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The minor pentatonic scale, the
most popular scale used for lead guitar in
rock and blues music is dark and bluesy.
There are many different ways to look at
the minor pentatonic scale like all
the other scales. Okay, just start to
look at how it is called. Minor
Pentatonic Scale => Minor and penta and
tonic. Let's analyze these 3 words.
What do you think?
Minor: The scale should sound minor
and also we know from the
An
Introduction to Guitar Pentatonic Scales
article that it is derived from the
natural minor scale. Penta means five
and tonic represents the notes in the
scale. Then we can say that the minor
pentatonic scale is a part of the minor
scale and has just five notes.
Here comes the question: Which part
of the minor scale and why?
The five notes of the minor
pentatonic scale are the first, third,
fourth, fifth, and seventh notes of the
natural minor scale. Or we can just say
we left out the second and sixth notes
of the natural minor scale. By skipping
these two notes the scale has a more
primal character and still keeps the
properties which makes a scale minor.
The scale has no half steps so that the
scale is more suitable for an aggressive
sound. And it is easier to play and
remember five notes than seven notes on
the fretboard.
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The second and
sixth notes of the minor scale marked red. If
you play the minor scale just skipping these two notes
what you play is exactly the minor pentatonic
scale. Minor
pentatonic scale formula:
1
b3 4
5 b7 |
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G A Bb
C D Eb
F G
G minor scale |
=>
A and Eb
skipped (2nd, 6th) |
G Bb C D F
G
G minor pentatonic scale
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Because G minor is the
relative minor of Bb major these two keys
must consist of the same notes. The difference is
the root note, in other words, the tonic. This
also must be the same for C major and A minor and so
on.
Let's take a look:
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You can easily see that A minor
pentatonic scale and C major pentatonic scale
have the same notes. Because they are relative
minor and relative major of eachothers.
According to this information we can sure say
that they have exactly the same scale boxes and
scale patterns on the fretboard. We discuss
this subject in scale box patterns lessons. |
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| A
minor pentatonic scale A C
D E G |
|
C
major pentatonic scale C D
E G A |
If you are playing a major pentatonic scale and
know the relative minor of this major key, you can
also play the relative minor pentatonic scale of
this major scale just changing the root note or vice
versa.
Is it confusing? Okay, please take a look the
images above C Major pentatonic scale and A minor
pentatonic scale. They both have exactly the
same notes. Then what makes them different.
The difference is intervals in the scales and the
key notes of course. If you know one, it means you
also know the other. But the minor pentatonic scale
sounds bluesy and dark while the major one sounds
happy and bright. Because the minor pentatonic scale
contains b3 and b7 intervals which makes the scale
blue. |
