Jazz Guitar Pentatonics – Part 1 –

What is the pentatonic scale?

by Marc-Andre Seguin

In this article / video series, we will study pentatonic scales and how they
can be applied in Jazz guitar improvisations. The jazz guitar pentatonics
are used extensively throughout recorded Jazz history.

We will go very slow, starting from the construction of two very common
and simple to use pentatonic scales. We will then work on them
throughout the fretboard (positions), using several patterns. Finally, we’ll
see how to apply pentatonic scales on major, minor, dominant, half-
diminished, altered (etc.) chords and chord progressions.
See video above. Enjoy!

What is the Pentatonic Scale Anyways?

Penta means Five

Ok ok, so pentatonic scales contain five notes. We could say that any five
notes constitute a pentatonic scale, but let’s stick to the one in
common use for now. Here’s how to extract the “regular” pentatonic
scales:
Start with the major scale (in C major here) :

C – D – E – F – G – A – B – (C)
If you now your major scale theory a little, you may remember that half-
steps exist only between E-F and B-C. Looking at those troublesome
notes (F and B), we get the interval of a tritone, the most naturally tense
interval in the scale that REALLY needs to resolve.
To get the pentatonic scale, we simply remove this “tension” from the
major scale to keep only the most stables notes. The trouble makers are
F and B, corresponding to the degrees 4 and 7 of the scale. By omitting
them, we get:
C – D – E – G – A – (C)
This is C major pentatonic scale also spelled
1 – 2 – 3 – 5 – 6 – (1)

Thinking in terms of this formula, we can then conclude :

Remove the degrees 4 and 7 from a major scale to get its pentatonic.
Simple, right? Now let’s see how we can make our lives more
complicated! [Laughs]

Jazz Guitar Pentatonics: Major and Minor

Now, I don’t know exactly why but most musicians like to use the minor
pentatonics as a point of reference most of the time. There’s a tendencey
there … If you get books on pentatonic, they’ll use the minor pentatonic
as the starting point.

So, instead of “fighting the system” and always thinking in major scales
and pentatonics (which I did for a while), its better to relate to
pentatonic scales by their minor counterpart. It’s more “universal” I
guess …
Here’s how to get to the relative minor pentatonic: start on the fifth note of
the major pentatonic. (what used to be the 6th degree of the major scale.)

In C major pentatonic:
C – D – E – G – A – (C)
—-> start on “A” note to get …
A minor pentatonic :
A – C – D – E – G – (A)

Notice that the minor pentatonic scale has the following spelling: 1 – b3 –
4 – 5 – b7 – (1)

This is the same concept as relative minor and major scales. You may
recognize the good old “blues box” … if you add only one note to this, you
get the SRV / Hendrix / Jimmy Page / AC DC / BB King traditional BLUES
SCALE. (Right guy?!)

The formula could be :

Remove the degrees 2 and 6 from a natural minor scale to get its
pentatonic.
Although it may seems like this is all we need to know, there’s more! We
will modify this minor pentatonic to get another more obscure one …

Other Pentatonics
Ok, you got the theory down for the most common pentatonic (major and
minor) above … but you may start to wonder about all the other possible
five note scales? Well…
While I believe it’s always good to practice as many options as
possible, pentatonics application is where it gets very
interesting… So, less is more. You only need to know one or two jazz
guitar pentatonics, and it will sound very good in applications.
For instance, we’ll consider in next instalments of this series that a simple
minor pentatonic can be applied to fit 5 or 6 different chords, always
outlining different extensions of the same chord. Basically what I am
saying here: one pentatonic goes a long way.

And throughout this article series, we’ll be using only TWO pentatonics.
Since major and minor pentatonic scales are basically the same, we need
one more spelling (one we did not look at yet).

Here’s the only other pentatonic possibility that I use very often: from the
regular minor pentatonic, lower the b7 a half step (to the 6th) to get this :
A minor Pentatonic (normal)
A – C – D – E – G – (A)
Lowering the b7 to the 6th:
A – C – D – E – F# – (A)
If you know your II-V’s very well, you may have realized that this outlines
the Am7 to D7 progression. Lowering the b7 of Am7 to become the 3rd of
D7 …

Most people (including myself) like to call this new pentatonic the D
dominant 7th pentatonic, or
D7 Pentatonic :
D – E – F# – A – C – (D)
Spelled : 1 – 2 – 3 – 5 – b7
Other people like to call this same scale the Am6 pentatonic instead. Am6
Pentatonic: A – C – D – E – F# – (A). Spelled: 1 – b3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – (1). I
don’t really like this spelling, though. But keep it in mind if it works for you.

Jazz Guitar Pentatonics Wrap Up

To summarize all this, you need to know only two pentatonic scales and
you can go a very long way :
• The Minor Pentatonic (1 – b3 – 4 – 5 – b7)
• The related Dominant 7th Pentatonic (aka Minor 6th)

The related Dominant 7th is found by changing only one note from the
minor pentatonic… Can you spell them in all keys?

