by Dirk Hagemann
http://www.blueslessons.net

Well, the probably most used Scale in improvising is the Pentatonic
Scale. The Pentatonic Scale consists only of 5 Tones and it exists
in a major and minor type. And in this exercise you become knowledgeable
about the keytones on the fingerboard and which notes you can play in
a solo without playing out of tone. And with the knowledge of these 5
patterns of the Minor-Pentatonic Scale, you can shift them up and down
the fingerboard into any key!

Minor Pentatonic

It s the oldest scale and consist of five tones. That s why it s
called Pentatonic (Penta is greek = five)

Basic knowledge: There are 12 whole-tones and semitones on the
fingerboard, that means that these notes are repeated from the
13th fret.

(E.g. you have the keytone F on the 1st and 13th fret). The difference
between these two notes is called an octave.

1. Notes on the fingerboard.

Fret         1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9    10    11    12
Keytone e |--F--|--F#-|--G--|--G#-|--A--|--A#-|--B--|--C--|--C#-|--D--|--D#-|--E--|
        B |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
        G |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
        D |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
        A |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
        E |--F--|--F#-|--G--|--G#-|--A--|--A#-|--B--|--C--|--C#-|--D--|--D#-|--E--|

Now you re ready to learn the five patterns of the Minor-Pentatonic
Scale. Each pattern is moveable over the complete fingerboard.

E.g. In the keytone G the first pattern starts on the 3rd fret, in the
keytone A it starts on the 5th fret, in keytone C on the 8th fret etc.

1. Pattern:

|-x-|---|---|-x-|---|
|-x-|---|---|-x-|---|
|-x-|---|-x-|---|---|
|-x-|---|-x-|---|---|
|-x-|---|-x-|---|---|
|-x-|---|---|-x-|---|

In the keytone A (from the 5th fret, because the keytone A is on the
5th fret) the first pattern looks like this:

    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   
e |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|---|-x-|
B |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|---|-x-|
G |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|-x-|---|
D |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|-x-|---|
A |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|-x-|---|
E |---|---|---|---|-x-|---|---|-x-|

Practise: Play from the the high E-string to the low E-string and back.
Use one finger for each fret.

e |----------------------5-8-|-8-5---------------------|
H |------------------5-8-----|-----8-5-----------------|
G |--------------5-7---------|---------7-5-------------|
D |----------5-7-------------|-------------7-5---------|
A |------5-7-----------------|-----------------7-5-----|
E |--5-8---------------------|---------------------8-5-|

If you want to move the pattern into another key, just use the tab
above where you can see the keytones on the fingerboard.

For more exercises and GuitarPro files for this lesson visit:
http://www.blueslessons.net

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