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3RD QUARTER: PENTATONIC SCALES

December 23, 2020 By Jim Beckwith

 

In this quarter the goal is to learn 2 positions of the pentatonic

scale. We will also need to increase the practice time from 15

minutes a day to 20-30 minutes a day. I’m keeping the time

flexible because 30 minutes is a big jump from 15! If you have

a busy day and 20 minutes is all you can do, great. I will break

down the time allocations at the end of this post. Even though

there are a total of 5 positions of the pentatonic scale, I’m only

using 2 because you guessed it, they go with the type 1 and

type 2 bar chords you learned in the 1st quarter. You don’t

need to worry much about the missing 3 positions, since you

will be able to cover half the guitar neck in any key, major or

minor with just these 2 positions! And you won’t have to

memorize any new root notes, just the same type 1 and type 2

roots you’ve already been learning (hopefully). A lot of the

following is taken from my book, “Take Control: for guitar”,

available on Amazon.

If you only learn one scale, make it a pentatonic scale. You can

use it for all popular music styles and it’s the foundation for

both major and blues scales. It’s easy to play and hard to screw

up! (Pentatonic means 5 notes, a pentatonic scale contains 5

notes repeated endlessly). The most common position is

called “position 1” and is named from the type 1 root.

PENTATONIC SCALE: POSITION 1

   8th fret, 6th string=major root/C major

 

Everybody knows this position, it’s the easiest to play and

the most used (half of all the guitar solos I’ve ever figured

out have been in this position). Many famous musicians

have built their careers with not much more than this

position. The first step in using this scale is figuring out

what key you want to play in. This is easy since the first

position scale has the same root as a type 1 bar chord, or

2 roots to be precise. Notice that the top note (fret 8) of

position 1 is the major root ( C on the 6th string, 8th fret).

The circled bottom note, which is on the 5th fret is the

minor root (A on the 6th string, 5th fret). As I teach my

students in the mode lesson, major and minor are just

different ways to play the same scale. If you want a minor

scale, play from the minor root (start on the 5th fret in the

diagram, using your 1st finger). If you want a major scale,

play from the major root (start on the 8th fret in the

diagram, using your 4th finger). The same scale is both

A minor (5th fret) and C major (8th fret), this is called

relative major and minor. Just remember that minor is

1st finger and major is 4th finger in this position. You

can play whatever key you want, just locate the type 1

root note (6th string), put down the correct finger and

play! For example:

Bb major? 6th fret, 4th finger

D minor? 10th fret, 1st finger

Once you’re positioned in the key, you can play anywhere

in the scale, you don’t always have to start on the root.

Now that you’ve learned a scale, and can locate it for any

key the challenge is how to use it. I use the metaphor of

learning to read; the scale is like the alphabet, riffs and

scale patterns are like words (your vocabulary), and solos

are like sentences. Teaching this is way beyond what I

can do in a blog post so I will again plug my book, “Take

Control: for guitar”. It’s available on Amazon, and has

an entire chapter of patterns, riffs and a sample solo.

It’s cheaper than 1 lesson with me and smells better!

To review the total time allotment:

5-10 minutes for scale practice

5-10 minutes for technique exercises

5 minutes chord/root review

5-10 minutes jam

The time varies with your schedule, it could be 20

minutes if time is tight or 30 minutes plus if you’re

up to it. In the next post we will learn another scale

position that goes with the type 2 root and see how

to cover half the neck (in any key) with just these 2

positions.

 

 

 

 

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