Tag: Minor Pentatonic

Minor Blues

Quick lesson on Minor Blues:  I play mostly on a Am blues similar to this

| Am       | Dm       | Am        |Am      |

|Dm         |               |Am         |             |

|Em          |Dm        |Am         | E7      |

The obvious  choice for soloing is the Minor Pentatonic in A…but I also add the 9th here and there (the not B in this case) and often use the Dorian modes from each single chord.

Basic pentatonic major-minor

Basic Pentatonic stuff

I will not get too much into pentatonics as you can find stuff all over the net. Too much has been said and done on the famous ‘pentatonic box’…As I say in the video, a major pentatonic is a major scale without the 4thand 7th degree. So C major pentatonic is: C D E G A These are the 5 positions for the major pentatonic, in the example in G major (but valid for all keys). Of course, remember that if you start from the 6th (the 5th note of the pentatonic – also ‘box’ N.5) you will have the relative minor. In the example in G the minor pentatonic will be E, just like E minor is the relative minor of a G major scale. The last box at the bottom right is the famous ‘blues scale’…a minor pentatonic with an added b5. Try and learn them just like we did for the major scale…all keys, down every single string, from lowest note to highest note on the fretboard and so on. Find the ‘5 boxes’ position fingerings below:

Printable PDF: Pentatonic Fingerings