Ok so I've spent the last couple of weeks learning the minor pentatonic scale well and I find that it fits in really nicely with my blues and rock backing tracks.

My question: will learning the other scales (major, natural minor, pentatonic major, harmonic minor, melodic minor...) help me with soloing to blues and rock style music? Do certain scales fit certain types of music? I tried soloing to some satriani backing tracks (souls of distortion, until we say goodbye) but it seems even though I know the key of the song, the pentatonic minor scale im playing just doesnt fit...

Dorian! the heart of all european and ocidental music! it's a must=)

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'when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace' - James Marshall Hendrix

You can never learn too many scales for rock, but it's surprising how far the minor pentatonic can take you.

The first thing you need to do is learn the other four pentatonic shapes that carry on from the one you've been working with. The second shape will be a major pentatonic scale.

Those five shapes are the modes of the pentatonic scale. Play them so they all join up together, and you are playing the same scale up and down the fretboard. Play each shape starting on the same fret, and you are changing the conformation of the notes each time, producing very different effects.

For example: Play the shape you know at the fifth fret, and you're playing in A minor. If you learn the second shape and play it at the eighth fret, you'll still be playing the notes of A minor. If, however, you were to take that second shape and start it on the fifth fret, you'd suddenly be playing in A major.

This means that your minor pentatonic shape is actually a major scale under certain circumstances. Try playing it down three frets lower than you usually would next time you're playing blues... you'll go from playing the minor "blue" notes (which happen to sound fine over the 7th chords that make up the blues) to a more straight-ahead rockin' blues using the major notes of that same 7th chord. Sounds much more confusing than it is. Just play what you've been playing but three frets lower (i.e., if you're at the 12th go down to the 9th), and hear how it comes into focus.

The major scale has exactly the same shapes that join together covering the fretboard, but there are seven of them altogether. Each of these seven modes has a distinct character, and there's not enough time or space for me to go into it here (sorry!). The sixth mode is the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode). If you raise the seventh note of the natural minor scale by a semitone, you get the harmonic minor scale. It gives what's usually thought of as an "eastern" flavour owing to the minor third skip between the sixth and seventh notes of the scale, with a semitone step on either side. Uhh...that sounds way more confusing than it is... the melodic minor is the natural minor with its 6th and 7th steps raised one semitone.

Learn the five pentatonic shapes first, and the rest will be easier. Learn which notes you have to add to your minor pentatonic to get a natural minor scale, and which you have to add to a major pentatonic to get a major scale. After that, learning the other modes of the major scale will be more straightforward. Believe me, you will find a use for all of those modes at some point, particularly if you like guitarists like Satriani, who like to write pieces to showcase a particular mode or series of modes.

Mondo, that is so helpful, I JUST started looking at Pentatonic scales today.

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thanks mondo! your explanation makes it much easier for me to understand the major pentatonic scale now.

No problem -- I'm glad some of it makes sense, as it's the kind of information that really benefits from diagrams or (better) just being in the same room. Come to think of it, there's got to be a ton of YouTube videos on the topic. Anyway... the point is, scales and modes don't have to be scary, they do make perfect sense if you approach them correctly. The hardest thing about them may be remembering their names! Each of the seven diatonic modes was named after the Greek.. um, "tribe" I guess you could say.. who used it the most. As has been pointed out above, the Dorian mode (second mode of the major scale) is a very popular one. It's a minor scale with a natural 6th instead of a flattened 6th. The flat 6th tends to drag melodies down a bit, whereas a natural 6th keeps it a bit open and breezy while still being a minor scale. Santana (for example) is a big Dorian kind of guy.

But yeah... you can go far with just the pentatonics. Some of the best jazz players use exactly those scales, but they just slide them around to introduce more chromatic tones. That just means that they'll move the whole shape up or down a fret and then back again quickly, as one thing you may have noticed about standard pentatonic scales is that there are no semitones (i.e. steps of one fret). Semitones produce tension, and tension is good in a solo, as long as you nail the resolution! Think of all those blues guys who wail away on one repetitive phrase over just about the whole twelve bars until you think they've lost the plot, then BAM! John Scofield is a great, great jazz player who favours the open sound of pentatonics combined with the slipperiness you get from shifting them around within a phrase.

