Your explanation above goes some distance for someone brought up on the 7 notes scale and the 5 notes scale is still a big problem for someone like me. So are G and Em, A and F#m, D and Bm, F and Dm, etc. https://www.guitarmusictheory.com/contact/. It’s best to email me directly or use my contact form. The first scale most guitarists learn is the minor pentatonic scale. If you were playing the C minor pentatonic you would play the notes C, Eb, F, G, Bb. Let’s say you’re doing a solo over a blues in A. Learning the major pentatonic scale is easy once you've learned the minor pentatonic scale - the two scales share all the same notes! Likewise, when you use G major pentatonic, the G … from the minor pentatonic over a minor key will always be pleasing to the ear. I just started going through the Fretboard Theory book and I’m enjoying it quite a bit. It’s the C major/A minor pentatonic scale, which consists of the notes C-D-E-G-A or A-C-D-E-G depending on whether you start on C or A. The Major pentatonic scale does not have any clashing notes. Joel Haaland. I have never gained so much ground with such little effort. As you can tell from the name, a pentatonic scale consists of When C is the tonic, then the other scale notes are major intervals in relation to C. Specifically they are root, 2nd, major 3rd, 5th, major 6th. I hope this situation does not turn out to be a frequent issue. First question: I use the minor pentatonic scale for some time now. In the first diagram, you see where the C note and C chord tones are located in the pattern. The first is to take a song in either C Major or A Minor and use both the C Major Pentatonic and A minor Pentatonic to solo over the song. But the interval structure around the root is what makes it major or minor. Note that the root notes would be either A or C, depending on whether you’re playing in a song in the key of C Major or A Minor. It takes practice to make it work, as you may hit some clashing notes depending on the chord you’re playing over, but this can really open up your creative options, as you’d now have the notes from A Minor Pentatonic: In practice, I tend to only use Major Pentatonic for the occasional bit of extra colour rather than considering it a go to scale for every solo, but used in the right way it can really bring an extra dimension to your solos and melodies that really take it to the next level. If you’re familiar with relative minors and majors, the major pentatonic scale is just a relative minor pentatonic scale. My understanding is that, it boils down to what interval sequence you take to resolve back to whatever the root note is for the key your currently playing in. The answer is that the pentatonic scale is either major or minor depending on which note is functioning as the tonic, which means primary pitch (called root when dealing with a chord). C Major Pentatonic and A Minor Pentatonic are relative scales - the same thing played in a different context. For more info on Minor Pentatonic, check out: The only 3 scales you absolutely need to master on the guitar (hint: Minor Pentatonic is one of the 3, and Major Pentatonic is not, but I’ll explain why that is shortly), Easy Minor Pentatonic Guitar Solos to Learn, Challenging Minor Pentatonic Guitar Solos to Learn. Now see a shape for the A minor pentatonic scale: They both start on the 5th fret, the A, so all I have to do, is start on the C (8th fret) as opposed to the A (5th fret), and I’ll have C major pentatonic? This leaves us with the notes G A B D E. The only difference between E minor and G major pentatonic is which note functions as the tonic (or tonal center) of the scale. Both are shown below: There are major and minor pentatonic scales … I’m self taught and can only play by ear. The tonalities are called “relative major” and “relative minor”. The minor pentatonic scale sounds great over songs in a minor key. Playing A minor pentatonic over an Am chord or progression that centers on Am will sound like A minor no matter where you start, even on C. Likewise, playing the same notes over a C chord or progression that centers on C will produce a C major sound even if you start on A. If you were playing the C minor pentatonic you would play the notes C, Eb, F, G, Bb. Many times though, a song in a major key can have soloing from both the. Note: The major pentatonic scale uses the exact same pattern as the minor pentatonic scale, it simply starts on the second note of the pattern. Or will that result in Cm pentatonic? Shouldn’t A major go with A minor pentatonic? C minor pentatonic is played by placing your first finger on C at the 8th fret of the 6th string and then playing the first pentatonic pattern. It’s arguably a little harder to play than the minor pentatonic scale, but not by much. I bought this course but didn’t get around to watching any of the videos for a few months. The primary note in the scale is determined by the primary pitch of the music you play over, not what you call the scale or think of it as being. For every minor key, there is a relative major. The notes in a G major scale are G A B C D E F#. Yes, you’re correct that the pentatonic scale pattern that starts at the 5th fret, usually called pattern one, is both A minor and C major. See my DVD, Getting Started with the Pentatonic Scale and/or my book, Fretboard Theory. You would play the A Minor Pentatonic Scale at times, then move to A Major pentatonic at other times to mix it up. Now its time to use the mayor and minor pentatonic scale, but when I use a mayor pentatonic over a minor blues progression it does not sound right (when I use minor pentatonic over mayor blues, it sounds good). 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