Pentatonic scales and Mastering Your Solos

Although you are not a guitar player, I'm pretty sure you know at least one musical scale, and I also play the C major scale. The movie The Sound of Music made famous in "do-re-mi" song, which actually translates to a C major scale (for complete beginners, notes on a C-Dur is CDEFGAB). 

But if your goal is to be a rocking lead guitarist, is a kind of scale that you absolutely must know, and it is the pentatonic scale. Pentatonic scales are the basis for most rock and blues solos, and it is important that you know how to cook them. 

Simply put, pentatonic scales have a major difference compared to normal conditions: while normal scales have seven notes, pentatonic scales has only five (penta-word means "five"). Other than that, there is basically no difference. But how will I know which tones in the pentatonic scale? 

  

Let us take the C major scale. The notes for this would be C-D-E-F-G-A-B. If you take away the fourth note and the seventh note, would you be left with CDEGA. And it's really just how you make a major pentatonic scale: you take out the fourth and seventh notes of a larger scale! So if you ever have a song that uses a C chord, you play a solo on your guitar, but did not play F and B chords. The major pentatonic scale is a foundation of modern rock, and Jimi Hendrix is known to use the pentatonic major scale a lot. 

The pentatonic minor scale has also created a bit different. For a pentatonic minor scale, you obviously will require a smaller scale to begin with. Let us take a small scale example. Progression of notes because it would be ABCDEFG. For pentatonic minor, but would you have to take out of the second and sixth notes, leaving you with ACDEG. The pentatonic minor scale is widely used in various solo blues progressions. 

A final note: Have you noticed that the notes of C major pentatonic scale is the same for a minor pentatonic scale? It's a strange relationship with major and minor pentatonic scales. Basically, the notes of a major pentatonic scale for a given key is the same for a pentatonic minor key for a three-step down, but your root notes are different, of course. 

It may take a little practice for you to master major pentatonic and minor scales, but when you make them perfect you are actually on their way to a better understanding of the guitar solo on blues and rock. And one last comment: pentatonic scales have less notes, so they are easier to remember and play! So go ahead and play!