The Pentatonic Scale, pt. II - scale fingering patters

 Last month was the first in a series of posts regarding the pentatonic scale and this month I'll continue by delving into fingering patterns. 

It may be a bold statement, but I would venture to say when most guitarists are first introduced to the pentatonic scale through the minor form. The minor pentatonic scale uses five scale tones which can be extracted from a major scale (see last month's post). As an example we will be using A minor pentatonic: A C D E G. 

                        A.                                                                            B.

The five notes of the scale are generally expanded over two octaves spread across the six strings (diagram A). Following "the one finger per fret rule" the fingering pattern of those notes are indicated in diagram B. Many students are introduced to the scale using only the fingering pattern, but students should understand that the finger patterns are not arbitrary! The fingering pattern is used because that's where the notes of the scale are! 

Click here to get a PDF copy of the minor pentatonic scale pattern complete with notation and tab.

Next month I'll explore simple licks students can use to start soloing.  

 

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!

Transcribe!

A number of years ago I was fortunate enough to attend a music workshop hosted by the renowned guitarist Jennifer Batten called "Self-Empowerment for the Modern Musician." It was a wonderful workshop where Jennifer discussed everything from building a personal brand to practical information on domestic and foreign touring.

It was during the workshop that Jennifer talked about the music software Transcribe! - the software that she herself uses to transcribe music. Transcribe! is an amazing powerful tool that can help you with your teaching; not only for transcribing songs but even slowing them down without changing pitch so that students can play along with faster songs or passages. If you are interested in Transcribe! check out Jennifer Batten's tutorial.

You can purchase Transcribe! at a cost of $39 for either Windows, Mac or Linux. Happy transcribing!