...what is it they say...those who can, do -- and those who can't, teach.. heh

P.S. -- Don't allow yourself to feel too daunted by music theory... it all comes back down to the same twelve tones in the end. Problem with that is, it can be like telling someone "Here's the alphabet... everything you need to write the greatest novel known to humankind is in there, so off you go!". The possibilities are without limit, but there's nothing stopping you from charting a course that will take you as far as you can go!

Let me get this straight

According to my book of scales: Hal Leonard, 'Incredible scale finder', there are on average 5 patterns for each pentatonic scale. Should I learn each pattern in each key? Then move on? Or, what shopuld I prioritize?

Thanks

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There are as many patterns as there are notes in a scale. Pentatonic scales have five notes (penta = five); diatonic scales (like the major scale) have seven notes and therefore seven shapes.

If you start out with the minor pentatonic at the fifth fret, say, you will be playing in the key of A minor. You will also be playing in the key of C major -- the two have exactly the same notes!

If you join the five "shapes" of the scale together in sequence, you will still be playing in A minor/C major, you'll just be playing those same notes over the entire fretboard. That is, 1st shape at 5th fret, 2nd shape at 8th fret, 3rd shape at 10th fret, fourth shape at 12th fret, fifth shape at 15th fret...until you reach the first shape again at the 17th fret.

So, what you do is learn the shapes and how they fit together. The key is determined by the note you start on. Move the whole thing down so you're starting on the third fret, and you'll be playing in G minor (or B flat major). Start off with the first shape at the ninth fret, and it's C# minor (E major) and so on. It's not as bad as it may seem! It's only five shapes, and once you know the names of the starting notes you'll be able to shift them around to play in different keys.

+1 -- Also, learning major pentatonic is easy after you know the minor pentatonic.

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tab , bro , great thread , mondo thanks bro.

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There's something I meant to add earlier, but had to leave for work. This may help with memorising those five shapes, or it may confuse the issue -- if it does, think about it some other time.

OK. You have this minor pentatonic shape. Let's do all this around the fifth fret, so we're in A, and we're thinking blues. I'm going to go ahead and assume you know an A major barre chord, and that you can take your pinky and extend it all the way up to the ninth fret to play a blues shuffle, or you at least know what it is I'm referring to.

When you take that pinky and use it for the shuffle, you're exposing a note held by your barre at the fifth fret. It's probably muted by all the other stuff that's going on, but it's an important note for blues. If you play that barre chord with that note (it's a G) ringing out as well, you're playing A7. If you play the minor pentatonic starting at the fifth fret, it'll be the fifth note you play. That note (along with a major 3rd) is what makes it a 7 chord.

Umm..OK, getting carried away a bit but bear with me. So, you're playing over a 7 chord, but it's a minor pentatonic. What's the deal with that? The "minor" part of the scale is the note C, which is at the 8th fret of the high and low E strings, and also at the 5th fret of the G string. That G string minor third is a "blue" note when you play it over an A7. That is.. it's "wrong" but oh-so-right. Heh. In fact (in A7 terms) you're playing a #9 over the A7. A7#9. Sounds pretty cool. E7#9 is the "Purple Haze" chord. 'Nuff said.

That #9, when you play it, really wants to go somewhere... up one fret, to be precise, to the major third of your A7 chord. Try playing the second pentatonic shape, but starting at the fifth fret... ah, there it is, the 8th note that you play! So, for blues, you want to mix and match the minor and major pentatonic shapes.

(Deep breath) OK... so... what happens when you play D, the next chord in your blues progression? You can shift all your actions up around the 10th fret and do the same thing, which will sound a bit disjointed, OR you can stay right down by the 5th fret and change to the fourth pentatonic shape, the one you've put off learning until now. That's because the fourth shape is actually the same as the first, it just starts on the A string rather than the E. And that means you can mix it up with the fifth shape, just like you did with the first and second.

So, it's a bit hard to digest at first... but that's how it is with scales. You can follow the same scale all up and down the neck, or you can stay put and let the shapes change under your fingers. You need to be able to do both when the situation calls for it.

Phew... that's my lunch hour gone... heh. Have fun!