as weve found, when most guitarists talk about the pentatonic scale, they. The pentatonic scale understanding the 5 note scale. The 5 positions as outlined in my article on the caged system, i. These note names are shown below on the treble clef followed by the bass clef. The combination of notes from the minor pentatonic scale over the major chords is part of that bluesy sound.
Pentatonic and minor blues scales for guitar and improvisation. The pentatonic scale is formed of notes 1 2 3 5 and 6 of the major scale. The i iv v progression uses the three major chords derived from the major scale. I simply took the the original 4 notes and added the first note on to the end of the line to create a 5 note cell.
Sometimes its easier to think of a major pentatonic scale that starts and ends on degree 6. The fact that it has only five notes creates a very interesting fingering possibility. Big list of common triads and four note chords of the scale g major pentatonic. Therefore, the pentatonic scale degrees are 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. Major pentatonic scale pattern 15 for guitars fingerings. A better way to learn the major pentatonic scale on guitar. The key to understanding the minor pentatonic scale guitar world. The b note would be the root note fret for the b minor pentatonic and so on. The pentatonic scale was also a favorite of the great jazz fusion guitarist, john mclaughlin, and two of the licks in this article are based on phrases he regularly played in his improvisations. Adding notes to the minor pentatonic scale youtube. The minor pentatonic scale is the relative minor scale that complements the major scale. Minor pentatonic scale 1 b3 4 5 b7 f minor pentatonic.
More then see the pentatonic plus the 9th, i played a six notes scale. The pentatonic scale compendia found in section one list all three hundre d thirty pentatonic scales 2 that contain the note c. As we already know from the minor pentatonic scale theory lesson, the f minor pentatonic scale has 5 notes which are derived from the minor scale. The root note fret is the a note for the a minor pentatonic scale. A pentatonic scale is a chinese musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave.
Then there is a version of each of those scales for all twelve notes a minor, bb minor, b minor, etc. This grounds the scale very securely in the chord and leaves only so much room for getting lost. How to use permutation to create unlimited musical ideas. The notes outside the major scale form a pentatonic scale. There are 5 of these pentatonic pairs in every major scale. Jun 29, 2018 major and minor scales have 7 notes within the octave and are known collectively as heptatonic scales. The progression is a ii v i in em with a b7 altered dominant. The best way to learn them is to choose one scale that appeals to you and spend a considerable amount of time an d energy practicing and thinking of ways. One of all these chromatic notes has become so popular in modern music, that its considered a standard addition to pentatonic scales. Pentatonic scale, a minor pentatonic scale root note fret. Jun 28, 2016 this is a g minor pentatonic scale because the first note we play sixth string, third fret is a g note.
By intervallic, i am referring to the intervals, or distance between the notes. The word pentatonic implies that there are five notes in these scales, and that is correct. Pentatonic scales contain five notes, which is how it gets its name penta5, tonic tones. They are the 5 notes of the minor pentatonic scale, plus one additional note.
Actually, our first lick is from the blues scale, which is just the minor pentatonic with an extra note added the flatted fifth. Various positions of the minor pentatonic scale pattern 1 5 with the interval on the guitar neck. Once learned, the player can immediately start improvising rock guitar. Jul 20, 2017 quamon demonstrates and breaks down where to use the pentatonic scales over a major and minor chord with the ewi. The minor pentatonic scale is constructed of five notes hence the prefix penta, and is constructed using the formula.
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