Pentatonic Scale

The Pentatonic Scale and You: Learn to Play Guitar Successfully

Want to learn how guitarists like Jimmy Page can get so much from just 5 notes? Learn about the pentatonic scale and find out.

It is rather amazing how many rock and blues guitarists could pull so many songs out of the same five note pentatonic scale. What is even more remarkable is just how different it could sound from guitarist to guitarist. Jimmy Page and David Gilmour both heavily used the same minor pentatonic scale, and yet Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd sound so distinctly different from one another that it would be hard to mix the two up.

Learning what a pentatonic scale in music is fairly simple, it is just a scale with five notes (most scales are diatonic scales which have seven notes). However, learning how to use the minor and major pentatonic scale to the same effect that so many famous rock and blues guitarists have is another thing.

The pentatonic scale is a staple for just about every kind of guitarist out there, that it is quite critical to play it well. These guitar scales absolutely dominated rock and blues, but it can pop up nearly anywhere, even to the point that it isn’t that uncommon for guitarists to use it in hard rock, punk, metal, or even jazz.

Just look at Randy Rhoads or Ritchie Blackmore, who are both better known for their use of chromatic scales and diatonic scales and modes, quite a few of their solos, even if it just part of a solo, use nothing but the pentatonic scale.

It is hard to imagine modern guitar music without the pentatonic scales for that matter. Even some of the 80’s rock bands that had obviously spent time learning modes focused more on using the Dorian which is no more than adding a couple more notes to their pentatonic licks.

It is remarkable that something so apparently simple basically could be so wide spread among guitarists in a variety of genres.

Even the major scale, which is pretty much the standard basic scale in music from the viewpoint of music theory isn’t that widespread in the genres where most guitarists are involved. Even for the guitarists that play more modes and diatonic scales, it still is a useful scale to know how to use effectively.

I don’t think it is particularly bizarre that I took an interest in learning the pentatonic scale. It is so common and so deceptively simple looking to learn, yet there is so much that can be done with it. It looks so simple looking at a scale chart, yet you soon realize that just playing up and down the scale just doesn’t have the impact to sound very interesting.

It wasn’t long before I realized there was a lot more to learning to play this scale than just memorizing all five notes in it, and a couple of scale boxes. No, I had to learn just how to play all those expressive techniques and combine them with the scale to create much more amazing sounding parts.

Personally, I spent years trying to learn techniques from books to get the most out of the pentatonic scale, and just found it frustrating. Many of the higher books tend to disregard the pentatonic scales entirely, particularly those written by theory focused guitarists that consider them overly simplistic because they only have five notes. On the other hand, many other books will show a pentatonic scale chart, teach the notes in it, and just not go into how to use it. If you are really lucky, it might show a couple of the other pentatonic scale fret board boxes, but many of them don’t even do that.

On one hand the pentatonic scale isn’t that difficult to learn, but learning all the nuances in playing it to really make some great solos is an entire matter entirely. Not to mention learning that when most people talk pentatonic scale they mean the minor pentatonic, but it is by no means the only one out there. My first thought, before I had even heard about online guitar lessons, was to just go and find a private instructor. Unfortunately, with my schedule, I just didn’t have the time to go and see someone regularly every week.

I was absolutely thrilled when I heard about the two web sites below that provided online tutoring. I could just log in anytime day or night from my computer at home and look for the lesson I wanted. When I wanted to focus on the positions of the blues and pentatonic scales, I could go straight to those lessons, including, how to learn the guitar. Whenever I got stuck with something, I could just rewind the video and replay the part until I had the part completed perfectly.

They even have videos that teach guitar scales for beginners. These sites are quite reasonably priced (about the same price per month as it would cost for a 30 minute lesson with the cheapest private teacher you could possibly find). Not to mention the wide variety of available lessons on the sites make them well worth checking out.

I sincerely do think that these sites can help you just as they helped me as I improved my playing. Keep in mind you can cancel anytime from the sites, but most sites do offer free lessons before you actually subscribe, so you can see for yourself what you will be getting.

The pentatonic scale is so simple, and yet so many guitarists can pull so many amazing things from it. These sites can help you learn the pentatonic scale, not to mention learn how to use it.

As always . . . good luck!

Dene