In summary, there are 5 main patterns across the fretboard which i encourage you to memorize. The big list of chords and scale notes scale notes. Find or record a backing track that is in the key of c major, and play the above scale shape with your first finger located on the 5th fret and your pinky finger located on the 8th fret. The first major pentatonic scale shape starts with our g root note on the 3rd fret of the 6th string. These charts highlight the notes and chords of g pentatonic scale on guitar and bass fretboard. This will help you learn how to play melodies and chords on a guitar and bass within the key of g pentatonic. The major pentatonic consists of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th notes of a major scale. The scale formula for the minor pentatonic 1 b3 4 5 b7.
However, the pentatonic scale has a unique character and is complete in terms of tonality. Big list of common triads and four note chords of the scale g major pentatonic. Scales you can use in the real world, created by a human guitarist. Be sure to change scales as the chords change and listen for the sound differences between the major and minor, get lost in the fun. The result is a scale that has 6 notes instead of the 5 in a regular pentatonic scale. Pentatonic scale has notes that when played generate a pleasant melody, even if it is just the. G major pentatonic guitar scales guitar scales chart. The a minor pentatonic scale contains exactly the same notes as the c major pentatonic, were just starting from a different place. How to construct major and minor pentatonic scales music. It may seem funny, but the formula for a major pentatonic scale is 1 2 3 5 6. Combining minor and major pentatonic scales guitarhabits. Major pentatonic goes one, two, three, five, six, so the scale degrees that youre missing for the major scale are the four and the seven.
Penta, is latin for five, much like a pentagram has five sides, pentatonic scales are constructed from five notes. The minor pentatonic scale the pentatonic scale is one of the most commonly utilized scales in just about all genres of music. So basically, as with major scales, the minor pentatonic scale is the relative 6th minor of the major pentatonic scale. Cs relative minor pentatonic scale, a minor pentatonic, begins on the 6. A c d e g a the blues scale it wasnt until later that i learned there is a blues scale. The pentatonic scale is a major scale excluding the 4th and 7th degrees. Another good thing for you to practice is to open how to play intervals on guitar fretboard lesson and try to understand the intervals used in major pentatonic scale. Try playing minor pentatonic over minor chords and major pentatonic over major chords within the same jam track. A pentatonic scale is like any other scale notes separated by intervals, but it contains just 5 tones, hence the greek word pentatonic, which simply means five.
If you are playing in g major, use e minor pentatonic scale also know as g major pentatonic you have probably noticed that the pentatonic scale can be either a major or minor scale. What is the most common fingering for the pentatonic scale. You just need to know how the root note changes in the pattern. You could play these licks over a iivv blues progression where a7 is the i chord, d7 iv chord and e7 v chord. This versatile sticker set is designed to teach guitar players of all levels the a minorc major pentatonic scale. The solution below shows the gb major pentatonic scale on the piano, treble clef and bass clef the lesson steps then explain how to construct the scale using the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th major scale notes for a quick summary of this topic, have a look at pentatonic scale. The 5 major pentatonic scale shapes positions guitarhabits. The pentatonic scale pentatonic scales have only five notes penta means five. So in simple terns the major pentatonic is use over changing the chords if the chords are major and the major scales follow the chords more musical, blusical not really a word, but should be people will state that there is a minor 3 rd which will be 3 half steps or tones difference and this is not wrong it is just a way to say g major is the.
Heres a chart that lays out pentatonic scales in six positions click on the image to download the fullsized chart pdf. Full lesson plan free on the website here lessons04thegmajorpentatonicscale also available on the. To get this pattern in a different key just shift it. A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic.
Also, we are adopting a 2 notes per string system when it comes to minor pentatonic fingerings. This article and interactive web app help you learn all of the pentatonic scale diagrams. The minor pentatonic scale is constructed from five notes from the natural minor scale, also called the. C d e g a c formula 2 2 3 2 3 now lets look at the complete, 5position diagram of the pentatonic scale. If you start at the g on the 3rd fret of the low e string youll get a g major pentatonic scale. Major pentatonic scale the major pentatonic scale shares five notes with the major scale. A c major pentatonic scale consists of c, d, e, g and a notes. Note that a minor pentatonic has identical notes with c major pentatonic but in different order. This pdf contains the diagrams for all the major and minor pentatonic scales in all keys for guitar in standard tuning. 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. The minor pentatonic scale is one of the most commonly scales used in rock, blues, country and jazz music.
The major pentatonic scale is mostly used in country, folk country rock, blues and jazz. Recall that most scales in western music contain 7 notes e. The solution below shows the gb major pentatonic scale on the piano, treble clef and bass clef. Fret daddy the a minor pentatonic scale for electricacoustic guitar. Looking at it from the major scale, if you leave out the 4th and. Because this pattern has an e as the first note this is pattern 1 of the e minor pentatonic scale and all other minor pentatonic scales. The major pentatonic scale next level guitar lessons. Aug 07, 2015 now lets combine the notes of the minor pentatonic and major pentatonic scale and create some soloing ideas. Caged system using the major pentatonic scale master the fretboard. Some people find it easier to think in minor terms, and some find it easier to think in minor and major terms. Were gonna move now into c, c pentatonic,major pentatonic,out of this second position.
