Mastering Pentatonics Beginner

In this module, we're going to continue with the approach we used in Module 1. Working within the five shapes of the A minor pentatonic scale, we're going to isolate more of the intervals. This gives you a much more comprehensive knowledge of the scale (and your fretboard) than simply learning the patterns. It also means that you can improvise more confidently.

For example, you understand which notes are the strong roots, 3rd and 5ths, and which notes are the more risky 4ths. This is clearly much better than thinking "I'll play this note and hope it doesn't sound too wrong"!

In Modules 1 and 2, we learned the five shapes of A minor pentatonic and then identified the notes by their scale degree (interval from the root). We also started building simple little licks, seeing how the fingering changes as you move through the shapes.

We're going to do more of that in this Module, but with more complex variations.

In Modules 1-3 we worked on all five shapes in A minor pentatonic. In real music, though, you don't play according to SHAPES; you want to be able to move freely all over the fretboard. That means we need to practise moving between the shapes. An easy way to do this is with slides.

This is a new challenge, because now you can't just hold your hand in one position and play the notes in the same way... 3rd finger on the A, 1st finger on the C, etc. You now have to move your whole hand, thinking about the shape of the scale in a linear form (along the string).

In this module, we're going to apply slides to the intensive sequence approach that we first encountered in Module 3. Using rhythmically consistent sequences like this is a challenge for your fretboard knowledge, because you don't have time to stop and think where the next note is.

You have to keep playing to the click.

This module takes us completely into the linear approach (moving along the strings). We're going to take intervals across two strings and then slide them up and down along the strings.

Once again, this works on your spatial awareness, forcing you to think about the scale as a set of intervals (units of musical distance) rather than simple box shapes.

In Modules 1-3 we learned the five basic pentatonic shapes and identified all the scale degrees and intervals within them. We then used slides to move more fluidly between the shapes in Modules 4-6. Now we'll add bends.

This gives us another way to blur the boundaries between the shapes, because you extend the melodic range of your hand position. By bending the 7th fret on the G string in Shape 1 (raising the D note to E) you reach up into Shape 2. The aim with Modules 7-9 is to learn to bend notes in all five shapes, learning when to bend a whole tone (2 frets) or a minor 3rd (3 frets) in order to hit the next note in the scale.

This module is based on a concept that we briefly covered in Module 7. Instead of bending along the string in linear fashion, we're now bending within the shapes. This means that your reference note will be on a different string. In some ways this is easier (working within a single shape) but in other ways it's harder because you can't just visualise the shape of intervals in a single line along the string.

In this module we're going to put all the bends together and cover the E, B and G strings. This can actually be more of a challenge than playing a stream of bends on one string. When you play on just one string, it's easier to judge the tension, but when you play across all the strings, the tension is constantly changing. You normally need to push the E string further to raise it by a specific interval, but if you apply the same amount of force to the G string, you'll overshoot!

In Modules 1-9 you've built a considerable amount of flexibility across all strings and across the five shapes of A minor pentatonic. However, there will be plenty of musical situations where you can't stick within the same scale, so this is what we're going to address in Modules 10-12. To keep things relatively simple we're going to stick with minor pentatonics, working through a series of key changes. When the key changes, everything changes... the root notes, the minor 3rds, the minor 7ths and so on.

There are no licks in these three modules, because it's all about internalising the theory and being able to transpose patterns from one key to another. You'll have plenty of hard work with just the exercises!

In Module 10, we played a series of scale patterns over alternating A minor and C minor tonalities. You might not find such blunt changes of key in regular music, but you will often find chord changes where you have to use different scales, and this is good practice for that kind of situation. In Modules 11 and 12, we're going to take this to another level.

All of the exercises in this module are based over this chord progression... Am9 - Cm9 - Em9 - Gm9

We introduced the Am9-Cm9-Em9-Gm9 chord progression in Module 11, but we gave you an easy start. By only playing the root notes for the four chords, we were able to stay within the five shapes of A minor pentatonic. In this module, it's going to get a lot harder!

We're now going to be playing full minor pentatonic scales for each chord change...

A minor pentatonic: A C D E G

C minor pentatonic: C Eb F G Bb

E minor pentatonic: E G A B D

G minor pentatonic: G Bb C D F

This means we have four different sets of five shapes. Before you work on the exercises, you might like to figure out the shapes for all four scales. The basic shapes (see Module 1) are the same for all four scales. For example, Shape 1 always starts on the root, Shape 2 always starts on the minor 3rd, and so on. However, the actual note and fretboard positions are different. Shape 1 for A minor is at the 5th fret, whereas Shape 1 for E minor is at the 12th fret.