Know Your Pentatonic Scales

Many people learning guitar seem to give up hope because they want to play great leads, or improvise killer solos, but the scales they learn sound so mechanical and, whether they play them ascending, descending, or start in the middle like every good tutorial tells them to,  they just can’t come up with something creative. The one thing that holds them back is not learning the pentatonic scales.

Below is the C major pentatonic in the box 1 position. As you’ll learn, there are 5 box positions to each major and minor scale.

A pentatonic is just that, 5 of the 7 notes of the scale. I know what you’re thinking…”aren’t there 8 notes?” Well, yes, for the most part, but the 8th note is an octave of the first note, so there are technically 7 notes, and the 4th and 7th notes of each scale are omitted. If you were to play the C major scale twice across the fretboard, leaving out the 4th and 7th notes, or the B and the F, the above image is what you’d end up with. This is also considered the Ionian scale in modal terms. You can learn more about modes in Guitar a la Modes.

Knowing one box position of the pentatonic scale will not make you a professional. You’ll need to learn the other four. Below is box 2 of the C major pentatonic, or the Dorian mode. Notice that it builds off of the bottom of box 1.

Also take note that the bottom of this box is on the 12th fret. This means box 3, or the Phrygian mode, can be played on the 12th fret, or at the top of the fretboard with the open strings. For our purposes so we can connect the pentatonic boxes into one solid coverage of the fretboard, we are going to start at the top, as shown below.

The 4th box, the Mixolydian mode,  starts out on the G note of the low E, which is on the 3rd and 15th frets. Here, we show it on the 3rd fret.

The 5th box is interesting. It’s not only the 5th box of the C major scale, but it’s also the first box of the A minor scale, which is the natural minor of the C major scale; also call the Aeolian mode.

The 5th box brings us back to box 1. This completes the entire pentatonic structure of the C major/A minor scale. As shown below, you can see how they all connect together to form the scale across the entire fretboard. Notice we left out the Lydian mode and the Locrian mode. Because we’re omitting the B and the F from the pentatonic scales, we’re also omitting these two modes as well as the form the B and F scales of the C scale.

A good way to learn these is to find backing tracks to play against. A rule of thumb, typically the first chord or two designates what key the song is in. With that in mind, all you need to do is find that note on the low E, then adjust your box structure to suit the song. For instance, if the song is in the key of A, then you want to start with box 1 on the 5th fret of the low E, or the A note. Or, if your song is in the key of D minor, then you want to use the 1st box of the D minor pentatonic, which would be the 5th box of the F major. Move your hands up and down the fret board using all the box positions. Where there’s one fret between two notes, use that as an opportunity to practice string bending or using hammer-ons and pull-offs. Where two notes on adjacent strings are close together, use that as an opportunity to form chords. Practice sliding up and down the strings, especially when there’s two frets between notes. Don’t forget to throw in some vibrato at the end of phrases to add color to your solos. Before long, your boring, non-motivational scales will become the backbone of your improvisation.

If you find yourself playing each box and not being able to go up and down the neck of the guitar like you see the pros doing, consider “position shifts”. Below is the C major pentatonic scale with position shifts.

Notice how this starts out on the C note on the third fret of the A string; which is part of box 4. It goes from C to D, then slides up to the E on the seventh fret; which is part of box 5. If you follow the entire structure, you can see the path and how you can turn dull, ordinary scales into bits and pieces of solos.

Want a way to learn how to practice all five pentatonic boxes?  Here’s an excellent way.  Keep in mind that this can be transposed into any key, but, for our example, we will be using the G major/E minor pentatonic boxes.  To keep this as a fluid scale, I’ve added some slides at the tops and bottoms of  adjacent boxes.

A good way to extend this practice is to start over on the 12th fret and repeat the pattern as far as you can go.  This will familiarize you with the entire neck of the guitar.

If you’d like to learn more about pentatonic scales, Griff Hamlin of Blues Guitar Unleashed has an excellent 3 minute video on combining boxes while playing called Blues Box 2. In the video, he explains pentatonic scales as well as how to play from one box to the other.

Simple 12 Bar Blues

Some people feel learning the guitar is difficult, especially to play the blues.  To many, their surprise is that it’s easier than they think.  The best way to start is to learn what’s called the twelve bar blues pattern.

Below is the tablature for a simple twelve bar blues pattern.  Although similar patterns can be played with one finger, this pattern gets your fingers stretching across the fretboard.

You can practice this as a simple, one-verse song, or play it several times as a longer song with a few verses.