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CD track
Essential or no 16

Pentatonic
A gneat many guitar players 0uerl00k the maior pentatonic scale in lauoun ol
mone lamous minon lonm. Wnong!
he major pentatonic scale, u,hen
heard in isolation, conjures up a
s\'\,eet and consonant sound. This is
due. of course, to having the major third
scale tone as a key feature (eg the note E
'n majnfl. \dJing to thJt sr\eelness is ir
t those R/3/5 notes just mentioned.
majoi 6th (eg A in C major). This scale has
lL,ng beer assoc aleJ rr'irh counlry music
and its oilsl, oots and I covered it
.oecr icrll) rn mv Hol Courlrv colunrns in
July 94 and November 96. Although it'11
alu,ays have that sweetness llhen heard
against its parent chord. the major
pentatonic scale and riffs or licks derived
from it ma]- be heard in virtually any style
it's a versatile scale form, no doubt due
to its simplicity and lack of tension.
EveLIone needs to realise that the
major pentatonic scale is actuall],
responsible for the minor pentatonic scale;
and many of us learn Am, box 1 at the 5th
fret, earll'on in our studies. don t ue? In
fact, most of us learn it first! If you check
out this article's f'ingerboard diagrams
you ll see that ue re dealing [,ith the same
phl,sical stuff. It s just that the chord tones
of C are more important here (ie C, E and
C as root,3rd & 5th respecti\'ely).
Can you see what I'm telling you? I'm
betting that you already know the so called
'box 1 for Am stuff (plus any licks or riffs
J<"iv<J from rl), so air I need to do here is
guide you or instruct you to listen out for
To briefly recap over stuff I've
previouslv described, the relatile minor
(pentatonic) scale Nill hare its root three
lrels or a rninnr iLi"J be Ur, rs paren
major's root. Put another u,av. the root of
the major tonality will be three frets or
semitones above the root of the relative
minor. I{ere are a ferv examples:
C=Am
G=Em
F=Dm
E=C#m
A=F#m
Memorise those and the rest (see the chart
on pg 66 of Aprii 97's Hot Countnr, where
every I is the parent major and the
corresponding VI chord is the relative
minor).
The only other impo'llnl Jilfrr<ni< is
that the associated chord shape(s) lvill, of
course, need to be relevant to the major
chord. So, at the fifth fret, in Am you've no
Ie Licks!
its I
lesson [y lee Hodgson )
doubt learned to associate box 1 with that
full barre (E) minor type chord shape. But I
which shape at the same location gives you
a C chord? It s a C shape - and that s
r,vhat were looking at this time; box 1, C
major pentatonic stuff around the fifth fret
position.
I've presented ten ideas en bloc and on
the Gf CD, so thal you can hear Lhem in }
conlexl against a simple groove which is
perhaps more r'n'b than country.
Remember that it's the C majorness that I
we should be concentrating on, but once
you've tried all the stuff out as it was
intended, why not also try the same
lick/phrases against any of the following:
(i) Am - the sound will be 'rocky,6luesy' fl
(ii) FmajT - for a mellow, Larry Carlton-
ish jazzlfusion sound
(iii) D(m or I1th) - for a George Benson-
ish darker jazzy e{fect
It's these sort of tips that can save you an
awful lot of time and cut stnight to the key
points, Please keep in touch with us here at
the magaz ine and let us know about any
subject or item which we can delve into in
order to increase your understanding of
guitar playing. Take it easy! G7 I

Shaping Ue C MAJOR
PENTATONIC SCALE: CDEGA
't 235 6
)

Notice the simila!.ity in shape

ffi ffi
Boxl Scale Steps Pitches

[etween tne minor

G maion and A trtTTt tT-rT-[l
pentatonic scale$. Youn lingens "55didd
n-ffin "@@@o@@

pn0baily know this alrGady - it's iust t6aa I I o(oe)

i,
|

L!ttt!! 6|116.6
a Gase ol tuning youn can in.
Associated chord
shape: llll

July 1{197 . G.ritar' Techniqu€s