The first scale

A minor pentatonic scale

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I am completely convinced that it is healthy and good for me to play scales so now it is time to choose the first scale to practice. The first problem is to determine which scale to start with. There are so many of them. The wisdom of the all knowing world wide web gave me the answer.

Of course, I will choose a pentatonic scale. Pentatonic scales are oldest of all scales. Probably over forty thousand years old, older than writing. This statement is supported by old flutes which were found in Germany. These flutes were made of vulture bones and are at least forty thousand years old. These flutes have five holes and are tuned with the pentatonic scale. This scale is used in most types of music and is found in music from all over the world. It is the most used scale and therefore it is very suitable to start practicing it.

The traditional scale has seven notes compared to five notes in the pentatonic scale. Intervals two and six in a standard scale are omitted. For some reason, pentatonic scales work well when a musician wants to improvise and most rock and blues guitarists rely heavily on pentatonic scales. Many never take their scaling exercises further and that´s just fine. But if you are a jazz or a classical guitarist you need to immerse yourself in traditional scales as well. When blues guitarists use pentatonic scales to improvise they add a „blue note“ here and there and that note gives the improvisation the blues feel. Most people start with a minor pentatonic scale, so I will start my musical scale journey by learning the a minor pentatonic scale.

A minor pentatonic scale can be played in five places on the guitar neck. Each place has its own pattern. Then you have to learn all the other scales in both major and minor. Sure, it sounds overwhelming, but there is good news. Once you have learned all five patterns and positions of one minor pentatonic scale on the guitar neck, you kind of know all the minor pentatonic scales because the patterns just move up and down the neck. Not only that. You also know the pentatonic Major scales because their patterns are identical to the a minor pentatonic scale and the notes are the same. Besides, the root is different. For example, a minor scale and C Major scale are connected. If you want to play a pentatonic C Major scale, you just start with the C note. More on that later.

Pattern 1: A minor pentatonic scale

The notes in a minor pentatonic scale are A which is the root, C, D, E, G. In the picture of the guitar neck, you will see pattern 1 of the scale. Pattern 1 is played from the fifth fret.

Tónbilin í a moll pentatóníska tónstiganum eru 3 – 2 – 2 – 3 – 2. Ef tónbilin eru hugsuð frá rót þá eru þau A – C = lítil þríund, A – D = ferund, A – E = fimmund, A – G lítil sjöund.

Hvenær notar maður pentatónískan tónstiga?

The intervals in a minor pentatonic scale are 3 – 2 – 2 – 3 – 2. The intervals from the root are A – C = minor triad, A – D = perfect fourth, A – E = perfect fifth, A – G minor seventh.

• A minor

• B dim

• C Major

• D minor

• E minor

• F Major

• G Major

How to practice the scale

• The first step is of course to practice the scale slowly and not to increase the speed until you can play it ten times without mistakes.

• Learn the pattern by heart.

• Learn at least where to find the root note of the scale.

• Start and end on the lowest root note.

• Practice the scale with the fingerings as written above.

• Practice the scale also by using the third finger instead of the fourth finger on the highest two strings. This can be helpful when you bend the strings.

• Use metronome.

Here the pentatonic scale is explained on Justin guitar.

Here pattern 1 is taught on Justin guitar. He is teaching how to improvise over blues. You use this scale and add the blue note.

Now it´s time to start practicing.