Intro to Pentatonics ]|[ HighlyRefined.net

Introduction to the Pentatonic Scale

Hands down the most common first step in any Blues, Rock, Metal, or Jazz player's musical education is to learn the pentatonic scale. Of course, for most people, this means learning eleven notes in one zone and forgetting about the rest, where they came from, what context they fit in, and what good they are to any musician. This introduction to pentatonic scales will try to do it all, and fill in the gaps.

[ part I :: part II :: part III :: get the tab ]

Part I - What is it?

The pentatonic scale is a scale of five tones, "penta" being the Greek prefix denoting "five," and "tonic"...honestly folks you can figure that part out. The minor pentatonic scale is derived from the natural minor scale (Don't know what that is? Check out the lesson on that topic). If you take the natural minor scale and chop out the second and sixth scale degrees you are left with minor pentatonic. The major pentatonic scale is simply an inversion, or shift, in the minor pentatonic scale, beginning a minor third above the minor pentatonic. That is to say if you were to start the minor pentatonic scale on its second note, you'd be playing the major version. If this notion makes you uneasy, check out the lesson on modes.

To make things real simple, I'll start you off in the key of A minor (a schooled musician would hit me for capitalizing the "A." Normally a minor key or chord is denoted with a lower-case letter: a minor. I capitalized for clarity's sake). Below is the "zone 1" A minor pentatonic scale, starting on the 5th fret of the low E string. Remember that name (zone 1), as it will come in handy later.

 The A minor pentatonic scale
 3/4 time
|-------------|---------5-8-|-8-5---------|-------------|
|-------------|-----5-8-----|-----8-5-----|-------------|
|-------------|-5-7---------|---------7-5-|-------------|
|---------5-7-|-------------|-------------|-7-5---------|
|-----5-7-----|-------------|-------------|-----7-5-----|
|-5-8---------|-------------|-------------|---------8-5-|

If you play through this you will probably notice that it has a distinctly jazzy or bluesy feel to it. This scale is the foundation for much of blues and rock guitar soloing and improvisation, and as such it should be no surprise that you hear a particular flavor in this simple scale.

The major pentatonic scale isn't really a different scale. While the human ear definitely hears a distinction, the two scales differ only by starting note. If you played a minor pentatonic scale but your audience didn't hear the first note, they would perceive it as a major pentatonic scale. That said, I give you the major pentatonic scale.

 The A major pentatonic scale
|-------------|---------5-7-|-7-5---------|--------------|
|-------------|-----5-7-----|-----7-5-----|--------------|
|-------------|-4-6---------|---------6-4-|--------------|
|---------4-7-|-------------|-------------|-7-4----------|
|-----4-7-----|-------------|-------------|-----7-4------|
|-5-7---------|-------------|-------------|---------7-5--|

Perhaps the shift will be a little more clear if I present the scale in a different way. Because the major pentatonic scale is a one-note shift of the minor, you can also play it like this:

|-------------|-------2-5-7-|-7-5-2-------|--------------|
|-------------|---2-5-------|-------5-2---|--------------|
|-----------2-|-4-----------|-----------4-|-2------------|
|-------2-4---|-------------|-------------|---4-2--------|
|---2-4-------|-------------|-------------|-------4-2----|
|-5-----------|-------------|-------------|-----------5--|

The A minor pentatonic and A major pentatonic scales are not shifts of each other. As you can see, the second method of playing the major pentatonic scale is by using the minor shape and starting on the second note. You'll also see that this does not result in the same scale. No matter how they are played, A minor and A major pentatonic scales will never be each other's inversions. Why? Because both the A minor and A major pentatonic scales must start on A. Thus the shift I am referring to is between the relative major and minor in any key. If this doesn't make sense, try playing the A minor pentatonic scale, then the C major pentatonic scale using the second method. Notice that both scales do, in fact, contain the exact same set of notes, but in different orders. Feel free to read up on relative keys in the related lesson.

[ part I :: part II :: part III :: get the tab ]

Part II - The whole shebang

Great. So now you can play the A minor pentatonic scale. Woohoo. What if you want to play D minor? Or what if you want to play A minor pentatonic but your hand is up at the 15th fret? Having two octaves range certainly won't do much for your musicality or your creative ability. Let's answer these questions one at a time.

First, the issue of moving between keys. This one's easy. Simply start the scale on whatever note you want the key to be. For example, if you wanted to play D minor pentatonic, you would start your zone 1 pentatonic box on the 10th fret on the low E (i.e., the first D on the low E string). Voila! I give you D minor pentatonic. If you don't want to have to start your pentatonic runs and licks on the root note (the first note in the scale, or the note corresponding to the key you're in), then you have a different problem to face. What you need to do is memorize the entire shape of the scale, where all the notes fit into place, and their relative distances from each other. With that under your belt you can jump into the scale at any point that is convenient.

The other problem, i.e. that of only having three frets worth of your neck covered, is a slightly trickier problem to solve. That said, it's still really easy. Remember way back up in Part I I mentioned that what you were looking at was the zone 1 pentatonic box? As it turns out there are five zones for the pentatonic scale. What that means is simply that there are five different patterns or shapes that you can use in succession as you move up or down the neck before you start repeating previous patterns. This may seem a little confusing at first, but hang in there. It will make sense.

