In this lesson we are going to check out the Minor Pentatonic scale. It is the most common scale in blues, pop and rock music. It is quite an easy one to learn and is very useful for learning to improvise in a blues style - which is probably the easiest to get started on! Penta means five and tonic means note so "Minor Pentatonic Scale" really just means "Minor Five Note Scale".

The reason we learn scales is that they are groups of notes sound really good together that we can use to make up solos (as in lead guitar) and melodies. We'll get to that later on. They are also great for developing your technique for playing single notes, so are an important part of your development as a guitar player.

Video Lesson

 

A minor pentatonic

We are going to learn the scale in the key of A - so the A minor pentatonic scale. This is used to solo over a Blues or a song in the key of A minor, and we will be learning a 12 Bar Blues in the key of A very soon - so practice up your scale now to you are ready to jam when we get to that!!

It is a great scale to start with as an introduction to playing single notes on the guitar.

Make sure you only pick one note at a time. Just use all down picks to start with and later try to play using alternate picking (alternating between down and up picks).

 

The Scale Box

The scale shape can be played on any fret, and the scale gets it's name from the note under the R (root note). To play it in the key of A - which is what you should do now - you should start with your first finger in the 5th fret. All the notes in the 5th fret are played using the first finger, all the notes in the 7th fret are played with the 3rd finger and all notes in the 8th fret are played with the 4th finger. Have a go at it now - take is slowly and get it right - don't start practicing the wrong thing - there is no sense in that!!

 

TAB and Notation

Play the notes in the order shown above.

 

Listen

When you learn it play it very slowly and get every note sounding clear. It should sound something like this:

MinPent by justinguitar

 

Getting it right

Check that your fingers are not lifting far off the fingerboard, try to keep all the movements small, and most importantly accurate.

Most guitarists use this scale, from Chuck Berry to Jimi Hendrix to Steve Vai. Learn this scale well and you will use it for the rest of your guitar playing days! So spend a bit of time with it and get it right.

If you can get to alternate picking this scale you should notice that all the notes played with your first finger will be picked with a down pick and the rest with an up pick. It's an easy way to check that you are doing it right!

If you have a metronome then use it and play along, one note with each click - try around 50bpm to start with, play one note every two clicks if you need to. Try and speed it up, gradually making it faster. When you get to 160bpm, cut it down and do two picks for each metronome click at 80bpm and slowly work up the tempo.

Once you have it comfortable under your fingers feel free to move it up and down the neck if you like. See the little R on the scale diagram - well that s the ROOT NOTE and like Power Chords where you put that note decides the name of the scale, so play the scale starting with your first finger on the 10th fret and you'll be playing a D Minor Pentatonic. Cool huh!

FINGERSTYLE (no pick) players can either use only the thumb (like Wes Montgomery did), alternate between your first and second fingers (like Segovia did) or a mixture of thumb and fingers (like Jeff Beck does). It's really up to you. I really do recommend learning to use a pick as well for this kind of thing, but i you really don't get along with them then you'll have to experiment a bit. There is such a thing as thumb pick too which many fingerstyle players use that works like a pick (like Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel).

 

Onwards

This scale is awesome for learning to improvise blues lead guitar over a 12 bar blues sequence... that is coming up - but get working on this, try and get it smooth and into your memory until we check that out...

Next up we're looking at some more tunes in BC-177 • Easy Songs For Stage 7

 

HELP!!!!

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