Minor Pentatonic And Blues Scales |
|
Minor Pentatonic And Blues Scales |
|
|
|
|
Jul 5 2007, 02:11 AM |
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: 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!) 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! Pentatonic.mp3 ( 151.72K ) Number of downloads: 7787 Blues.mp3 ( 152.44K ) Number of downloads: 6810 This post has been edited by Andrew Cockburn: Sep 3 2007, 04:16 AM -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Jul 5 2007, 02:19 AM |
Awsome lesson Andrew, its really helpful! Wow, it was only up for 6 minutes Glad you liked it! -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Jul 5 2007, 04:19 PM |
Ive always wanted to learn the minor penta. scale, but I have a really big question. Ok, the major scale. has the same boxes. With a few extra added notes. Correct?? Almost - you need to compare the Minor Penta with the Minor scale and the Major Penta with the Major scale. Well if so. Whats the point, of just using the minor penta. scale when you have less notes than the major scale?? I think its just that they have different root notes. So it makes the minor, feel more differnet than the major. Correct?? No, the root notes would be the same if ytou stick to the rule I mentioned above. I can see where your confusion comes from though, because if you move up one pattern in the Minor Pentatonic boxes, you are actually playing Major pentatonic if you shift the root note to the E string - this is because Major Pentatonic is a mode of Minor Pentatonic Basically a scale is a list of notes you use for playing. If you change the list, the song will sound different, and that's about it. Pentatonic has some advantages - it is simpler (less notes) and is playable 2 notes per string. Its sparse note set means you can get away with playing what is essentially a minor scale over majoe chords (as in the Blues). Major Pentatonic if you make a tune out of it can sound almost Japanese - its all about the notes you use and scales control that. Regards, Andrew -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Jul 6 2007, 12:05 AM |
Andrew, your lessons are always very detailed, so much so that I will only check them out when my brain is in full college mode. They're great. That said they (Kris) really should give you your own area to post them. The forum is not the right place to get the proper formating. Horizontal scrolling is just a pet peeve of mine. When do you have time to play the guitar anyway? LOL - I sometimes wonder if this theory stuff is inhibiting my development, I certainly could use the practice! Regarding formatting and moving lesons out of the Forum - I totally agree, it has been on my mind for a while now - I want these lessons to be the best they can. Fortunately, Kris agrees (he's not such a bad chap!) and we are working on a scheme to move the lessons lock stock and barrel to a new area of the site similar to the video lessons, along with some extra stuff from Kaneda. Stay tuned, the only way is up! -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Jul 7 2007, 12:56 PM |
Hey sounds like fun, and seems like it would help with theory a lot better!!. I can always learn better when someone talks to me about it, and show me. Rather than just reading it!! Well they'll still be text lessons initially, but I do plan to start on some vide lessons eventually, seems like they would be popular. -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Jul 14 2007, 12:24 PM
|
|
Which roughly translates as:
"Screw sympathy I've got theory" Good lesson Andrew! -------------------- Don't Panic.
|
|
||
|
|
|
Jul 14 2007, 06:42 PM |
I see what your saying. There are lots of different notes all over the fretboard that would correspond with what your playing in the scale. But just because it sounds the same to are ears, doesnt mean its the same notes that we played in are orignal scale , is that right ? And also what I was asking about the formula of a scale is that lets take the G Minor Pentatonic Does the formula apply to finding all the notes of the scale. Ex. 3rd fret ,6th fret etc. etc. Or is it just a bases of tones used in the scale ? Thats kind of what Im trying to understand. And great post that helped SOOO MUCH. Ive learned more theory in 2 days then I ever have before!. - John Don't confuse patterns on the guitar with notes in the scale - they are very different. The scale gives you a list of possible notes, and bear in mind as Kaneda says you can use those notes in any octave the guitar can play. The next step is to move those notes to a physical realization by mapping them onto the guitar so you can play them, this is where patterns come in, and boxes (although ultimately its better to think in terms of all the possible notes on the entire fretboard so you dont 'box' yourself in. So, the scale is a list of notes, then you can play those notes in any octave anywhere on the guitar and they will be in the scale. This post has been edited by Andrew Cockburn: Jul 14 2007, 06:43 PM -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
|
|
||