The EASIEST Way To Memorize Pentatonic Scales & Blues Scales (Major & Minor) On Piano

pentatonic scales and blues scales which are really just one extra note are much easier to use well and move around them when you can easily recognize the shape they make on piano in one go in whatever key you need i want to show you a really simple visual method i use with my students and by the end of the video you'll understand them and you'll be able to find major and minor pentatonic scales and major and minor blues scales pentatonic scales contain five notes if you forget that part just think of a pentagram which has five sides okay so this is the method we'll start off by finding the c major pentatonic scale and i'll show you some other keys afterwards picture a c major chord a c major triad in root position so the c on the bottom of course you need to know the chord in the key you're after first but most people learn chords before pentatonic scales it's probably best to do it that way around anyway so we're using something already familiar as a visual framework to help us find the notes in the pentatonic scale a major chord already gives us three out of the five notes in a major pentatonic scale all we need to do is add a note a whole step above the bottom note that's here so that's a half step and then a whole step or we can say a whole step in between these two and then just add another whole step above the top note that's here and there's our c major pentatonic scale so that's the method take a major triad find the note a whole step above the bottom note and then find the note a whole step above the top note now we can also do this another way by picturing the whole c major scale and then taking away the fourth note and the seventh note so one two three four five six seven and we get the same result now this may be an easier way for you to understand the scale a major pentatonic scale is a major scale minus the fourth and the seventh degree but i think the chord method is easier visually for beginners especially to see the shape quickly in one go which is what we really want and that makes more of a difference actually when you get to some of the other keys with a real mixture of black and white notes and wavier shapes but use whatever method works best for you the best way to really learn new chords and scales is to know what ingredients they're made of what intervals they're built with so a major pentatonic scale contains these intervals these numbers which is a one a major second a major third a perfect fifth and a major sixth they're the full interval names but we can just say one two three five and six the major triad already had the one three and five so we just learned how to spot the two and the six around those notes once you know a major pentatonic you can easily turn it into a major blues scale just quickly though if this video has been helpful so far then please let me know by clicking the like button because that really helps out the channel all we're going to do is add the note in between the second note and the third note so a half step in between them we might call this a blue note but the interval name would be a flat three or a minor third if that's the major third this is a half step below it [Music] and we can use that to add a bit of kind of soulful bluesy flavor on top of the major pentatonic you just have to be careful how you use that flat 3 though although that's a topic for another day often you might hear people only refer to the blues scale and they normally actually mean the minor blues scale but there is a major blues scale too it's just the major pentatonic plus the flat three and that is the note in between two and three okay we're going to make this all nice and clear by doing a couple of quick examples in two other keys let me know in the comments though i'd be interested to hear what scales and chords have you learned so far and how are you getting on with it to find the e major pentatonic scale we're going to take an e major triad we're going to add the note a whole step above the root that's going to be here see half step whole step and then a whole step above the fifth the top note so that's going to be here and there's e major pentatonic of course we've kept the spacing of the notes the same so it sounds the same just a bit higher up or you can picture the e major scale and just like we did before take away the fourth note and take away the seventh note to turn that into the e major blues scale you're gonna find the note in between the second and the third that's here [Music] to find the b-flat major pentatonic we're going to take the b-flat major chord and we're going to add on the note a whole step above the root that's going to be here [Music] and then a whole step above the fifth the top note so from here that is here [Music] or you can picture the whole b flat major scale take away the fourth note and take away the seventh note to turn it into the b flat major blues we just add the flat three which is in between two and three [Music] i have a pdf to go along with this lesson there's a link below and that recaps everything in the video plus more and there's a glossary of all these major and minor pentatonic and blues scales in every key and over on patreon i'll be posting a couple of companion videos soon where you can follow along and practice finding these in every key so thanks to everyone who supported the channel over on patreon okay on to minor pentatonic scales and for this we're going to use a