hello how you doing justin here
in this lesson today we're going to be
checking out the minor pentatonic scale
now i don't want you to get scared i
know scales kind of sound like they're
going to be nasty and really boring but
actually scales are pretty damn cool and
the reason that scales are cool is
because they teach you the notes that
you can use when you improvise so what
we're going to be doing now is checking
out this very first scale called the
minor pentatonic scale and it's the
scale that most guitar players learn
first and for a lot of guitar players
it's the only scale they ever learn it's
got a lot of mileage you use it for
blues and rock and even in jazz and
country it's a really really useful
excellent sounding scale and one that
you will use and for as long as you play
guitar you'll be using this scale so
what we're going to do is we're going to
learn it just to play it up and down
and work on making sure that we've got
our fingers stretched out right now if
you've been doing the preparation
exercises properly that i've told you
about about you know working your
fingers up and down and picking the
strings individually you're probably not
going to find playing the scale very
difficult so let's get stuck in now and
learn our very first scale the a minor
pentatonic
okay here we are for a look at the a
minor pentatonic scale so we're starting
here with our first finger in the fifth
fret of the thickest string
so this is the root note this is the
note a
then we reach up with our fourth finger
into the eighth fret you can see it's
kind of one finger per fret here we've
got first fingers going in the in the
fifth second finger and the sixth third
finger sits in the seventh and little
finger reaches the eighth of course we
don't need to put those other two now
because at this point we're just playing
those two notes but just be aware of
that nice spacing
then we move on to the next string
we play first finger
and third finger in the seventh fret
we're on to the next string first finger
in the fifth fret
third finger in the seventh fret now
we're on to the third string
first finger fifth fret
third finger seventh fret
second string
first finger on the fifth fret
little finger in the eighth fret
first finger in the fifth fret now we're
on the thinnest string
and little finger in the eighth fret now
we're going to straight back down
so we play that note there with the
first finger uh in the fifth fret the
thinnest string it's like a tongue
twister
little finger on the eighth fret of the
second string
down to the first finger now we're on to
the third string
third finger on the seventh fret
first finger in the fifth fret onto the
fourth string
third finger in the seventh fret
first finger in the fifth fret next
string
third finger in the seventh fret
first finger in the fifth fret
a little bit onto the thickest string
now little finger and the eighth fret
first finger in the fifth fret now i'm
going to play it once up and down for
you still nice and slowly but without
all the talking here we go
do
and a little faster
so
now i have this scale on the website as
both a neck diagram which is usually the
easiest way to learn a scale but it's
also written there in tab
in regular notation and you can also see
the finger numbers under the tab the 1
one three one three one three one four
one four thing now it's a really really
simple box pattern to remember just
remember it starts on the thickest
string with one four then it's a bunch
of one three one three finger groupings
and then one four one four on the
thinnest two strings
make sure that you're playing it
correctly on the way up and on the way
down and that you check out the fret
numbers that you should be playing so it
doesn't some people try and go up the
strings coming
down okay i'm putting up it's down
descending the scale and you get this
kind of
this isn't right it should be
it's a just be careful with that check
the tab if you're unsure of the tab
there's a one of the lessons in the
early hundreds can't remember what less
number is off top of my head now but how
to read tab there's there's a lesson on
that so check that out on the website
i'll stick a link in the lesson as well
for those confused by the tab but this
is a really really really classy little
scale to check out there's loads of
different ways of playing it loads of
tricks to playing it we use it for blues
and string bending and all sorts of cool
stuff so do have a go at that now when
you feel kind of confident with this
maybe toward the end of the course if
you want to experiment a bit more with
your your lead guitar you might want to
check out my blues lead guitar series
which is uh online and on dvd it's a
very very cool little set and that's a
perfect follow one for after you finish
the beginners course so you might want
to bear that in mind too but more on
that another time