There are a number of ways to figure out what the five zones are. All of them involve extrapolating from zone 1. The pentatonic scale is just a set of intervals from one note to the next. Thus you can play it in two directions: across the neck (from string to string) or up and down the neck (along one string). Obviously that means you can also play it using any combination of the two. You can figure out the five zones by either mapping out one octave of pentatonic scale on each string (the hard way) or by working your way across the neck from each note in the scale on the low E string. This is what that looks like:

Zone 1
|---------------------5-8-|
|-----------------5-8-----|
|-------------5-7---------|
|---------5-7-------------|
|-----5-7-----------------|
|-5-8---------------------|

Zone 2
|-------------------------8-10-|
|--------------------8-10------|
|----------------7-9-----------|
|-----------7-10---------------|
|------7-10--------------------|
|-8-10-------------------------|

Zone 3
|------------------------------10-12--|
|------------------------10-13--------|
|-------------------9-12--------------|
|-------------10-12-------------------|
|-------10-12-------------------------|
|-10-12-------------------------------|


Zone 4
|-------------------------------12-15-|
|-------------------------13-15-------|
|-------------------12-14-------------|
|-------------12-14-------------------|
|-------12-15-------------------------|
|-12-15-------------------------------|

Zone 5
|-------------------------------15-17-|
|-------------------------15-17-------|
|-------------------14-17-------------|
|-------------14-17-------------------|
|-------15-17-------------------------|
|-15-17-------------------------------|


Zone 1 (repeat)
|-------------------------------17-20--|
|-------------------------17-20--------|
|-------------------17-19--------------|
|-------------17-19--------------------|
|-------17-19--------------------------|
|-17-20--------------------------------|

Hopefully this makes a bit more sense now. As you can see, the last figure, a repetition of the zone 1 shape, is one octave above the original zone 1 box. Once you have learned and memorized all five zones (don't worry, it sounds alot worse than it is), you will be able to play the pentatonic scale in any key and at any point on your fretboard. To change keys just change the starting note of zone 1. Then simply learn to see how that shifts the rest of the patterns up or down your neck, and practice jumping in at points that aren't the first or last notes of the five zones. It will take some time, but believe me, this is extremely worth it.

[ part I :: part II :: part III :: get the tab ]

Part III - Making it all work together

This is where the beginner is left behind and you get a taste of what is to come. The pentatonic scale is useless as five zone-encapsulated runs. Nobody wants to hear one more guy whiz up and down one zone until he carefully segues his run into a different zone. The audience isn't supposed to hear zones, or patterns, or a scale at all. They want to hear music. If you aren't totally comfortable with this scale it will show in your playing. So, how do we remedy that? More mechanical exercises! Alrighty then...

The big goal that you want to work towards is being able to shift seamlessly between any element of the pentatonic scale, anywhere on the fretboard. To do that I've offered you two of the scores of exercises that have been dreamt up by guitarists, past and present, that are designed to get you moving between zones like venereal diseases around a college campus. That is to say fast, and with total easy and fluidity. The first one is often used in some truncated form in solos. Zakk Wylde (god bless the Viking), for example, uses this frequently in solos. Mix this one up by changing the pattern, alternating the way you ascend or descend through the patterns, or by putting yourself through the paces on different strings.

Linking exercise 1
 4/4 time
|-----5-8------8-10-------10-12-------12-15-|
|-5-8-----8-10------10-13-------13-15-------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|


|-------15-17-------17-20-20-17-------17-15----------|
|-15-17-------17-20-------------20-17-------17-15----|
|----------------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------|


|-15-12-------12-10-------10-8------8-5-----|
|-------15-13-------13-10------10-8-----8-5-|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|


|-5-------------------------------|---|
|---8-5---8-5-----5---------------|---|
|-------7-----7-5---7-5---7-5-----|---|
|-----------------------7-----7-5-|-7-|
|---------------------------------|---|
|---------------------------------|---|

This next exercise can be varied in all sorts of ways. As presented it is rather limited, but with some inginuity I'm sure you can rearrange it in a multitude of ways that will have you fret-hopping in no time.Again, just use this idea (in this case the three-note-per-string idea) to dream up whatever evil and sadistic drills you can. Spending some good time fooling around in Chop Shop is definitely a must.

Linking exercise 2
 4/4 time
|-------------------------------------15-17S|
|----------------------------13-15S17-------|
|--------------------9-12S14----------------|
|------------7-10S12------------------------|
|-----5-7S10--------------------------------|
|-5-8---------------------------------------|


|-20-17-----------------------------------------|---|
|-------20-17S15--------------------------------|---|
|----------------17-14S12-----------------------|---|
|-------------------------14-12S10--------------|---|
|----------------------------------12-10S7------|---|
|------------------------------------------10-8S|=5-|

So that's should be enough to get you on your merry little way. Get these down and then come back for more. As far as material is concerned, you haven't even hit the tip of the iceberg yet. For more in the same vein check out the lessons page. Now go pick up that guitar and get to work!

[ part I :: part II :: part III :: get the tab ]