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. 

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!