Mastering And Understanding Minor Pentatonic and Blues Scales

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Mastering And Understanding Minor Pentatonic and Blues Scales

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In this article we are going to provide you guidance about our first scale, the Minor Pentatonic scale. Pentatonic is a remarkable scale to learn, specially for guitar. It is normally the 1st scale. It is pretty simple, and it works very well over simple chord progressions, and is a great place to start practicing improvisation for soloing.

The fundamental information about the Minor Pentatonic Scale

Pentatonic scale has 5 notes (hence the Penta- in its name). This is the 1st scale. It is very absorbing because most scales you will learn in the future have 7 notes in them. It has only 2 notes on every string and this forms the pentatonic scale more simplified to play. The Pentatonic scale includes both major and minor - we will focus on the Minor Pentatonic musical scale in this lesson.

In the scales introduction any scale can be described by a plain numeric formula, and the pentatonic scale can also be portrayed in the same way.

Its formula is: 3 2 2 3 2

Lets see how this acts in an exemplar, e.g. G Minor Pentatonic.

We start with G as our base note, and add every step of the pattern to get the next note:

G + 3 semitones is Bb
Bb + 2 semitones is C
C + 2 semitones is D
D + 3 semitones is F
F + 2 semitones is G

Thus there you get G minor pentatonic notes that are G, Bb, C, D, F, G. This formula can be implemented with any other root note for the exact scale entirely depending upon your choice.

Furthermore, you can move these patterns up and down the neck. For example, if you want a minor Pentatonic, then you work it out as follows:

The root note A is 2 semitones up from G, so simply move each of these formulas up 2 frets and voila, you will get rules for A minor pentatonic.

Also, the patterns repeat up the neck after the 1st five - therefore if you want to climb up higher, start once again with the 1st rule played with the G root note played on the 15th fret instead of the 3rd fret.

The Blues Scale

Another scale, very closely related to the minor pentatonic scale is the blues scale which is used in blues. An attitional leading note to the pentatonic scale is commonly added by the blues players which is technically known as a flattened 5th - that means an additional note in between notes 3 and 4 of the pentatonic scale. When this note is added to the minor pentatonic scale you acquire the blues scale.
The formula changes when you add that extra note to it and it becomes like this: 3 2 1 1 3 2, and our example G minor Pentatonic becomes G, Bb, C, Db, D, F, G when rewritten as the blues scale.

The Minor Pentatonic Scale in Action

Now we are going to talk about that how to play the Minor Pentatonic and the Blues scale. Both the Pentatonic and the Blues scales are suitable for playing Rock and 12 bar blues with. Lets focus on 12 bar blues - a very pretty simple concept that is considered as a source of some awesome music over the years.

The chords you apply are a type of I, IV, V progression - what that means isn't actually critical at this point, but the chords you would apply with a G minor or Pentatonic musical scale would be as follows:

G - G - G - G - C - C - G - G - D - C - G - D
This chord sequence enables you to play sequences of notes from any of the pentatonic boxes and you will acquire a bluesy kind of improvisation going.
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