The Minor Pentatonic Map
The Five Patterns
The piano and the guitar are both rhythm and melody instruments. In fact, both instruments are "polyphonic", meaning - you can play more than one note at a time in selected intervals to create both chords and melody. Improvisation comes from melody (or vice-versa, depending on your perception). Improvisation comes easily for some, and with considerable difficulty for others. Let's take a look at an easy way to understand where improvisation comes from on the guitar, by learning about the minor pentatonic scale(s).
What is a Pentatonic scale?
Question: "What does “penta” mean?"
Answer: "Five".
The pentatonic scale is a five-note scale in music that includes the root or the "tonic" of a key. The pentatonic scale is one of the most common scales for blues, rock, country and jazz music. It is also widely used in creating lyrical melodies and vocal arrangements. The pentatonic scale uses two different scales: The minor and the major. For this lesson, we will be using the more commonly-used minor pentatonic scale.
The minor pentatonic scale uses five specific notes that originate from the “diatonic” (seven-note) scales that exist in all twelve keys. The diatonic minor scale uses the following structure:
"I - II - iii - IV - V - vi - vii"
If we apply this structure to the "A minor" scale, the notes would be:
“A - B - C - D - E - F and G”
Two of the notes are subsequently omitted from the diatonic scale to form the minor pentatonic scale. The minor pentatonic will eliminate the "II" and the "vi" from the diatonic scale:
"I - iii - IV - V - vii".
Now the notes used in the scale look like this:
"A - C - D - E and G".
Every key has its own version of both major and minor diatonic and pentatonic scales.
To figure out how to play the minor pentatonic in any key, all you need to know is where the root notes are located on the fretboard. The root note is the "key" note or the "I" in the scale structure. In the following charts below, you can see that there are indeed five separate scale shapes that fit together like puzzle pieces on a conveyor belt. Each of the scale shapes connect throughout the entire fretboard. However, depending on which key you are in, will determine which shape you use.
The 1st pentatonic shape has the root note on strings 5 and 3. It is a four-fret frame.
The 2nd pentatonic shape has the root note on strings 6, 3 and 1. It is also a four-fret frame.
The 3rd pentatonic shape is arguably the most recognizable for most beginners. It has the root note on strings 6, 4 and 1. It is also a four-fret frame.
The 4th pentatonic shape has the root note on strings 4 and 2. Again, it is a four-fret frame.
The 5th pentatonic shape has the root note on strings 5 and 2. However, it is a five-fret frame. This means that you will need to adjust your fingering for this shape
Here are all five shapes connected throughout the entire fretboard.
My advice would be to learn all of the notes on the fretboard. If that seems like a daunting task, at least learn the the locations of the lowest root notes for each shape on strings 6, 5 and 4. You will need to know these root notes so that you can play the correct scales in the correct positions on the fretboard in the correct keys.
And Finally…
Once you have learned each of the shapes, you can then add “Leading notes” to your pentatonic scales to give them more interesting textures. Leading notes do not belong to the scale, but they are considered transitionary in nature - adding more color and flow to your improvisation.