You can play a pentatonic scale by walking your fingers across the neck at any one of these positions, playing 2 notes per string. The major pentatonic scale box patterns on guitar fretboard. When you play in a minor pentatonic, you are using the same notes and using the same scale as the major pentatonic scale in c but you are resolving ending. For this example we take the most commonly used position for the minor pentatonic scale. The a minor pentatonic, the relative minor of c, comprises the same tones as the c. One of the neat things about pentatonic scalescompared to the major scales,usually, on most of the major scalesthat weve covered, in the closed position,youll notice that theres three notes on each string,for the majority, and that sort ofcreates more of the major scale climb. Neck diagram with pitches neck diagram with scale degrees. Pentatonics vs blues scales effective music practice. G major e minor pentatonic scale guitar scales the pentatonic scale is a favorite of many guitarists and its easy to see why.
The most important of these are both major and minor pentatonic. Meter, scales, and key signatures because the white keys running from c to the next c an octave higher form a sequence of notes that have minor 2nds only between ef the 3rd and 4th notes and bc the 7th and 8th notes, musicians call that series of notes a c major scale. The shapes of the major pentatonic scale are exactly the same as those of the minor pentatonic scale, except the root note is located else where. Essentially well play the g major scale, but leave out the fourth and seventh note out. Rule the fretboard in five notesthe major pentatonic scale. So, the minor pentatonic scale is based on that major scale with the flattened 3rd, which is now called minor. The root notes a in these examples are circled so that you can learn their locations. D minor pentatonic has the same notes as f major pentatonic and so it goes.
Learn a complete blues solo based on the pentatonic scale, written and recorded by francesco cagnacci. The pentatonic scale chose 5 from these notes and created another scale, this is why it is called penta. In this example we use the a minor pentatonic scale which consists of the notes. Learn how to play the g major pentatonic scale on bass guitar with our free tab, sheet music, neck diagrams, and more. The lesson steps then explain how to construct the scale using the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th major scale notes. The pentatonic scale, major and minor free piano lessons. Youll remember in the g major scale shape, there are seven notes repeated in multiple octaves. For instance, lets take a look at the c major scale. Then again, the blues scale is based on the pentatonic scale.
The interactive app below lets you generate fretboard charts of pentatonic scales in all keys with custom. The g may be the 4th note in a major pentatonic scale, but it is not considered a 4. The two licks below use notes of both minor and major pentatonic scales. The solution below shows the g minor pentatonic scale, on the piano, bass and treble clef. For your convenience, i have included a pdf of all the pentatonics. It also will improve your ability to find intervals on. G major pentatonic scale for beginner guitarists beginners course. Thats a very simplistic explanation and for now i believe it will suffice.
There are a few reasons that the penatonic scales are the short cut for the scales. You can play the major pentatonic scale over almost any major or dominant chord without clashing with the chord. This makes it easy to transpose the scale into different keys and will help give you a broader view of the concepts. One construction takes five consecutive pitches from the circle of fifths. There are both pentatonic major and minor the minor is slightly more often used. Scale pentatonic major 1,2,3,5,6 fullth pattern root note g guitar tuning. In the major pentatonic scale, we simply take two of those notes out of each octave. May 09, 2014 the major pentatonic scale is mostly used in country, folk country rock, blues and jazz. There are three ways youll want to learn your major. You can get more diagrams in the tuning of your choice by using my interactive web app here. Apr 16, 2016 therefore, if you wanted to play the above major pentatonic scale pattern in the key of c major, you would place your pinky finger on the 8th fret of the low estring which would cause your first finger to naturally fall over top of the 5th fret, and you would play the scale starting on that note. Finger one is the key of the major pentatonic say g and the 3rd finger is em. Something that cannot be said of the two notes of the major scale that are not included in the major pentatonic scale the 4th and 7th.
Pentatonic scales are the scale shortcut there are a few reasons that the pentatonic scales are the short cut for the scales. The major pentatonic scale may be thought of as a gapped or incomplete major scale. The pentatonic scale can be played in different positions. For a quick summary to this topic, have a look at pentatonic scale.
For a quick summary of this topic, have a look at pentatonic scale. Above is the a major pentatonic scale shown in 5 positions. 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. Major pentatonic scale diagrams beginning on each of the 12 chromatic tones. Later on we shall take a look at the minor pentatonic. Scale diagrams can also be labeled with either letters or scale degrees. G majors triad is gbd, but g minor flattens the 3rd b to a bflat so that the minor triad is now gbbd. 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. For this chapter we will be considering minor pentatonic only. Pentatonic scales play in six different keys on one harmonica. The lesson steps then explain how to construct the scale using the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th minor scale notes.
The 6th note of any major scale is the root of the relative minor scale. Debussy, pentatonicism, and the tonal tradition pdf. So even if you hit a nonchord tone at a lessthanoptimal moment these notes will be relatively forgiving. This scale is transpositional and can be played in, and should be practiced in, all keys. As you will learn, these patterns can be transferred to all keys. The difference between a pentatonic and a blues scale is one chromatic note. Penta stands for five, meaning the pentatonic scale is a fivenote scale. The pentatonic scale is frequently used in lots of popular music styles. Before the solo starts, the track plays through the rhythm part for several measures tab included at the bottom of this page. With each of the shapes we learn, there will be a chord. The solution below shows the g 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. Difference between minor and major pentatonic scale boxes. The major pentatonic scale d major pentatonic box shape.