Most guitarists know the scale shapes of the minor pentatonic scale, but if you don’t, it’s a good starting point for learning scales.
With this lesson, I’m going to show you the five scale shapes of the minor pentatonic scale, and how to play them in any key.
Practising and learning scales in different keys is an essential part of any practise routine, and also learning all the note names in each scale is something I think is essential as well.
I’m going to show you the scales in the key of A, then explain how to play them in any key and what the notes of the scales are.
The minor pentatonic scale is a five note scale and looks like this in the key of A:
Position 1
Position 2
Position 3
- Position 3
The notes of the scales are above each of the guitar tabs, therefore to find the root notes in these examples since we are in the key of A, look for the A note.
In position one you can notice that there are three A notes:
- Fifth fret low E string
- Seventh fret D string
- Fifth fret high E string
Position two there are two root notes:
- Seventh fret D string
- Tenth fret B string
Position three there are two root notes:
- Twelfth fret A string
- Fourteenth fret G sring
Position five there are three root notes:
- Seventeenth fret low E string
- Fourteenth fret G sting
- Seventeenth fret high E string
Now to play these scale shapes in any key, find your root notes, and work out what scale shape you can use for each of the root notes.
As you can see from the key in the example, some of the root notes are shared in each position, so you can decide if you want to go left of the root note, or right of the root note with the appropriate scale.
To play the minor pentatonic scale in the key of E, find an E note on the fret board and work out which scale shape fits it. If you don’t know your notes yet, have a look at the post Learning the notes of the fretboard to find a fret board diagram you can print out and use as reference.
But for E if you don’t know your notes and since you tune your high E string to the fifth fret of the B string, the fifth fret of the B string must be an E.
To find what scale shape fits the root note on the B string, look at the key of A example. You can see that the second position has a root note on the B string and so does the third position.
If I was to play a scale to the right of the root note on the B string I would use the third position, and if you were going left, it would be the second position.
Just keep the scale shapes relative to the root notes. I hope this is clear and easy for everyone to understand.
Related posts
- Joe Satriani - Guitar Tips
- The D Major Scale
- Learning the notes of the fretboard
- The Rest of the Major Scales
- More barre chords
Guitar scales minor pentatonic…
Most people know how to play this scale, but if you dont, it’s an essential scale to learn….
Learn the Minor Pentatonic scale…
To learn more advanced guitar techniques, you need to know your scales, and the minor pentatonic scale is a good scale to learn first….
Learn the Minor Pentatonic scale…
This is the first post about scales. Learn the minor pentatonic scale first, before trying more advanced scales….
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Learn the Minor Pentatonic scale…
This is the first post about scales. Learn the minor pentatonic scale first, before trying more advanced scales….
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Learn the Minor Pentatonic scale…
This is the first post about scales. Learn the minor pentatonic scale first, before trying more advanced scales….
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Thanks for the comment. Learn guitar techniques will indeed cover tapping, and sweep picking in coming posts. But at the moment Im trying to lay the foundation of learning guitar techniques covering scales. But thanks for enjoying learn guitar techniques.
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