Play The Blues Scale (Minor Pentatonic) + Major Pentatonic Scales on your Guitar

let me show you the only two scales you could ever possibly need to start soloing and improvising on the fly right now [Music] and even if you learn nothing more than these two scales i guarantee you'll be able to play most of what you need to play on your guitar now before we dive into the lesson make sure you stick around to the very end because i have a free gift for you that you're gonna love okay now let's get into it what are these two scales these two scales are the minor pentatonic scale and the major pentatonic scale and today we're going to talk about how to combine them seamlessly so you can have endless ideas when you're soloing and improvising so let's get started with the minor pentatonic now we're going to be in the key of e today so we're going to start with the e minor pentatonic now the starting note is this note right here which is the 12th fret on your guitar this note is an e note also known as a root note which is a key detail we'll get into in a little bit so we start with the 12th fret first finger then we're going to play the 15th fret you can use your pinky or your third finger i like to use my pinky because i like to approach playing like i coordinate a finger to a fret you know so if i'm if i'm in a position like this using my first finger at this one fret and then i have you know three frets up i'll just go three fingers up and use my pinky alright then we're going to play 12 and 14 on the a string [Music] 12 and 14 on the d string 12 and 14 on the g string 12 and 14 sorry 12 and 15 sorry on the b string so using our first finger and pinky again and then 12 and 15 on the high e string [Applause] and there is our minor pentatonic scale in the key of e so we're going to start with finding those root notes real quick so you know how we had our first one which is 12th fret right here on the low e string there's actually two more root notes that we have to work with then the other one is right here on the 14th fret of the d string and then the last one is on the 12th fret of the high e string so as you navigate through this scale you have three e notes or root notes right now the reason those are important is because in the key of e right the note e right is obviously the best note you can play because it is the note reflecting the actual key so you can think of it this way if you're in the key of e and you play an e note you will never play a wrong note right so it's kind of a good safety net to keep in mind now all the other notes in the scale are kind of a context that move around the root notes you can think of it that way so because this is a minor pentatonic scale there are certain notes in it that reflect a minor tonality right but we still have those root notes so if we're going through the scale [Music] it kind of takes on a more musical kind of vibe when we play it deliberately like that where we're emphasizing on those you know those root notes so we do want to navigate our way through the scale not just robotically or mechanically right because that's not really playing music that's just exercising a scale but as you're going through it if you start to kind of emphasize those root notes you can start to develop more musical ideas because you're thinking in the context right of how the scale is played and that's how you start to form phrases and stuff like that when you're improvising now let's move on to the major pentatonic scale we're still in the key of e obviously now here's the cool trick right anytime you're playing a minor pentatonic scale pattern right and you want to find the major pentatonic scale pattern on the fly this is all you have to do okay you're going to essentially let's say we're right here right starting on that root note we're going to just bring it down three frets one two three and we're going to play that exact same pattern or that same box right only with these new frets now if we take this pattern here that we just went through right and then we shift it down three frets remember you want to shift it down three frets from the minor that's how we reach major pentatonic territory so check this out starting with the ninth fret here on the low e string then we play with our pinky the 12th fret right which is the root note so these scales obviously are going to share that e root note because they're both in the key of e alright then we have 9th fret now we have 9 and 11 on the a string 9 11 on the d string 9 and 11 on the g string 9 12 on the b string and then 9 12 on the high e string so same exact pattern same exact box however you want to think of it right our fingers are going in that same movement right we've just shifted it down three frets so anytime you want to find the major pentatonic equivalent to the minor pentatonic that you're playing all you have to do is take that minor pentatonic pattern shift it down three frets and then play it through the same way and you found yourself the major pentatonic scale now let's talk real quick about the root notes in the major pentatonic scale so we have that 12th fret on low e that's a shared e note right and then as we continue to walk up the scale right here is the next e note which isn't shared uh i mean it is and it is and i'll show you in a second uh it isn't shared by the minor pentatonic in terms of its exact positioning right but this note right here the ninth fret of the g string is another e note but it's actually the same note that you find here back on the minor pentatonic on the 14th fret of the d string same note different position okay so check it out same exact note so that's e in the same octave just in a different position on your fretboard that's all you have to really think about with that and then as we continue up the scale [Music] then we reach that other third root note that e note on the 12th fret of the high e string so we can find three e notes in each of the minor and major pentatonic scale positions so same idea like we talked about with the minor scale minor pentatonic scale is think of the context right it's sharing the same root notes it's in the same key the difference or all the other notes around it in that context make it give it its tonality right so if we were to emphasize the root notes on the major pentatonic as we walk up we'll kind of hear it right [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right usually with the major pentatonic you really want to land on an e note right because that way you