Minor Pentatonic And Blues Scales
Andrew Cockburn
Jul 5 2007, 02:11 AM
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The Minor Pentatonic and Blues Scales

Introduction

In this lesson we are going to look at our first scale, the Minor Pentatonic scale (more on the blues part later). In the introduction to scales we went over a few reasons that you might want to learn scales and how important they are to you as a musician. Well particularly for guitar, the Pentatonic is a great scale to learn. It is usually the first scale taught with good reason. It is pretty simple, and it works really well over simple chord progressions, and is a great place to start practicing improvisation for soloing.

Introducing the Minor Pentatonic Scale

The first thing to note about the Pentatonic scale is that it only has 5 notes (hence the Penta- in its name). 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. Among other things, this makes the pentatonic scale easier to play and finger because it only has 2 notes on each string. The Pentatonic comes in both major and minor - we will concentrate on the Minor Pentatonic scale in this lesson.

In the scales introduction we found out that any scale can be described by a simple numeric formula, and the Pentatonic scale is no exception to this.

Its formula is: 3 2 2 3 2

Lets see how this works in an example, for instance G Minor Pentatonic.

We start with G as our root note, and add each step of the formula to get the next note:

G + 3 semitones is Bb
Bb + 2 semitones is C
C + 2 semitones is D
D + 3 semitones is F
F + 2 semitones is G

So there you have it - G minor pentatonic is the notes G, Bb, C, D, F, G. You can apply this formula with any other root note to get the exact scale that you want.


On The Fretboard


So how does this look on the guitar? Well, since we have 5 notes, we also have 5 possible boxes or patterns for each key of the Minor Pentatonic, here they all are fr G Minor:


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Remember that you can move these patterns up and down the neck to get the exact scale you want. For instance, if you want A minor Pentatonic, then you work it out as follows:

The root note A is 2 semitones up from G, so just move each of these patterns up 2 frets and voila, you have patterns for A minor pentatonic.

Also, the patterns repeat up the neck after the first five - so if you want to go up higher, start again with the first pattern played with the G root note played on the 15th fret instead of the 3rd fret.

The Blues Scale


The blues scale is very closely related to the minor pentatonic scale, and is used unsurprisingly in blues. 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. This note is called the blue note, and when you add it to the minor pentatonic scale you get the blues scale. Since they are so closely related, I thought I'd mention it here!

Adding in that extra note changes the formula to look like this : 3 2 1 1 3 2, and our example G minor Pentatonic becomes G, Bb, C, Db, D, F, G when rewritten as the blues scale.

Lets look at our boxes again with the blue note included (shown in green just to be awkward!)

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The Minor Pentatonic Scale in Action

Ok, now we know how to play the Minor Pentatonic and the Blues scale, lets talk about how we can put them into action. Both the Pentatonic and the Blues scales are particularly suitable for playing Rock and 12 bar blues with. Lets focus on 12 bar blues - a very pretty simple concept that has produced some amazing music over the years. Its elements are simple - a repeating chord sequence, and use of the pentatonic scale.

The chords you use are a type of I, IV, V progression - what that means isn't really important at this stage, but the chords you would use with a G minor or Pentatonic scale would be as follows (One chord represents 1 measure):

G - G - G - G - C - C - G - G - D - C - G - D

With this chord sequence as a backing, you can play sequences of notes from any of the pentatonic boxes and you will get a bluesy kind of improvisation going. For additional blues inspiration, take a look at the Blues section of the Video lessons - Gabriel has out together some awesome blues lessons to get you started!

Thats it - questions and comments in the forum!

Attached File  Pentatonic.mp3 ( 151.72K ) Number of downloads: 7785


Attached File  Blues.mp3 ( 152.44K ) Number of downloads: 6810

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This post has been edited by Andrew Cockburn: Sep 3 2007, 04:16 AM


