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The 5 Major Pentatonic Scale Shapes – Positions

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The major pentatonic scale is mostly used in country, folk country rock, blues and jazz.

It creates a more happy and uplifting sound.

The shapes of the major pentatonic scale are exactly the same as those of the minor pentatonic scale, except the root note is located else where.

Looking at it from the major scale, if you leave out the 4th and the 7th note of the major scale you’ll also end up with the major pentatonic.

The 5 shapes shown below are all the same scale (G major pentatonic scale) just played in different positions, so you can learn the scale all over the neck. That’s the whole purpose, eventually you want to have the freedom to be able to improvise around the entire fretboard.

SHAPE NAMES
Each shape has it’s own shape-name C, A, G, E and D, derived from the C-A-G-E-D system. Note: The name of the shapes have nothing to do with the key of the scale. The names refer to the chord shape (made up of the red and green dots) that is surrounded by the scale shape.

If you want to know more about the CAGED system check out: What is The CAGED System? (The Keys to The Fretboard)

ROOT NOTES
In the scale diagrams below the red dots indicate the root notes and the green dots indicate the remainder chord tones.

The root note of each shape determines the name of the scale. In the examples below all the scale shapes are in the key of G, so all the root notes are G notes.Continue Reading

20 Questions to Figure Out Your Purpose as a Musician

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Somewhere along the way of your guitar adventure there comes a moment when you think about what you want to do or who you want to be as a musician.

The possibilities are almost infinite and sometimes overwhelming. Where do you go next?

Maybe you play acoustic guitar but feel there’s an electric guitar beast inside of you. Or you play lead guitar in a rock band but are secretly swept away by those jazz musicians.

You sing, write, play guitar but think of learning another instrument. You might even want to make a living out of it or pursue a music career, but doing what?

There are so many choices. You can be a songwriter or a singer songwriter, a rhythm guitar player, lead player, music producer, session player, guitar teacher, street musician. You can play in a cover band performing at coffee houses, weddings, bars, small venues, etc. The list is endless.

And then there’s all those different music styles: Blues, rock, jazz, country, easy listening, alternative, classical… Isn’t it great? Yeah but it doesn’t make it easier.

So here are 20 questions to help you figure out your purpose as a musician. Take out a piece of paper, write down the answers and get to know yourself.

Enjoy!Continue Reading

12 Ways to Keep You Focused at Practicing Guitar

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A lot of guitar players tend to practice less or quit practicing altogether once they get older and gain more responsibility in life.

They still play guitar (the stuff they already know) but have given up practicing to improve. There’s a huge difference.

This is unfortunate because there are so many great things to learn that many guitar players aren’t even aware of.

It would open up their way of thinking and renew their approach to guitar playing by adding valuable knowledge, developing different skills and expanding their vocabulary.

Although I teach guitar and write about guitar playing, I also sometimes have difficulty keeping up a regular practice schedule to improve my guitar skills. Guitar playing is a major part of enjoying the good life but not the only part.

Besides the busyness of commitments and obligations in daily life, I also like to keep up with my other hobbies such as spending quality time with my wife and three kids, drinking cappuccino in the backyard, running, yoga, meditation, reading and enjoying good wines to name a few.

And as much as these things are of great importance, practicing guitar may not be harmed by all of these wonderful life luxuries. To keep a safe and secure place for regular practice I make sure I follow the guidelines below.

If you also feel like your active lifestyle is keeping you from practicing then here are the keys to get you back on track.

Check it out!Continue Reading

Combining Pentatonics to Play Mixolydian

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Today I introduce to you George Ramsay, Co-founder and Guitar Teacher at Bold Music Lessons. George sheds light on combining pentatonics to play mixolydian.

A great example of how get the most out of your pentatonic scales. Learn and reap the benefits!

HERE’S GEORGE

You can’t really talk about soloing on the guitar without understanding pentatonic scales. Normal, or “full” major or minor scales have seven different notes, while pentatonic scales have only 5 notes (hence “pent”).

Klaus has written extensively on this as well as the CAGED system, so I’ll let you read through some of his postings for more info on playing these scales.

Today we will look at creating the Mixolydian scale by combining some major pentatonic with its parallel minor pentatonic.

Mixolydian is used extensively when improvising over the 12 bar blues, other I-IV-V chord progressions, and more generally chord progressions featuring dominant seventh chords.

What the heck is Mixolydian?

Mixolydian is a mode, and modes are really just types of scales, much like major and minor (in fact, major is called the Ionian mode and minor is called Aeolian). Perhaps the simplest way to understand modes is to look at a major scale. Let’s look at C major, where our notes are C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C.

Playing a major scale (in this case C major) but not starting or ending on C, creates our different modes. For example, the second mode, called Dorian (in this case D Dorian) would look like this: D-E-F-G-A-B-C. Similarly, the fifth mode, called Mixolydian, would have G-A-B-C-D-E-F as its notes. Notice that each of these modes consist of the same seven notes! We are just starting and ending in different places. These are modes.Continue Reading