Lesson Tag: major pentatonic scale

“Double stops” are a great way to diversify your riffs and solos and make them beefier. You can also create miniature patterns, such as a “down-3, back-1” pattern that sound great and that can be started and ended at any place in the pattern.

Now we look at a second pattern for the pentatonic scale. You’ll probably find that this pattern is even easier to play than the first pattern. Each pattern lends itself to certain riffs and licks on the guitar, and presents unique melodic opportunities.

These patterns are easy as pie to transpose, so practice playing the Major Pentatonic Scale in each of the 5 main keys we’ve been working in: G, E, C, D, A.
The more you practice this, the better your musical ear becomes. Soon you’ll be able to play melodies and solos effortlessly in any key!

After you have the basic pattern in your muscle memory, start experimenting. Alternating between long and short notes is a great way to start thinking rhythmically and not just melodically when playing the scale.
Also practice jumping around the scale a bit, so it sounds less like a boring scale shape where you’re simply going through the motions. The best melodies and solos have a great mix of rhythmic and melodic variation.

Now we introduce a very important Major Pentatonic Scale pattern. Notice how the Pentatonic Scale is derived from the Major Scale (as so many, many things are). All we do is remove the 4th and 7th degrees from our original Major Scale and Voila! we’re left with 5 notes: The Pentatonic Scale.