|
In this weeks lesson, we’ll have a look at a very common rock and roll scale. You’ve probably heard the Pentatonic minor scale countless times and never really realized it. It’s a very basic, yet highly useful scale. Players from Zakk Wylde to EVH have used a pentatonic scale in their playing from time to time. It’s has more of a rock and roll sound in that it’s not too dissonant. It’s got a gritty type sound, close to what I’d call a bluesy feel to it. But it differs from a blues scale in that there is no flatted 5th.
To figure out the notes in a pentatonic scale, we first need to know the major scale of the note. Let’s use A for example.
A B C# D E F# G# A
Now to get the Pentatonic minor, we need 5 notes of that. To construct a Pentatonic minor scale, you need the root note, the b3, the 4th, the 5th, and the b7 scale degrees. In this case we’ll be looking at A C D E and G.
To show you the full scale, I’ve drawn the notes out over the neck. The top model has the note names while the bottom is the fret number of that same note. I find it’s easier to remember if you can relate one to the other, either the note to the fret or the fret to the note. Instead of just trying to remember. By doing it that way, you put it into practice and make it applicable to what you’re doing. That will help you to learn a bit easier because now you’re looking at it from a musical standpoint. Not just a “I need to remember this” mindset.
|-E-----G-A---C---D-E-
|---C---D-E---G---A---
|-G---A---C-D---E---G-
|-D---E---G-A-----C-D-
|-A-----C-D-E-----G-A-
|-E-----G-A---C---D-E-
0 3 5 7 9 12
|-0-----3-5---8---10-12-------15-17----20----22-24-
|---1---3-5---8---10----13----15-17----20----22----
|-0---2---5-7---9----12----14----17-19----21----24-
|-0---2---5-7-----10-12----14----17-19-------22-24-
|-0-----3-5-7-----10-12-------15-17-19-------22-24-
|-0-----3-5---8---10-12-------15-17----20----22-24-
Now that we have the scale and how it’s laid out, we can look at what all you can do with it.
One obvious thing we can do would be to use the Am chord as a bit of a jumping off point. Here’s a little bit I’ve been working on. It all falls within this pentatonic scale.
|-------------10pb12r10-------8-----------------
|-5---------------------13p10---13p10-----------
|-5---------5~------------------------12-12/14~-
|-7---------7~----------------------------------
|-------3-5-0~----------------------------------
|---3-5-----------------------------------------
That bit is something I pieced together rather quickly one day. It’s just an example of what you can do with this scale.
The following examples are more of a display of what you can do with a pentatonic scale. I’ve included a few technical exercises as well as some warm ups.
This next example is a little exercise I put together. It’s a warm up for me, but it also showcases how you can move this scale around on the neck.
|-8-5-----10-8------15-12----------------------------------------|
|-----8-5------10-8-------15-13-------17-15----------------------|
|-------------------------------14-12-------12-14----------------|
|-------------------------------------------------12-10----------|
|-------------------------------------------------------7-10-----|
|------------------------------------------------------------8-5-|
This one can be alternate picked as well if you want to do it that way. If you are so inclined, you could add hammer ons and pull offs to this as well for a different angle on it.
For those of you who sweep pick, here’s a little run for you. I’m not the best sweep picker at all, so it’s pretty basic.
|-15p12----------------------------17-|
|-------13----------------------15----|
|----------14----------------17-------|
|-------------10----------14----------|
|----------------12----12-------------|
|-------------------15----------------|
Here’s a little tapping exercise as well.
T T T T T T
|-17p12p8h12-17p12p8h12-15p12p8h12-15p12p8h12-------------------------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------
|---------------------------------------------19p14p12h12-19p14p12h14-
|---------------------------------------------------------------------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------
Am C Dsus4
T T
|-------------------------
|-------------------------
|-------------------------
|-------------------------
|-17p12p10h12-17p12p10h12-
|-------------------------
Gsus2
And last, here’s another warm up exercise. It mainly is just a run of the scale, but covering all strings.
|-20-15----------------------12------------------
|-------13-17-------------20----15---3-----------
|-------------19-14------------------------------
|-------------------12-17----------7---0h2-------
|------------------------------------------3-----
|--------------------------------------------3h5-
You can see how you can apply different techniques to just the 5 notes in this scale for a slightly different spin. It doesn’t always have to sound rock and roll. Pentatonics get a rather simple usage, just basically for riffs and some soloing, but they can be used in other techniques as well. A scale doesn’t have to be complex in order to be useful. Sometimes a simple scale is all that’s needed for a song. Those examples were just an idea for you. There is a wealth of music that can be created with just those 5 notes.
One last thing I want to mention to you all. This method of remembering and figuring out scales is probably not for everyone, but what I did with scales and chords was to learn all of say the A scales and then transpose them up or down as the case may be. So let's look at say C pentatonic minor. C is a step and a half above A, so all we need to do to get the notes of C is shift the notes of the A pentatonic minor up one and a half steps. So we would have C Eb F G Bb. I don't know if that would help any of you out there, but for me it worked great because I didn't just remember notes. I understood where they came from. Just something I wanted to add.
|