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Thursday, 2 December 2010

Guitar Lessons: The Pentatonic Scale

Pentatonic Scale

The Pentatonic Scale
This is the basic pentatonic scale on which most guitar solos are based. It is
called penta-tonic because it has only five notes instead of the usual eight.
That isn't very important right now, though. What is important is that you
memorize this scale. You can do that by playing it over and over again. Or it
might be easier to just learn the tricks in the easy tricks sections. They are
all based on this scale exclusively.
Key=A
Basic Pentatonic                      With Extensions

E |-----5--------8----------------| E |-----5---------8------10-------|
B |-----5--------8----------------| B |-----5---------8------10-------|
G |-----5-----7-------------------| G |-----5-----7------9------------|
D |-----5-----7-------------------| D |-----5-----7-------------------|
A |-----5-----7-------------------| D |-----5-----7-------------------|
E |-----5--------8----------------| E |-----5--------8----------------|




  The scale above is the pentatonic scale for songs in the key of A. The key
  determines where on the fretboard you will want to play. The note on the sixth
  (E) string at the 5th fret is an "A." A is the "root" of the A scale. If we
  wanted to play in "G" we would want to move this whole thing down to the 3rd
  fret, like so:
Key=G
Basic Pentatonic                      With Extensions

E |-----3--------6----------------| E |-----3---------6------8--------|
B |-----3--------6----------------| B |-----3---------6------8--------|
G |-----3-----5-------------------| G |-----3-----5------7------------|
D |-----3-----5-------------------| D |-----3-----5-------------------|
A |-----3-----5-------------------| D |-----3-----5-------------------|
E |-----3--------6----------------| E |-----3--------6----------------|

  Most of the tricks in this site are in the key of A so we won't have to worry
  about that too much. However, if you try playing in the wrong key you will
  sound really bad. If you find yourself playing with others and you don't know
  what key they are using either ask them or watch to see which chord they play
  the most often. Usually a song will use the chord that corresponds to the key
  more often than other chords. If the song is in A, there will be a lot of A
  chords. Also, a song will usually start and end with the root chord . If the
  song is in A, the first chord will probably be A and the last chord will
  probably be A.
  Let's not worry for the moment about whether the key is "A major" or "A
  minor." I will explain that later. 

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