Pentatonics – another breaktrough

[Daniel A]

I tend to be a visual learner so I make myself pictures.

This is where I last was with pentatonics (below). I figured out the intervals for major and minor, drew them, and then looked for patterns. What I didn’t have a handle on was how to diagram that up and down the fretboard and then link them together. I heard there were five pentatonic patterns, looked at them once via a internet search, groaned, and put it down.

Just watched The Ultimate Guide to the Pentatonic Scales – EP436. After about 30 minutes it was like playing slots in Reno and hitting a three cherry cluster. Not a jackpot but yet ringing bells the sound of coins dropping into the tray. Yeah, this is good. I see the connections plus the relationship to CAGED which I didn’t know before. Cha-Ching! This is gonna be fun as theory and playing fall into place.

[sunjamr]

Nicely displayed, Daniel. When I gaze at the neck of my guitar, in my mind’s eye I see the minor pentatonic scales spread out all up and down the neck at once like little diamonds, starting from the “ground floor”, as John Mayer puts it. The ground floor is the fret where your 1st position begins, which looks like the 5th fret, in your example. I don’t need to learn the major pentatonic scales, because I just move the ground floor down 3 frets.

Try this simple test: Put on a 12-bar jamtrack in A, and noodle some improv through one cycle in 1st postion. Then without looking at your guitar, move up to the 4th position and play some improv there for another cycle. Now without looking, move down to the 2nd position for the next cycle. Everyone should strive to be able to do this.

Sunjamr Steve

[Laurel C]

Hi Daniel, if you are a visual learner these pages attached will also help you along. Cheers.

[charjo]

Laurel,
Those are fantastic diagrams for a really firm foundation of fretboard knowledge. They show the other common way to number major and minor patterns based on where they share root notes. This is not the system Brian uses which numbers patterns according to shape. I would add another page showing the minor chord that can be made in each of the 5 positions. Some are not finger friendly but they can help you visualize the pattern shape around the roots and, ultimately, mix major and minor in all the positions.
John

[Michael L]

Just noting that for me, everything started falling into place when I learned to map the root notes up and down the neck. That gave me a foundation – in any key- to then connect chord shapes, major scale, major and minor pentatonic scale, etc. Just the way my brain works.

[Laurel C]

Thanks John, I’m on to it.

[Author]

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