Cm7 Pentatonic Scale (C Eb F G Bb C) … change one note …

F7 Pentatonic (F G A C Eb F) (aka Cm6 penta)
Try and spell the notes in your head for the following :

Dm7 – G7
Gm7 – C7
Cm7 – F7
Fm7 – Bb7
Bbm7 – Eb7
Ebm7 – Ab7
Abm7 – Db7
C#m7 – F#7
F#m7 – B7
Bm7 – E7
Em7 – A7
Am7 – D7
(now play them on the guitar, if you can) …

If you didn’t memorize II-V’s in all keys yet, now would be a good
time!

In Jazz Guitar: Pentatonics – Part 2 we will study those pentatonic scales

throughout the fretboard, in positions. You are in for a ride!
Jazz Guitar Pentatonics – Part 2 –
Five Positions for Pentatonic Scales
by Marc-Andre Seguin

Welcome to Part 2. In this very short post, we will look at our two usual
suspect (the Am and D7 jazz guitar pentatonics scales from Part 1) in five
different positions on the fretboard.

Don’t be intimidated by the amount of materials here. The beauty of the

pentatonic scales (for guitarist) is this: we only have two notes per string!
What a beauty. Watch video above. Enjoy!

On the Fretboard in Five Positions

There exist five really practical positions for playing pentatonics on the
guitar fretboard. The thing is, this scale organizes itself in “2 notes per
string” patterns everywhere on the fingerboard. Easy breezy.
The way I personally discovered the five positions for myself is through
the 7 major scale positions “boxes” I was already familiar with. I
simply figured out that 2 of those where not practical enough (and I also
had to adjust fingerings for the others.)
I highly recommend this article series on position playing … Read on
about the 7 major scale positions, leave it open in another window and
come back here!
If you read and understood part II and III of the positions article, you got
the “string – finger” system down. Here’s where the pentatonics fall on the
guitar neck:

 6-4
 6-2
 6-1 (in fact = 4-2)
 5-4
 5-2
From those “string – finger” positions, you can apply pentatonic scales on
the whole fretboard simply by removing two notes from the according
major scale. (Remember, major pentatonic = 1 2 3 5 6 and minor
pentatonic = 1 b3 4 5 b7). So if you know you entire seven positions of
the C major scale (as discussed in the article series shown above), you
already have everything you need to play the A minor pentatonic on the
entire fretboard.
And YES, as I said about: we do not have to use the complete seven
positions here. We omit two of them. Five positions suffice. You can
related this to the CAGED system if you are familiar with it. (I am not,
unfortunately.)

Just in case this is all Chinese for you, here’s a complete PDF with the
5 jazz guitar pentatonics positionswritten out in Am (standard
notation + TABS). Contains the notes A C D E G … If you can, at least,
play through that, you have 80% of the work done.
If you want to kill two birds with one stone, you may learn the related
dominant 7th pentatonic of D7 (aka Am6 pentatonic). Simply by lowering
all the “G” notes to “F#”. So, D7 pentatonic contains the notes A C D E F#
… It is highly recommended you learn the D7 pentatonic at the same time
as Am pentatonic. You will find yourself using a lot of the dominant 7th
pentatonic in applications (parts 4 and 5 of this series).
The PDF once again:

PDF – Five Pentatonic Positions – A minor Pentatonic

That’s it for today! You mission (shall you accept it) is to learn the darn
thing. Practice it lots and lots, until it becomes part of you, in all five
positions.

Jazz Guitar Pentatonics Wrap up

Although playing the five positions up and down (as in the PDF above) is
good way to memorize the concept, it would be better to spice things up a
little bit. And it is exactly what we will be doing in the next instalment.
We’ll go further by practicing some interesting patterns …
Jazz Guitar Pentatonics – Part 3 –
Patterns for Jazz Guitar
by Marc-Andre Seguin

Finally some fun stuff! Let’s get those jazz guitar pentatonics moving. If
you did you homework from parts 1 and 2, you should know what
pentatonic scales and how to play them all over the fingerboard.

Once again, we will focus our attention on the minor and “dominant 7th”
pentatonic scales. Here are my favorite pentatonic patterns to practice at
first … and the reasons why I believe you should have fun practicing them
too. Watch the video above:-)

Patterns : Get Pentatonic Scales Moving!

When first starting out learning pentatonic scales, it is important to apply
patterns. I recommend you simply use the patterns contained in this
instalment, as soon as you are comfortable with one fingering /
position. The patterns useful to get “the fingers moving” instead of blandly
running the scale up and down. (In brief, once you memorized the scale
in the easy “up and down” motion, go for patterns right away.)
Some word of advice: using pentatonics is all about creating beautiful,
intricate, complex and strange (?) angular melodies. We are breaking out
of the usual diatonic (7-note) scales and we seek as much freedom and
neat ideas as possible. Don’t box yourself in again! Don’t fall in the trap of
making them “flashy” by running patterns as fast as you can… it won’t be
musically meaningful to you and other musicians.