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Posts in this topic
- Andrew Cockburn   Minor Pentatonic And Blues Scales   Jul 5 2007, 02:11 AM
- - Gen   Awsome lesson Andrew, its really helpful!   Jul 5 2007, 02:17 AM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   QUOTE (Gen @ Jul 4 2007, 09:17 PM) Awsome...   Jul 5 2007, 02:19 AM
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- - Gen   i can read really fast Im a mutant!! And ...   Jul 5 2007, 02:31 AM
- - blindwillie   Excellent. Thanks Andrew   Jul 5 2007, 07:52 AM
- - Ryan   Ive always wanted to learn the minor penta. scale,...   Jul 5 2007, 08:04 AM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   QUOTE (Ryan @ Jul 5 2007, 03:04 AM) Ive a...   Jul 5 2007, 04:19 PM
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- - kahall   Andrew, your lessons are always very detailed, so ...   Jul 5 2007, 11:43 PM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   QUOTE (kahall @ Jul 5 2007, 06:43 PM) And...   Jul 6 2007, 12:05 AM
|- - Ryan   QUOTE (Andrew Cockburn @ Jul 5 2007, 06:0...   Jul 7 2007, 08:44 AM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   QUOTE (Ryan @ Jul 7 2007, 03:44 AM) Hey s...   Jul 7 2007, 12:56 PM
|- - Ryan   QUOTE (Andrew Cockburn @ Jul 7 2007, 06:5...   Jul 9 2007, 04:02 AM
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- - Eat-Sleep-andJam   Omg andrew I couldnt be happier I understand theor...   Jul 14 2007, 07:40 AM
|- - Kaneda   QUOTE (Eat-Sleep-andJam @ Jul 14 20...   Jul 14 2007, 01:20 PM
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- - Owen   Which roughly translates as: "Screw sympathy ...   Jul 14 2007, 12:24 PM
- - Hemlok   Very good explanation Kaneda. I think you should j...   Jul 14 2007, 01:35 PM
|- - Kaneda   QUOTE (Hemlok @ Jul 14 2007, 02:35 PM) Ve...   Jul 14 2007, 02:03 PM
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- - mattacuk   God i Love the Key of G minor, it makes me feel li...   Jul 14 2007, 04:53 PM
- - Eat-Sleep-andJam   QUOTE (Kaneda @ Jul 14 2007, 04:20 AM) No...   Jul 14 2007, 06:28 PM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   QUOTE (Eat-Sleep-andJam @ Jul 14 20...   Jul 14 2007, 06:42 PM
|- - Rain   Wow - this is really helpful! I finally get h...   Jun 12 2008, 03:17 AM
|- - Rain   QUOTE (Andrew Cockburn @ Jul 14 2007, 01...   Jun 15 2008, 03:26 AM
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- - Eat-Sleep-andJam   Ok so Scale= Guideline to play within through impr...   Jul 14 2007, 09:48 PM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   QUOTE (Eat-Sleep-andJam @ Jul 14 20...   Jul 14 2007, 10:40 PM
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- - Eat-Sleep-andJam   ok thank you, I just love theory so much right now...   Jul 14 2007, 11:00 PM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   QUOTE (Eat-Sleep-andJam @ Jul 14 20...   Jul 14 2007, 11:14 PM
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- - Eat-Sleep-andJam   ^ My Brain What lessons would you recomend he...   Jul 14 2007, 11:38 PM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   QUOTE (Eat-Sleep-andJam @ Jul 14 20...   Jul 15 2007, 12:09 AM
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- - rokchik   Hey Andrew, This may have been explained already ...   Sep 5 2007, 11:31 PM
|- - steve25   QUOTE (rokchik @ Sep 5 2007, 11:31 PM) He...   Sep 6 2007, 12:26 AM
|- - rokchik   QUOTE (steve25 @ Sep 5 2007, 08:26 PM) Th...   Sep 6 2007, 12:57 AM
|- - steve25   QUOTE (rokchik @ Sep 6 2007, 12:57 AM) Th...   Sep 6 2007, 01:25 AM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   Steve explained it well ... What you are talking ...   Sep 6 2007, 01:43 AM
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- - rokchik   Thanks Steve and Andrew very much! I had myse...   Sep 6 2007, 08:41 AM
- - bart m   does it matter what fingerings one uses for the mi...   Sep 17 2007, 05:07 AM
- - JVM   In general I'd say obviously start with the in...   Sep 17 2007, 05:12 AM
|- - bart m   QUOTE (JVM @ Sep 16 2007, 10:12 PM) In ge...   Sep 17 2007, 05:25 AM
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- - JVM   I'm not the expert but I've always done bo...   Sep 17 2007, 05:27 AM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   QUOTE (JVM @ Sep 17 2007, 12:27 AM) I...   Sep 17 2007, 04:16 PM
