Go to http://www.justinguitar.com/en/BL-000-Blues.php and do the whole blues lead course - very thorough, yet easy to follow/beginner friendly course on the pentatonic/blues scale (blues scale is the pentatonic with one extra note added in)

I dunno dude, what did you use as your search string when you Googled? There is a ton of stuff on the web if I just search for "minor pentatonic scale", including a bunch of YouTube vids.

Basically, most guitarists learn this scale by learning the fingering patterns on the fretboard first. The patterns look like this (NB: this pic says that this is the "blues" scale, which is not quite correct since the actual "blues" scale adds some additional notes, but it gives you the fingering patterns).



They've given suggestions for fingers you can use (fingers 1 to 4 of your left hand), but you can change the fingering to suit yourself (and most guitarists will use slightly different fingerings for the same patterns when doing different runs).

The first shape, on the top left, is usually where players start, since it's easy to remember and you can keep your first finger at the same fret.

Now, playing the patterns on their own won't help you much. You need to play the scale over a chord or chord progression to really get a feel for it. "A Minor" is where plenty of guys start out.

If you can record, or have someone jam along, or even search for a backing track online, look for a I-IV-V progression in A minor or create one yourself. It would be these three chords:

A - D - E

Search online for a twelve bar blues in A Minor, as a good place to start.

Now, to play this scale over that chord progression, you're going to use the above patterns, with your root note being an A.

In other words, take position 1 above (top left), and start playing it on the 5th fret of your low E (6th) string. That fifth fret note is an A. So, your first finger is going to fret that A, and then you'll move up through the rest of the pattern in ascending order, then back down in descending order. Play the notes on each beat if you can, or on each 2nd beat or whatever is comfortable, go with what you feel.

That's how you get started. You'll need to slowly learn the rest of the shapes and how they all hook together (you'll see that each shape "leads into" the next, especially if you map the scale out over the whole fret-board).

To play the scale in a different key, just move your shapes up or down. In the pic above, they have said you should start the first shape on the third fret, which is a "G". You could then play over a progression in the key of G (e.g. G C D).

This is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg though. It's important to understand what the minor pentatonic scale IS: what is the step pattern in terms of semi-tone intervals etc. The reason that the pentatonic is so popular with guitarists is largely because:

a) It's an easy scale to play and remember on the guitar fingerboard
b) It sounds good across most progressions because it omits the most dissonant (kak sounding) semi-tone intervals found in the major and minor scales

Blues and Rock rely really heavily on this scale. Guys like Clapton, SRV, Angus Young and Slash have often used it almost exclusively.

I'm sure others have lots to add, but the above should get you going.

PS: the major pentatonic has the same fingering pattern as the minor pentatonic. So you effectively get 2 scales in one. ? The only difference is which note you start on, and which chords you use it over, but that's for next time.

Those diagrams confuse the hell out of me, I've got no idea how to interpret them.

Would you be so kind as to take the top left one and explain what I'm looking at? Purdy please sugar on top? :-[

E|---------------------------------5--8-----------------------------
B|--------------------------5-(7)-8--------------------------------
G|--------------------5-7------------------------------------------
D|---------------5-7------------------------------------------------
A|----------5-(6)-7-------------------------------------------------
E|----5--8----------------------------------------------------------

This is if I understand you correct, although this will be all over the net, this is the fingerings of how to play the Minor Pentatonic. The notes in brackerts are simply for the blues pentatonic. Very cool scale!

In terms of when and where to use it, typically over a minor key progression. So the above example is Aminor (the 5 is on A root on E string). Find out about your relative minors, so for example if you playing in the key of G major (or you know you playing in the key of G major) you need to play the E Minor Pentatonic. To work out relative minor, the general rule of thumb is to count 4 chromatic notes back from the first Major chord. But learning theory will make this easier to find. Usually however, you can get away with this scale by refering to the first chord of a song ?

Warren beat me to it haha

downloading the video.... Thanks...



Okay, So i would interpret that like tab?!

Forgetting the rest of the neck and only concentrating on that specific diagram?!

1st finger fret 2, 4th finger fret 5 and so on?!


Fruitar...

That confuses the hell out of me... im just gonna ignore that post for a few months if you dont mind! :-[

Tonedef wrote: Those diagrams confuse the hell out of me, I've got no idea how to interpret them.

Would you be so kind as to take the top left one and explain what I'm looking at? Purdy please sugar on top? :-[

Haha, ok.


It's your guitar neck, your fingerboard, held up vertically. The lines going down are your six strings. The lines going across are your frets.

Each circle is a fingertip, placed in that fret, to play that particular note. The number in the circle is a suggestion as to which finger to use (your left hand fingers are numbered from 1 to 4, from index finger to pinky).

So, to play the scale, you would start with finger 1 fretting the note at the third fret of your guitar, on the 6th string (the thickest string). The next note would be on the seventh fret, using your pinky.

You would then shift your hand to the 5th string, moving finger 1 to the third fret of the 5th string, and so on through the whole pattern.

It's like a chord diagram, only you're not going to hold down all the notes at once, but play them one at a time in order up (or down) the strings.

Does that help?

Thanks for the BIG explanation Warren...

thing is, i was only looking for a simple explanation! yes, there is a lot of explanations, but nothing concise and easy to understand!


Your second explanation makes a LOT more sense!!

With this scale though, you can start it on any fret right?


One last thing, with the diagram on Justinguitar... what the heck is the R for in the circle???


Thanks again!

Norman

The easiest way to learn this is to learn the A minor barre chord shape. And then you start on the 5th fret playing the scale exactly like Warren has explained.

So you play the chord and the pattern without losing too much of the chord shape

Norman86 wrote: Thanks for the BIG explanation Warren...

thing is, i was only looking for a simple explanation! yes, there is a lot of explanations, but nothing concise and easy to understand!


Your second explanation makes a LOT more sense!!

With this scale though, you can start it on any fret right?


One last thing, with the diagram on Justinguitar... what the heck is the R for in the circle???


Thanks again!

That's about as small as explanations get ?

If you mean "Can I start the shape on any fret?" then, yes, you can. You would start on the note that corresponds to the progression you're playing over.

The "R" stands for "Root" note. In other words, the note you start playing on.

For example, if you play this scale over an A chord, the "strongest" note of that chord (because a chord is just a collection of notes) is, surprise surprise, the A note. This is called the "Tonic" note.

You'll therefore start playing this scale on an A note too (5th fret of 6th string, for example), which means your playing will target the strong notes in the underlying chord, which is what makes it sound "good". Try it: you'll hear that when you hit those A notes, it will "resolve" really nicely to the chord.

It's useful to be aware of where the root notes are in the shapes, because those are the notes you'll often target when playing a solo, because they help you resolve to the underlying chords, giving your musical statements more finality, more impact.

Squonk wrote: Norman

The easiest way to learn this is to learn the A minor barre chord shape. And then you start on the 5th fret playing the scale exactly like Warren has explained.

So you play the chord and the pattern without losing too much of the chord shape

+1 Squonks

That will help you to "see" how many notes in the chord are similar to the notes of the scale you're playing over it.

Warren wrote: It's your guitar neck, your fingerboard, held up vertically. The lines going down are your six strings. The lines going across are your frets.

Each circle is a fingertip, placed in that fret, to play that particular note. The number in the circle is a suggestion as to which finger to use (your left hand fingers are numbered from 1 to 4, from index finger to pinky).

So, to play the scale, you would start with finger 1 fretting the note at the third fret of your guitar, on the 6th string (the thickest string). The next note would be on the seventh fret, using your pinky.

You would then shift your hand to the 5th string, moving finger 1 to the third fret of the 5th string, and so on through the whole pattern.

It's like a chord diagram, only you're not going to hold down all the notes at once, but play them one at a time in order up (or down) the strings.

Does that help?

You get a +1! You sure went into a lot of detail, I understand tab but these diagrams were einsteinian scribblings.

That said, it's still not clear from your explanation whether these are chord fingerings or just one note at a time. ???

one note at a time ?

Norman86 wrote:

Tonedef wrote:
That said, it's still not clear from your explanation whether these are chord fingerings or just one note at a time. ???

If you can play that as a chord, I'll pay money to see it. ?

Stratisfear wrote: If you can play that as a chord, I'll pay money to see it. ?

ROLMAO!!!......... How much?? I may be tempted to try...... ? ?

Tonedef wrote:

You get a +1! You sure went into a lot of detail, I understand tab but these diagrams were einsteinian scribblings.

That said, it's still not clear from your explanation whether these are chord fingerings or just one note at a time. ???

Thanks ?

I'll quote myself here:

It's like a chord diagram, only you're not going to hold down all the notes at once, but play them one at a time in order up (or down) the strings.

So yeah, one note at a time.

Heh, that 6th fret is some crazy pinky barreing shit!

That was part of the confusion - I couldn't figure that out. Seeing as the stuff on say strings 5 and 6 or 1, 2 and 3 are perfectly doable if you try and chord it in different ways.

I take it "blues" is not really about chording, more about picking and nice clean sustained tones? (Yeah I know nothing ?)

Aubs1 wrote:

Stratisfear wrote: If you can play that as a chord, I'll pay money to see it. ?

ROLMAO!!!......... How much?? I may be tempted to try...... ? ?

DO IT.

Stratisfear wrote: If you can play that as a chord, I'll pay money to see it. ?

Are the people with 6 fingers excluded? And are you only allowed to use one hand? Or can you use your toes too? ?