Basically: don’t be a rockstar here.

Practice the patterns slowly, evenly, in good time, with a good posture
and hand position. And please always aim for a full sound on each note.
If we cannot hear every note very well, you are probably practicing the
patterns too fast.

Four Fun Patterns for Pentatonic Scales

Only four?!? Isn’t there, like, a thousand patterns?

I know … but it’s just a starting point, something to sink your teeth into.
And hopefully, something to get you hooked [laughs]. Of course, you
could practice many, many more patterns. Pentatonic scales really lend
themselves to patterns! Here’s a Jerry Bergonzi book that contains many
interesting patterns: Inside Improvisation Series Volume 2 –
Pentatonics. It comes with a neat play along CD too!
So, without further ado, here are my four favorite “basics” patterns:

Pattern #1 (Ascending)

Pattern #2 (Ascending)

Pattern #3 (Descending)
Pattern #4 (Descending)

Here is the PDF file containing the FOUR basic patterns for jazz
guitar pentatonics(in Am, 5th position)
What you’ll find in the PDF above are the four patterns written in Am
pentatonic. You’ll notice that they are all four-note patterns: two
ascending and two descending. I’m only providing the patterns in the “classic” fifth
position for A minor pentatonic. I am the teacher, so I get to be lazy.
But what you should be doing, though, is learn the four pattern in all five
positions. Go slow!
And furthermore: learn the four patterns both for the A minor and the D7
pentatonic scales learned in part 1 and 2, in the five positions.

And those steps should be doable for you, right now. Here’s why:

If you followed this little article and video series so far, you should be able
to play the Am7 (our usual minor pentatonic) and D7 (dominant)
pentatonics in five positions. That’s ten scales fingerings so far. If,
furthermore, you are to apply the four basic patterns above, it means that
you now have 40 different “exercises” for your pentatonic scales in total.
Lots of work, wow! But it should be manageable at this point.

Jazz Guitar Pentatonics: Foundations

Keep in mind, though, that what we have here is really just the
foundations. We would need more advanced patterns and concept to
incorporate the sounds of Jerry Bergonzi, Barney Kessel, Kenny Burrel,
Pat Metheny, (etc.) we are looking for. Relax: slow and steady wins the
race. Go slow, learn the pentatonics and the four patterns and you will be
well on your way! The magic really lies in the applications on chords and
progression (next instalments).
More words of wisdom: once again, be careful not to “be too technical”
about it … learn and practice patterns that inspire you. Keep in mind you’ll
be using the scales and concepts to create meaningful and souful
improvised melodies in the spur of the moment. The aim is not to become
technically proficient for the sake of being flashy and fast. Music first,
always.

Jazz Guitar Lesson: ii-V-I

Improvisation using Pentatonic
Scales
by Marc-Andre Seguin
Here is an added jazz guitar lesson relating to the recent series of blog
posts and video lessons on the pentatonic scales for Jazz guitar.
In summary, we’ll discover three different “solutions” to improvising on the
ii-V-I cadence (in C major) using nothing but pentatonic scales. Note that
the materials in this lesson can be applied on any instrument. See video
above. Enjoy!

And here is the backing track to practice. Simply 8 x 4 bars of Dm7 – G7

– Cmaj7.

First Solution: Ascending Pentatonics a Half-Step Appart

As described in the video, simply use Am, Bbm and Bm pentatonics on

the progression Dm7 – G7 – Cmaj7. Here’s the analysis of chord
degrees:
Special attention must be given to the last pentatonic scale: applying Bm
pentatonic on a C major chord means that we well hear the #11 note,
making the line sounding like the Lydian mode. Please do resolve that
note (in our case an F#) to the 5th of the chord (in our case, the G note) if
you hear it.

Second Solution: Pentatonics “up and down” a Half-step

Another simple, elegant and “modern” solution here: on Dm7 – G7 –

Cmaj7 chord use Em, Eb7 and Em pentatonics. Analysis:

Third Solution: the Tritone Sub!

This is my favorite, and it is quite similar to our first solution above. We

simply change the pentatonic scale choice for the V chord. On G7, we
use the dominant 7th pentatonic a tritone away. Simply put: on G7, use
Db7 pentatonic.

The tritone substitution is an infamous one! We can hear these types of

sound throughout recorded Jazz history, but especially since the Bebop
era. The beauty of this simple and effective sub is that both chords share
their tritone (i.e. 3rd and 7th, the guide-tones are the same).
When examined closely, we can even go as far as saying that the altered
chord (or scale) is simply a tritone substitution. Also see this jazz guitar
lesson page for interesting chord subs…
Once again, be careful with the Bm pentatonic on Cmaj7 chord. We have
the F# note (#11), which might steer you to resolve to G if needed.