minor triad to find them starting with c minor and again this already gives us three out of the five notes we need like a major chord a minor chord also has a one a three and a five but this time the third is a minor third or a flat three it's a half step below where the major third was all we do then is add a note a whole step in between the minor third and the fifth that's here see there to there is a whole step or coming down from there that's backwards a whole step and then what's useful for the next one is to picture an octave so we're on a c chord so the octave is the next c up and we're going to add the last note a whole step again below that so a whole step below c is b flat [Music] and there is our c minor pentatonic [Music] you can also find that by jumping a minor third from here which is one and a half whole steps but i found most people prefer coming down from the octave and if you already know a minor seven chord so in this case c minor seven well that's these four notes so if you know that you only have to add on this one here the fourth in between the third and the fifth so use that if that's already familiar for you and kind of like before all of these notes the five notes in the minor pentatonic scale are five out of the seven notes of the natural minor scale this is the c natural minor scale if we take away the second degree of the scale one two and the sixth degree three four five six we are left with the minor pentatonic scale so the intervals that build this scale are the root number one the minor third the fourth the perfect fourth the fifth or the perfect fifth and the minor seventh or we can say the flat seven like i say it's really good to remember those labels but probably more important really practically is to be able to see those shapes easily i do have videos on building minor scales too there's actually a few types of minor scale and it's really important and helpful to learn that properly so i'll link to those in the description below let me show you how once you know a minor pentatonic you can easily turn it into a minor blues scale remember people often just call this one the blues scale that's normally what they mean if they say that all we're going to do is add on one note in between the fourth and the fifth so that's here so it's a half step in between we're gonna call this the flat five you may also hear sharp four in this particular case either's fine really but for consistency i'm gonna stick with flat five and again we might call this a blue note we have to be careful how we use that note usually it wants to wants to pull up to the one above it or [Music] or it wants to pull down to the one below it so we can use this scale to help us create that distinctive bluesy sound so the minor blues scale is just the minor pentatonic scale plus the flat five which is the note in between four and five so let's see how this looks in a couple of other keys to find an e minor pentatonic picture an e minor triad and then we're going to add the note a whole step in between the third and the fifth the minor third and the perfect fifth that's going to be here's a whole step there and a whole step there then picture the octave e to e come backwards a whole step that adds on the flat seven and then we've got e minor pentatonic or we can picture the whole e natural minor scale and take away the second note and the sixth note then to turn it into the e minor blues scale we're just gonna add on the flat five which is in between the fourth and the fifth so that is here b flat to find f minor pentatonic we're going to take an f minor chord and then we're going to add on the note the fourth a whole step in between the third and the fifth the minor third and the perfect fifth that's here so that's b flat so a whole step above there and a whole step below there and then we're going to look at the octave of the root f to f and come a whole step below which gives us the flat seven the minor seven so there's f minor pentatonic or you can imagine the whole f natural minor scale and take away the second note one two and the sixth note three four five six that'll be taking away the flat six that leaves us with f minor pentatonic then to turn that into the f minor blues scale what you may hear referred to as just the f blues scale we're gonna add on the note in between the fourth and the fifth so that's just here so we're calling that the flat five and i just want to point out if we call that the flat five we can't really call that note b because the note c is five so to be a kind of fifth we have to use the same letter so a half step below c if we flatten c we have to call this a c flat but it's the same key on the piano as b remember you can get a pdf to go along with this lesson there's a link below i'm going to do a follow-up video talking about relative major and minor pentatonics and bloom scales let me know if you have any questions in the comments and next check out one of these videos for some practical tips to help with changing chords and your accuracy playing thanks for watching

Channel: Piano From Scratch

Views: 145,808

Keywords: pentatonic scales piano, pentatonic scales piano lesson, major pentatonic scale, minor pentatonic scale, blues scale piano, major blues scale, beginner piano lessons, beginner piano tutorial, music theory piano beginners, pentatonic theory, minor pentatonic theory, pentatonic scale music theory

Id: Vj-BOmKgdE4

Length: 13min 10sec (790 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 20 2022