Well, probably the most used Scale in improvising is the Pentatonic Scale. The Pentatonic Scale consists only of 5 Tones and it exists in a major and minor type. And in this exercise you become knowledgeable about the keytones on the fingerboard and which notes you can play in a solo without playing out of tone. And with the knowledge of these 5 patterns of the Minor-Pentatonic Scale, you can shift them up and down the fingerboard into any key!
Minor Pentatonic
It s the oldest scale and consist of five tones. That s why it s called Pentatonic (Penta is greek = five)
Basic knowledge: There are 12 whole-tones and semitones on the fingerboard, that means that these notes are repeated from the 13th fret.
(E.g. you have the keytone F on the 1st and 13th fret). The difference between these two notes is called an octave.
1. Notes on the fingerboard.
Fret 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Keytone e |--F--|--F#-|--G--|--G#-|--A--|--A#-|--B--|--C--|--C#-|--D--|--D#-|--E--|
B |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
G |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
D |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
A |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
E |--F--|--F#-|--G--|--G#-|--A--|--A#-|--B--|--C--|--C#-|--D--|--D#-|--E--|
Now you re ready to learn the five patterns of the Minor-Pentatonic Scale. Each pattern is moveable over the complete fingerboard.
E.g. In the keytone G the first pattern starts on the 3rd fret, in the keytone A it starts on the 5th fret, in keytone C on the 8th fret etc.
1. Pattern:
|-x-|---|---|-x-|---|
|-x-|---|---|-x-|---|
|-x-|---|-x-|---|---|
|-x-|---|-x-|---|---|
|-x-|---|-x-|---|---|
|-x-|---|---|-x-|---|
In the keytone A (from the 5th fret, because the keytone A is on the 5th fret) the first pattern looks like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
e |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|---|-x-|
B |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|---|-x-|
G |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|-x-|---|
D |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|-x-|---|
A |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|-x-|---|
E |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|---|-x-|
Practise: Play from the the high E-string to the low E-string and back. Use one finger for each fret.
e |----------------------5-8-|-8-5---------------------|
H |------------------5-8-----|-----8-5-----------------|
G |--------------5-7---------|---------7-5-------------|
D |----------5-7-------------|-------------7-5---------|
A |------5-7-----------------|-----------------7-5-----|
E |--5-8---------------------|---------------------8-5-|
If you want to move the pattern into another key, just use the tab above where you can see the keytones on the fingerboard.
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