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- - Spyle   So when practicing scales I should always start on...   Oct 9 2007, 11:30 AM
|- - muris   Best way is to practice boxes while switching them...   Oct 9 2007, 07:31 PM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   Regarding root notes, there is an explanation of t...   Oct 9 2007, 07:36 PM
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- - OneWingdAngel   just so its in a more suitable place i will repeat...   Oct 11 2007, 09:47 PM
|- - kjutte   QUOTE (OneWingdAngel @ Oct 11 2007, 09:47...   Dec 16 2007, 07:12 PM
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- - PlayAllDay   OK Wing - I'll have a go and see if I can help...   Oct 12 2007, 09:46 AM
- - OneWingdAngel   thanks that almost helps maybe i jumped the gun. t...   Oct 12 2007, 09:02 PM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   I tried to answer this on my board ...   Oct 12 2007, 09:58 PM
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- - Mrblomme   Hi Andrew, very nice lesson but I have a question....   Oct 22 2007, 02:41 AM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   Each pattern has the root notes marked - all you h...   Oct 22 2007, 02:44 AM
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- - Mrblomme   QUOTE (Andrew Cockburn @ Oct 22 2007, 03...   Oct 22 2007, 02:47 AM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   Exactly!   Oct 22 2007, 04:29 AM
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- - Mrblomme   Ok tyvm matey. Keep up your good work.   Oct 22 2007, 06:26 AM
- - Lester   finally i understand what i am actually doing G...   Oct 26 2007, 06:47 PM
|- - Andrew Cockburn   QUOTE (Lester @ Oct 26 2007, 01:47 PM) fi...   Oct 26 2007, 08:01 PM
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- - Pierre   Why do Major and Minor scales have modes and penta...   Dec 8 2007, 03:51 PM
- - shammy   Finally went ahead and learned all the blue notes,...   Dec 16 2007, 06:40 AM
- - Khaos Keith   i FINALLY understand how scale formulas work from ...   Dec 17 2007, 06:13 PM
- - kaznie_NL   I have a little silly quistion: Is E minor pentat...   Jan 13 2008, 11:19 AM
|- - DeepRoots   QUOTE (kaznie_NL @ Jan 13 2008, 10:19 AM)...   Jan 13 2008, 11:22 AM
|- - Muris   QUOTE (kaznie_NL @ Jan 13 2008, 11:19 AM)...   Jan 13 2008, 05:09 PM
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- - Shawn   Hello Andrew, First I wanted to say that I've...   Feb 7 2008, 05:24 PM
- - [email protected]   Don't know how long ive been sitting here with...   May 15 2008, 02:57 AM
- - audiopaal   Now this is what I call great Thanks Andrew   May 15 2008, 07:12 AM
- - Nazgul   Some short questions to Andrew: I'm practicing...   Jul 12 2008, 06:00 PM
- - Nazgul   ???   Aug 24 2008, 01:08 PM
- - kyldeee   QUOTE (Nazgul @ Jul 12 2008, 06:00 PM) So...   Aug 24 2008, 01:12 PM
|- - kaznie_NL   QUOTE (kyldeee @ Aug 24 2008, 02:12 PM) I...   Aug 24 2008, 01:16 PM
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- - Nazgul   QUOTE (kyldeee @ Aug 24 2008, 02:12 PM) I...   Aug 24 2008, 02:31 PM
- - kyldeee   Well, just keep on learning those patterns, and tr...   Aug 24 2008, 02:45 PM
- - Nazgul   Thank you very much, first question answered. A...   Aug 24 2008, 04:03 PM
- - kyldeee   I don't think there are such rules concerning ...   Aug 24 2008, 04:46 PM
- - Nazgul   ?   Aug 24 2008, 04:51 PM
- - kyldeee   QUOTE (Nazgul @ Aug 24 2008, 04:51 PM) ? ...   Aug 24 2008, 04:51 PM
- - Nazgul   QUOTE (kyldeee @ Aug 24 2008, 05:51 PM) h...   Aug 24 2008, 08:18 PM
- - Vaialation1232   I'm loving your lessons, but i just had one qu...   Jan 4 2009, 09:32 AM
|- - Tolek   QUOTE (Vaialation1232 @ Jan 4 2009, 09:32...   Jan 4 2009, 11:16 AM
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- - Mrblomme   I have a question, in the 5th box of Aminor Pentat...   Jan 28 2009, 12:16 PM
|- - kaznie_NL   QUOTE (Mrblomme @ Jan 28 2009, 12:16 PM) ...   Jan 30 2009, 02:57 PM
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- - Mrblomme   QUOTE (kaznie_NL @ Jan 30 2009, 02:57 PM)...   Feb 2 2009, 12:21 PM
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