you continue to keep that tonality in your mind right so you don't necessarily want to end on the the you know the the first note of the scale right in this case which is the n the ninth fret of the low e string right so you want to just come back to just to continue to set that major pentatonic tonality in your head you want to come back to that root note so i like to end a major pentatonic run you know [Music] right back on that root note on the low e string and hey if you're enjoying this lesson so far be sure to hit that like button and consider subscribing to our youtube channel so you can be the first to watch new lessons and maximize your guitar playing games every time you sit down with your guitar all right now that we're acquainted with these two scales let's talk about ways that we can use them to make some actual music all right so personally i love starting off when i'm switching back and forth between those two scales i like starting with the major pentatonic now this is the way that i personally approach these two scales i think of the major pentatonic as a great resource for melody right thinking of lines that sound like something someone would sing right and i love the minor pentatonic as just a lick factory right you can come up with cool licks and of course you can get all those bluesy and like rock and roll kind of sounds out of it and so uh when i want to sort of move into that space with what i'm playing i'll move on to the minor pentatonic but if i want to go back to being melodic and kind of pretty and a little more lyrical i'll focus on the major pentatonic so let me give you a little demonstration so since we're in the key of e we can totally just drone a low e string and just let that ring while we play through the scale so like i said i like to start with major pentatonic because it can get a little lyrical right i can do something like this you know real simple right all i'm doing is i'm just kind of sliding i'm built ramping up a little bit to what eventually just ends up being playing a root note all right now here's the thing this note i'm sliding to which is the 11th fret of the d string here that note's very important even though it's such a passing you know almost after thought of a note because it's establishing the context of us being in the major pentatonic now if i were to do this bar to omit that note and just play you know open low e and then then just play that note you know that e note on the ninth fret of the g string then it's a bit more ambiguous you don't really know if i'm major or minor in my context but if i play this note right you can really hear the context like ooh this is sounding very you know joyful right if you want to get those joyful sounds major pentatonic is a great way to do it so just by doing something as simple as droning a low e string sliding up to the 11th fret of the d string and then then just playing that e note right there ninth fret of the g string all right and and as far as sliding up to the 11th fret here on the d string doesn't matter where you're sliding up you know you can slide up from the ninth fret or you can slide it from the fourth fret it doesn't matter right however you do it it's really just you can almost think of it as just like an effect right we're creating some some some drama here right just with that slide or glissando is the musical term right so just with something like that you can sit and play that and you're on to something musically right we're not playing a lick we're not exercising a scale this is music right here very simple just raw music [Music] [Laughter] so that's an example of just contextually making my way just to home base right the root note now if i were to use one of the other root notes let's say [Applause] all right so that was a little bit more nodey right but i was still focusing on that high e 12th fret right that that eno right there i was always coming back to it and every other note i was playing around it was staying within that major pentatonic musical context or tonality right [Music] and then right there what i did and by the way these are all off the cuff ideas just from all the time i've spent just you know really getting to know how these notes feel right and how they sound i was deciding okay i'm going to walk from this one to this one right walk from e to e but what i did was just you know instead of just mechanically you know i try to just make it a little bit more musical a little bit more on purpose you know so when you do it that way you know when you kind of you know add some flair to it like i was doing some hammer-ons and pull-offs and just also repeated notes but pretty much i was just focusing on [Music] those notes right there in the scale right and then let's just say we want to come back to the low uh e note here right so we can do something like this all right same thing i'm trying to keep it as you know straightforward as possible in terms of not not not of course not uh deviating from the actual scale but also not trying to be too flashy or anything like that just literally using the notes that we are given right with the scale [Music] and just thinking in terms of dynamics and that kind of thing you know and this is what i'm talking about when you're sitting with your guitar and you have the tools you have like the framework of a scale that you've got to follow right in the beginning if it's required of you based on your skill level to just mechanically walk and walk up and down the scale that's okay because in the beginning that's okay because you're getting it under your fingers you're getting acquainted you're building the muscle memory all that kind of stuff right but once that's established what you don't want is to be stuck in that habit of just playing the scale up and down so if you're ever in a situation where you're jamming with someone or if you're playing to a backing track what you don't want to do is just [Music] you don't want to do that because that's not really music you know this is just your your fingers just doing their thing that you train them to do so so so be cautious about that right learn the scale get it under your fingers and then once you're comfortable enough playing it then you can start to take more creative liberties and i'm telling you even if it's just starting with one root note at a time and picking a handful of other notes working your way around it you know all the time that you spend doing that is only going to add and feed that that inner creativity