Pentatonic scale.

What is a pentatonic scale? This was the question i used to ask myself when I started playing the guitar. Finally, I learned that this scale is one of the most important scale for a rock guitarist. This scale is used by many famous guitarists.

I learned some pentatonic patterns and started practicing them endlessly. As usual, the hard work payed off and the results started showing. Suddenly I started sounding like my idols and I felt I have become a cool guitarist. Most of the guitar solos are made of pentatonic scales. When this scale is combined with legato playing, one is destined for greatness. I mean guitar greatness and becoming a guitar Guru.

If we want to derive the Pentatonic scale from the major scale, we have to eradicate two notes. I will give an example. As C Major scale has the following notes:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

I have put numbers below the notes so that I can simplify what I am trying to explain. As mentioned earlier, we have to eradicate two notes. The two notes that will be removed are '4' and '7'. '4' and '7' are the F note and the B note respectively.

After removing these notes, we get the following C major pentatonic scale:

C D E G A C

Penta means five and after seeing the above scale, you must figured out by now that pentatonic has five notes.

The following is a simple C Major pentatonic scale:

e------------------------------
b------------------------------
g--------------------2-----5--
d----------2------5--
a---3----5-----------
e------------------

You can practice the above pattern and I will post all the minor and major patterns soon. Cheers and Rock On!