Scale Scales
How to Play Pentatonic Guitar Scales a Beginner Guitar Lesson
If you’ve been playing guitar for a while, and have mastered basic chords and even barre chords then you’re probably ready for pentatonic scales. They work for rock, blues and even jazz, plus there are only 5 different shapes to remember for any key you can think of.
In this article I’m going to explain the first shape of the pentatonic scale, and give you an example for A minor. After reading this you should go grab your own guitar and give this pentatonic guitar scale a try.
What makes a scale Pentatonic?
The Penta in the name pentatonic stands for 5 notes. You play more then 5 different frets during the scale, but they are just repetitions of the basic 5 notes. Compared to other scales that contain 7 or more notes, the pentatonic scale is the easiest for beginners to master & memorize.
Example of A Minor Pentatonic Scale
Before I describe the scale I want to first show you what it looks like on the guitar neck, you can see it in the first illustration below. Assume that this diagram starts at the fourth fret of your guitar neck, so the second fret in from the left would actually be fret number five.
The first diagram illustrates the notes played in the A minor pentatonic scale. Notice how there are 12 notes to be played, how ever there are only 5 different notes: A, C, D G and E.
e|——|–1—|——|——|—4–|——
B|——|–1—|——|——|—4–|——
G|——|–1—|——|—3–|——|——
D|——|–1—|——|—3–|——|——
A|——|–1—|——|—3–|——|——
E|——|–1—|——|——|—4–|——
To understand what fingers to use where I’ve included this second diagram. Again, this diagram is assuming the first fret shown is the 4th fret not the 1st, so for the first note you’d be placing for first finger on the 5th fret of the low E string.
e|——|–A—|——|——|—C–|——
B|——|–E—|——|——|—G–|——
G|——|–C—|——|—D–|——|——
D|——|–G—|——|—A–|——|——
A|——|–D—|——|—E–|——|——
E|——|–A—|——|——|—C–|——
Portability of the Pentatonic Guitar Scale
The great thing about pentatonic guitar scales is the shapes which form the scale (such as the diagram listed above) can be used all over the neck. The example provided is in A minor, but what if you wanted to play in G?
Changing the key is easy, slide the shape back two frets and have your starting note now on the 3rd fret of the low E string and you playing in the key of G. Now just follow the exact same pattern as shown above. The second note would be on the 6th fret of the Low E (instead of the 8th as shown above).
This is the first of five different shapes for the pentatonic scales. Of course, it’s a great one to start with because the root note of the scale is the first note played.
I suggest you go grab you’re guitar and give this scale a go on your own, playing it forwards and backwards. When learning scales with either online guitar lessons, a book or even private lessons learning the material is similar, but practice is what makes it perfect.
If these guitar scales seem a little too advanced for you yet, maybe consider getting a beginning guitar dvd. Learning guitar from DVD videos is becoming very popular and is far less expensive then private lessons.
Guitar Scales Lesson – Pentatonic Scale and Playing up and Down the Neck
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