that even if you don't even realize it when you're on the spot and you're improvising you know those ideas will just come out i'm telling you it happens to me to this day you know where ideas where i don't even really uh it's not like i plan them and they just come out and i'm like how did i come up with that then i think back like man i know there was a time where i sort of worked out that idea just by sitting with my guitar and playing it so that that's really the you know that's the whole idea that i'm trying to impress upon you with with practicing these skills so we got that's kind of familiar with uh major pentatonics so we've gotten into just playing beautiful melodies right very very uh limited amount of notes to work with [Music] you know now if we move to minor pentatonic like i said this is where i like to get more licky with it right i like to you know uh um think more in terms of like the sounds i love to hear from a minor pentatonic scale stuff like that you know it's just very bluesy so now that we're in minor pentatonic territory okay you want to approach it the same way okay start simple right and focus on those root notes so if we're going to start with the 12th fret on the low e string here all right and just pick a handful of notes let's just do like the top part of the scale right so just 12 15 on low e and then 12 14 on a so these four notes let's start with just those for now right [Music] right there's a lot of ideas you can come up with just with those four notes you know and if we wanted to walk it over to the next e note which is 14th fret of the d string right [Music] right but we're always landing back to home base right to those root notes [Music] all right so even if you were to kind of get nerdy with it as long as you focus on that objective of just landing on that root note right and then moving on to the next e right the final one which is 12th fret on high e we can just keep it going you know [Music] and then next thing you know we're just walking our way you know across those three uh e notes in the context of the minor pentatonic scale right now again you don't have to get really licky with it but just start getting licky with it right i'm gonna make that a thing let's put that on a t-shirt so if we were to start with you know just playing notes around the root notes right and again if you hearken back to the blues it's all about simplicity right it's all about simple expression you could do something like this right which all i'm doing is just taking that 15th fret on the high e string giving slight bends what are known as blues bends right and then coming right back that's a phrase right there that's something that someone could sing like a good blue singer could sing something like that [Music] right and a good blues guitar player plays something like that you do the same thing on the b string if you want you know [Music] the whole point is to just take these notes right memorize them and then start to find ways to manipulate them through the context of your personal style that even if it's something you're developing right it's just you don't want to be you know don't be afraid of it right you know you can just do that anywhere right these are two notes two note per string scales you know so you can mirror certain patterns and stuff you can even do the same pattern like you can do like and do that in the major pentatonic [Music] same basic idea right but i just shifted it down to the major pentatonic and the context changed even though everything i played as far as what my fingers were doing were the same this all making sense this is how i want you to approach actually using these scales because there's a difference between learning a scale and using it or using it properly if you want to say let me tell you one of the best most important pieces of advice i've gotten when it comes to improvisation i'm going to share with you right now is that the difference between using right a scale and just knowing a scale comes from here it's a mental game right it's not just a physical game there's there's two factors at play here there's your mind right and then there's your hands and you want to have a clear communication between the two you want to come up with an idea in your head and let your fingers bring it to life right that is what you want to focus on when it comes to improvisation so that's why i'm saying use the scales in a way that's musical that's deliberate think of the context right of these scales and i'm telling you doesn't matter what key you're playing in you can just use major and minor pentatonic and play virtually everything you possibly could need to play just with those two scales alright so you've just discovered the two most important scales for any guitar player hopefully now you have a good understanding of how to use these scales to get you started with soloing and now it's time for your free gift so hopefully you've been following along with me and you've got these two scales embedded in your mind but chances are when you take what you learned today and you put it into practice like playing to a song or to a backing track you might get a little lost and that's okay because i've got something for you today that's guaranteed to help you out with that it's a free cheat sheet that's going to show you how to instantly solo in any key this has helped thousands of guitar players bridge the gap between learning scales and understanding how to use them in a solo anywhere on the fretboard i believe every guitar should have this and that's why it's yours 100 free so click the link here or check the link in the description box to grab yourself a copy i want to thank you for hanging out with me today i hope you've enjoyed this lesson as much as i've enjoyed bringing it to you i'm eddie with guitar mastery method and i look forward to seeing you in the next lesson

Channel: Guitar Mastery Method

Views: 774,666

Keywords: guitar mastery, guitar, guitar lesson, guitar lessons for beginners, guitar lessons, guitar tutorial, how to play guitar, guitar riffs, guitar solo, electric guitar, guitar tabs, play guitar, learn to play guitar, beginner guitar, beginner guitar lessons, blues scale, pentatonic scale, pentatonic scales guitar, minor pentatonic, major pentatonic, play the blues scale, major and minor scales, how to solo, solo on guitar, only scale you need, pentatonic scales on guitar

Id: SUw_tin85k8

Length: 19min 52sec (1192 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 01 2021