The Pentatonic Scale, pt.I
For many guitarists learning how to solo is a benchmark of their playing level and for others a scary proposition! When most guitarists begin learning to solo they utilize a pentatonic scale. A pentatonic scale is a five (penta) tone (tonic) scale of which there are two types - major and minor. I would venture to say the vast majority of guitarists use a minor pentatonic scale as it often employed by blues and rock guitarists to great extent.
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A minor pentatonic scale can be extracted from it's parallel major scale using a simple number scheme: 1 b3 4 5 b7. For our current purposes we'll relate it back to an A major scale.
A Major: A B C# D E F# G# A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
A Minor Pentatonic A C D E G A
1 b3 4 5 b7 8
So in order to "create" an A minor pentatonic scale (A C D E G A) the number scheme is applied. The 1st, 4th and 5th notes remain the same (as well as the 8th/octave) - while the 3rd and 7th notes are flatted (b3, b7) from the original sharps - C# becomes C natural and G# becomes G natural.
Next month we'll talk about common fingering patterns that are used for these scales!
