Some one posted the following msg....... I wud request him to post some more exercises like that ......... King Of Scales - The Pentatonic The guitar makes learning scales easy! To most players, a scale is just a memorized fingering pattern. Sure, the pattern contains notes, and the notes have names, but its still just a pattern. I will use the term 'pattern' to refer to a set of places (frets) on the guitar neck where you will find the notes in a scale. Here is a pentatonic pattern: E ||-----|-----|--O--|-----|-----|--O--|-----| B ||-----|-----|--O--|-----|-----|--O--|-----| G ||-----|-----|--O--|-----|--O--|-----|-----| D ||-----|-----|--O--|-----|--O--|-----|-----| A ||-----|-----|--O--|-----|--O--|-----|-----| E ||-----|-----|--O--|-----|-----|--O--|-----| The picture shows a 'top view' of a right handed neck. The horizontal lines are strings and the vertical lines are frets. The letters to the left side of the 'neck' are the string names (and tunings). The O's are the places to play. We will soon see that this pattern is one of many ways to play a pentatonic scale. Remember we are really talking about patterns *NOT* scales. Another look at the pattern: E ||-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|--2--|-----| B ||-----|-----|--4--|-----|-----|--5--|-----| G ||-----|-----|--2--|-----|--3--|-----|-----| D ||-----|-----|--5--|-----|--1--|-----|-----| A ||-----|-----|--3--|-----|--4--|-----|-----| E ||-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|--2--|-----| The numbers represent each unique note in the pattern. If we start on the bottom string and play from left to right, we will be playing the notes (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2). There are only 5 unique notes! No duh? Thats why it's called a PENTA(meaning 5) TONIC(meaning note or tone) pattern. Now what? Well, as most experienced players will tell you, this is the pattern to learn. Although there are *MANY* ways to memorize the notes in a pentatonic scale, this is the most common way to do it. I will leave you with the following exercises in TAB to help you get familiar with the given pentatonic pattern. Next week, we will take a look at ocatves and more pentatonic fingerings. In a couple of weeks we will give the pattern a good work-out by having a technique/lick lesson. exercise: (playing the pentatonic scale at the 5th fret) ---------------------------------5--8--------------------------------8--5--- ---------------------------5--8--------------------------------8--5--------- ---------------------5--7--------------------------------7--5--------------- ---------------5--7--------------------------------7--5--------------------- ---------5--7--------------------------------7--5--------------------------- ---5--8--------------------------------8--5--------------------------------- exercise: (play '3 notes down' then 'back up') ---8--5-----5--------------------------------------------------------------- ---------8-----8--5--8--5-----5--------------------------------------------- ---------------------------7-----7--5--7--5-----5--------------------------- ---------------------------------------------7----7--5--7--5---------------- --------------------------------------------------------------7------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- exercise: (skipping strings) -------------------------5-------------------------------------------------- ---5--------------8--------------------------------------------------------- ----------5-----------------7----------------------------------------------- ------7--------------7------------------------------------------------------ --------------7------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________ cOoL iS :rule:
@cool... Good lesson... I found that the pattern if played at 5th fret is Am pentatonic scale. And if you move the whole pattern 3 frets up to the 2nd fret (by this I mean move towards the open string end) it becomes a A major pentatonic scale. Here we got both major and minor scales with a single pattern but with change in fret position. I hope I am not wrong with my interpretation...