Download Minor Pentatonic scale In music, notes are sometimes arranged into

Minor Pentatonic scale
In music, notes are sometimes arranged into patterns called
scales
Scales can be used to play solos or melodies over other music
Scales can consist of any pattern of notes and are completely
free to a musician’s creation; however there are already
many scales that exist already that are commonly used by
musicians
One scale that is particularly popular to guitarists (and other
musicians) is the minor pentatonic scale
It is called a ‘minor’ pentatonic scale because the harmonies
within the scale create the ‘sad’ minor sound (in the same
way the harmonies create a ‘sad’ sound in minor chords)
It is called a pentatonic scale because there are five different
notes in the scale – ‘pent’ meaning five
Here is an example of a pentatonic scale in a guitar tab:
E|----------------------------------------------------------3----6B|-----------------------------------------------3----6-----------G|-------------------------------------3----5---------------------D|--------------------------3----5 -------------------------------A|---------------3----5-------------------------------------------E|-----3----6-----------------------------------------------------
Remember that the musical
alphabet goes from A to G,
and then repeats. Although
there are 12 notes played in
this tab there are only 5
different notes, the ones
higher up just being a repeat
of the ones lower down
Like chords, scales also have ‘root notes’ and in fact, the
reason that chords have a root note is actually because they
are ‘built’ from scales in specific patterns – we’ll cover more
on this another time however
In the scale shown above the lowest sounding note of the
scale is the note at the start (6th string, 3rd fret) which is a G
note, this means that the scale is ‘in the key of G minor’ or a
‘G minor pentatonic scale’ – This instruction tells you that the
pattern of notes is a ‘minor pentatonic’ patter and that the
pattern should be played starting on a G note
A minor pentatonic scale that has its root note as a B, would
be ‘in the key of B minor’ or a ‘B minor pentatonic scale’
Don’t worry about understanding the scales so much just
now, but instead practice playing the scale from bottom to
top and then back down again. It is important to start slowly
and then gradually speed up when practicing scales
Because the harmonies of a scale’s sound are created by the
spaces between the notes, rather than what the notes
actually are; scale shapes are moveable – like power chords
Here are some examples of a minor pentatonic scale in
‘different keys’ (starting on different root notes)
E|-----------------------------------------------------------0----3-
E|------------------------------------------------------------5----8-
B|------------------------------------------------0----3------------
B|-------------------------------------------------5----8------------
G|-------------------------------------0----2----------------------
G|--------------------------------------5----7----------------------
D|--------------------------0----2--------------------------------
D|--------------------------5----7----------------------------------
A|---------------0----2--------------------------------------------
A|---------------5----7--------------------------------------------
E|-----0----3-----------------------------------------------------
E|-----5----8-------------------------------------------------------
We can see from the scales above that no matter which ‘key’ you play a minor
pentatonic scale in the pattern of the notes always stays the same and that it just
changes to match where the ‘root’ note is
For example the scale on the left is ‘in the key of E’ and the one on the right is ‘in the
key of A’ but you can see that there are still 3 frets between the first and second
notes of both scales, 2 frets between the third and fourth note and so on
The spaces between notes are referred to as ‘intervals’ and it is the ‘intervals’
between notes that determines the harmony or ‘flavour’ of a scale