Hey Andrew Cockburn! Let me start off by saying that ur theory lessons help me so much. I am stuck on 1 beginner noob thing tho. When making a song or riff or wutever and take a scale, say C Major pentatonic, is it absolutely neccessary that you start on the root note of C? if not, wut r some exceptions?

thank u,

-sigma

Check out my Scales Introduction lesson for some insights on this ...

Basically, when we practice scales it is important to train our ears to the sound of the scale, so at first, starting on the root note is a must or you will train your ears to hear a different scale. When you are confident with the sound of the scale, you will have the root note locked into your brain so it is less important.

When actually playing or improvising, always starting with the root note is very restrictive - you should be able to start on any note you like that is in the scale so that you don't limit your options.

Thanx Andrew! I get it now

If you play the Cm pentatonic, you can play all the notes in that scale. If you're talking about chords, you gotta match the scaledegree.

The pentatonic scale has 5 degrees. Im IImaj IIIsus IVquartal and Vsus2
Which pretty much tells you that if you wanna play a chord in C, you'll do a minor triad for example.
The degrees are:

I - C
II - D#
III - F
IV - G
V - A#

Edit: sorry for butting in