Lesson 10: Pentatonic Scales

Lesson 10: Pentatonic Scales - Part 2

Lesson Contents:

All 5 Patterns for the Minor Pentatonic Scale
Some Interesting Observations and Things Worth Mentioning

Now let's look at the 5 patterns for the A minor pentatonic scale . These patterns should be memorized as every great guitarist uses them extensively. I already presented the first pattern in the previous lesson, but I will include it here again so you can see all of the 5 patterns together.

Some things worth mentioning:

All of the root notes (the "A" notes) are colored in purple while all of the other notes are colored in blue.
The fingerings here are only recommendations, but they are very good recommendations. As you can play a multitude of licks using these patterns, your fingerings will change from the ones that are shown here. These fingerings are particularly good for running these scales up and down while practicing.
Each pattern has 2 notes per string.
If you look at each pattern you can see how they connect to each other. Each 2nd note on any string of any particular pattern is the first note of the next adjacent pattern. For instance, in pattern 5, all the notes played with the 4th finger are the same notes as all the notes played with the first finger in pattern 1.
David Gilmour has made millions of dollars playing these 5 patterns over the past 30 odd years or so.
So has Jimmy Page.
The last 2 previous bullet points should provide enough incentive to practice these scales until you turn blue in the face or until "you have blisters on your fingers."

Minor Pentatonic Analysis:

Now... I would be remiss if I did not show how each of these patterns function in the context of a minor pentatonic scale. With time, you should be able to know, and more importantly, hear these intervals relative to the root - in this case, relative to an A. Check it out:

Congratulations, if you've made it this far then you've finished all of the beginning guitar lessons. Proceed to the Intermediate Lessons main menu page.