Guitar Lessons From Your Own Home
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Pentatonic Scales
Pentatonic scale patterns are based off of the . The diatonic scale patterns are made up of 7 notes in total, then repeats those 7 notes through different registers and sections of the guitar. Pentatonic scales omit two of those notes giving the scale patterns 5 notes before starting at the root again and repeating its interval pattern. This is why it's called pentatonic. Penta meaning 5, tonic meaning the root of the scale; 5 notes from the root of the scale.
If you look at these pentatonic scale patterns side to side with the diatonic scale patterns, you will notice the 4th note and 7th note from the root are taken out. In the case of these diagrams in the key of G major, this gets rid of the C (4th note) and the F# (7th note). These simpler scale patterns allow guitar players to create simpler more straightforward melodies that are often used in many styles such as rock, country and blues.
When playing melodic lines, these notes match the backing instruments in their given key more often than the diatonic scale patterns that include the 4th and 7th note. The reason for this is that within classical music theory which passes down its concepts to rock, pop and most common genres of music, these notes sound more resolved than the 4th and 7th, which serve more of the purpose of leading you to a resolved note or suspending that resolved note. This doesn't mean you have to limit yourself to one or the other. Since they're both built off of the same interval pattern, using one with the other often makes for some nicely contrasted and dynamic melodies. Think of the notes in the pentatonic scale patterns as your "go to" notes and create melodies from there using elements of other types of scale patterns such as the diatonic scale patterns and the blues scale patterns.
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The first position, just like with the diatonic scale patterns is the second most common pentatonic scale pattern used on the guitar and starts on the root (first note) of the G major scale; G.
This next position starts on the second note of the pentatonic scale from the root. In G major scale, this note is A.
The 3rd position of the pentatonic scale is a very commonly used pattern. Position 3 starts on the 3rd note from the root of the pentatonic scale. In the key of G, this becomes a B note at the 7th fret of the 6th string.
Next, we have position 4. Position 4 starts on the 4th note of the pentatonic scale from the root. In the key of G, this note is D.
Lastly, we have the 5th position of the pentatonic scale. This position starts on the 5th note from the root G, which is an E note. This can also be referred to as the minor pentatonic scale, just like the position 5 of the diatonic patterns is referred to as the minor scale. Both start on the same note, in the key of G major, the relative minor note is E. In the key of G/Em, this position can also be moved to the open strings instead of the 12th fret because the open and 12th fret of any string will be the same note.
Once these are mastered along with the , try these out: