Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Pentatonic Guitar Scales and Soloing

By Nick Dillon


Pentatonic guitar scales are usually the starting point for many guitarists when first starting out with lead guitar. They are great for soloing and can be applied to many different types of music, including blues, rock and country.

All pentatonic guitar scales, by definition have five notes.In western music there are two pentatonics commonly used, these are the minor pentatonic and the major pentatonic. A variation of the minor pentatonic scale is the frquently used blues scale.

The minor pentatonic scale is commonly used in rock and blues music but is not limited to these genres. The minor pentatonic is a staple for many guitar solos, and it is generally a very popular scale used for guitar soloing. The minor pentatonic scale is composed of: root, flat 3, 4, 5 and flat 7 scale degrees.

The minor pentatonic can be converted to the blues scale by simply adding a flat 5. This is also a very commonly used scale for not just blues but for many other types of music. When referring to pentatonics for guitar, often the blues scale will be included even though technically it is not a pentatonic scale. It is comprised of : root, flat 3, 4, flat 5, 5 and flat 7. This scale may well be the most popular scale for soloing with the guitar.

The major pentatonic is a useful and versatile scale used in music. This is comprised of the root, 2, 3, 5, and 6. This scale is also frequently used in blues guitar and country music but again is not limited to these styles. If we take the two of these scales we find they are commonly used jointly when soloing over a twelve bar blues in conjunction with the flat 5, mentioned previously, from the blues scale.

To learn lead guitar it is crucial to learn the minor pentatonic, blues and the major pentatonic guitar scales. These scales can be used for guitar solos in almost any style of music and contain the common notes that the diatonic modes are formed with. These scales are genearally a good starting point when learning lead guitar.




About the Author:



No comments: