Hi. How you doing? Justin here.
Welcome to IM-153
In which we're going to be checking out
the major Pentatonic Scale.
Now the Major Pentatonic scale can be a little bit confusing for some people
because the patterns look exactly the same as the Minor Pentatonic scale
but on a different part of the guitar neck.
Now the big trick here is just making sure
that you understand which note is the root note,
and if you do that, it makes it a whole heap easier.
So lets get over and have a look at the A Major Pentatonic scale.
To play the A Major Pentatonic scale
we're going to be starting with our little finger
on the fifth fret of the thickest string.
Then we're going to play first finger, second fret
third finger fourth fret,
over onto the fourth string, first finger on the second fret
third finger on the fourth fret.
Onto the third string, first finger on the second fret,
third finger on the fourth fret.
Onto the second string now,
first finger second fret,
little finger on the fifth fret.
Onto the thinner string,
first finger on the second fret,
little finger on the fifth fret.
And back down, first finger, four one,
three one, three one, three one, four one four.
And coming back and finishing on that note A.
That's very important, because there's our A chord.
Here's our A Major Pentatonic.
. . .
You can hear, it's a good idea actually
to play the A Major chord at the end of the scale.
. . .
Because it really gets it into your head.
Now I'm sure you're looking at it now and thinking
"That looks the same as the A Minor Pentatonic scale."
Now the A Minor Pentatonic scale was played here.
. . .
Fits over an A Minor chord.
. . .
But this one is the Major Pentatonic
starts with the little finger
. . .
And we're finishing on that note A
just to make sure that your ears
are really hearing that kind of major sound.
Now I always think it's a good idea
to learn position one, and this scale.
. . .
Is actually position five of the Major Pentatonic scale.
So what I'd like to show you now
is how to play position one of the Major Pentatonic.
To play position one of the A Major Pentatonic
we're going to start here with the second finger on the fifth fret,
which is the root note, the note A.
Then we're going to have little finger
on the seventh fret, the note B.
Onto the next string, first finger on the fourth fret.
little finger on the seventh fret.
Next string, first finger on the fourth fret,
little finger on the seventh fret.
Onto the third string, first finger on the fourth fret
third finger on the sixth fret.
Now first finger is kind of moving up a fret
onto the fifth fret, third finger on the seventh fret
and the same thing on the thinner string.
first finger on the fifth fret,
third finger on the seventh fret.
And back down.
first finger, third finger seventh,
first finger fifth, and third finger is going backwards a fret,
so its kind of crossing over
it was on the seventh,
now it's moving back to the sixth fret of the third string.
To the first finger, little finger on the seventh
fist finger on the fourth. Next string.
Little finger on the seventh, first finger on the fourth.
Little finger on the seventh fret, second finger on the fourth.
Let me just play that for you nice and smoothly, up and down.
. . .
The Major Pentatonic scale gets used mostly in Country and Country Rock.
But also makes it's way into Blues as well.
And is often combined with the Minor Pentatonic.
So Eric Clapton was a bit of a master of this,
of mixing up the Major Pentatonic
and the Minor Pentatonic in the same solo.
Now, the use of this scale is gonna be
something covered more in the style series,
particularly with the Country course.
But what I'd like you to do now is
have a little bit of a go at playing over a regularly 12 Bar Blues
but using this Major Pentatonic.
It's quite interesting.
The thing to remember here
is that you can't just go using any licks
or phrases that you might have learned from the Minor Pentatonic.
They don't work.
Remember that the notes in red
on the little scale diagram on the web site
are the chord tones for the A Major chord.
And they tend to be the notes that you can stop on,
which are very different than the ones you tend to settle on,
on the Minor Pentatonic.
So, at this stage, just have a bit of experiment with it,
learn this position,
particularly position one, which will be the new shape.
Remembering, of course that Position One of the Minor Pentatonic
is the same as Position Five of the Major Pentatonic.
Now the trick to remembering that is just
know thy root note.
It should be one of the guitarists Ten Commandments, really.
Know thy root note for everything,
for every chord and every scale and arpeggio you ever learn
you must make sure you know where the root note is.
It's really, really important,
otherwise you won't be able to move this stuff around
into different keys or whatever.
So, make sure you know the root note
and practice up your Major Pentatonic Scales,
have a bit of a go with them,
check out the different sound,
and we'll get more into using those in the Style Modules.
Have fun with that.
See you for another lesson very soon.
Take care. Bye, bye.