Guitar Scales: Major Pentatonic

So we’ve covered the major scale, and why it’s so important for being in key. The one main problem with the major scale is: there are 7 notes. That means 7 notes to choose from in a solo, but also 7 possible notes that could be mistakes! What they should do is: take out all the possible “wrong” notes, and leave us with just the interesting “right” notes. Well…guess what? That’s exactly what happened, and they called it: the major pentatonic scale!

What is the Major Pentatonic Scale?

The word “pentatonic” is from the Greek, and it means: five (penta-) notes (-tonic). So, the major pentatonic scale is only five notes taken from the major scale. It’s like a stripped down version of it’s bigger brother with most of the possible “wrong notes” removed- leaving only the ones you’re likely to want anyway!

Stripping Down the Major Scale

To construct the major pentatonic, we take the major scale (this example is in C):

C D E F G A B

And take out some of the “avoid” notes- the 4th, and the 7th (which are the most likely to clash with whatever we’re playing over). This leaves us with only the: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th notes.

In C this would be:

C D E G A

Which is the perfect guitar scale to solo over a C major chord progression or backing track!

Here it is on the guitar neck:


e -------------------------
B -------------------------
G --------------2--5-------
D --------2--5-------------
A --3--5-------------------
E -------------------------


As with any scale, this one exists all over the neck, and you’ll probably more often use this shape:


e --------------------------------8--10
B --------------------------8--10-------
G --------------------7--9-------------
D --------------7--10-------------------
A --------7--10-------------------------
E --8--10-------------------------------


What’s Good about the Major Pentatonic Scale?

• It’s easy to solo with in a major key
• Add a ♭3 (between the 2nd and 3rd notes) for a blues/country feel
• Bend the 2nd note up for a country style bend

Next week, we’ll be looking at the Major Pentatonic’s evil twin: the Minor Pentatonic.

Until then, don’t forget to subscribe!
Rob.

February 1, 2011 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Scales, How to | 1 comment

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