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Improvisational
Theory - Applications of the pentatonic scales
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Published
January 10th, 2005. © Chris Juergensen/chrisjuergensen.com.
All Rights Reserved.
This
lesson has been revised and published in THE
INFINITE GUITAR. Info
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The
first scale we learn - Like most guitarists,
probably the first scale that I learned was
the pentatonic scale, the minor pentatonic scale
for that matter. I didn't even bother learning
another scale for the next few years. It was
easy to remember and easy to use. As the years
went on I slowly but surely picked up the "other"
scales. The major scale and its modes, the harmonic
minor scale, the melodic minor scale and its
modes and the symmetrical scales (the diminished
and whole tone scales) all became part of my
vocabulary and the minor pentatonic scale kind
of got tossed aside so I could concentrate on
using my new and exciting friends. Once I started
playing Jazz and Fusion I would only pull out
the minor pentatonic scale for a fleeting moment
during a Jazz or minor blues and left it at
that. I still used it in Rock and traditional
Blues but that was about it. Fortunately, several
years ago I realized that my old friend, the
minor pentatonic scale can be used in the most
interesting ways. It can be superimposed over
almost any major, minor or dominant chord to
create complex modal harmony. These new uses
of the pentatonic scale I'm about to describe
has changed the way I approach improvisation
and has become one of the most valuable tools
that I know. I got my old friend, the minor
pentatonic scale, back.
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| The
pentatonic scale - Before I get into applying
it, let's review a bit and talk a bit about what
a pentatonic scale actually is. "Penta"
simply means five. That's why a five-sided shape
is called a pentagram and a five-pointed star
is called a pentacle. Have you ever seen the Pentagon
building from above? As you know, It's a five
sided building. Therefore, you would be correct
in assuming that pentatonic scales are five note
scales. Pentatonic scales are as old as dirt,
ancient. The major scale is an infant in comparison.
Probably any five note scale could be describes
as a pentatonic scale but the ones that we generally
play in western music are the major and minor
pentatonic scales. They look like this written
out: |
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we where to stack all the notes of the major pentatonic
scale on top of each other what you would basically
get is a C69 chord. The minor pentatonic scale
would yield a min7(11) chord. If you haven't yet
started doing this type of analysis, it is a good
time to start. Try to look at scales not just
horizontally but vertically as well. That's right,
chords are scales and scales are chords just depending
on how you place the notes in time. As I said
before, pentatonic scales only contain five notes
and because of that they don't sound nearly as
"scalular" as regular seven note scales
and sound somewhat like arpeggios. I mean if you
stop and think about it, a five note arpeggio
doesn't seem like such a far out idea but a seven
note arpeggio strikes you as a little Impractical. |
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| The
minor pentatonic scale - The applications
I'm about to introduce to you are all based on
the minor pentatonic scale. The reason that I
base all of the following improvisational techniques
on the minor pentatonic scale rather than the
major pentatonic scale is simple and selfish,
being the first scale that I learned, I'm way
more comfortable with it. If you are more familiar
with its counterpart the major pentatonic scale,
simply change the formulas to correspond to the
proper major pentatonic scale. If you are not
an expert at playing the minor pentatonic scale,
take some time and learn them all. I've included
all five patterns of the C minor pentatonic scale
below as a reference. Go on, get to work, this
lesson will be waiting here for you when you are
done: |
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| Sequences
- The same blues licks that you always play may
or may not work in these new applications that
I'm about to teach you so you may want to break
away from your usual pentatonic phrases. The pentatonic
scale is full of 4ths and 5ths intervals, try
to take advantage of them as much as you can.
Not that sequences should be relied on too much
but these are some sequences that I tend to use,
starting with a intervalic 4th sequence: |
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variation on the last sequence: |
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intervalic sequence of 5ths: |
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| Play
the previous sequences descending as well as ascending.
There are also dozens of other sequences you should
try to discover on your own. Sequences are great
tools when used tastefully but if you over do
it, you'll sound like a computer. |
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Minor
pentatonic scales over major chords
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| Applying
the minor pentatonic scale to major chords
- I'm going to get us started on using the minor
pentatonic scale over major family chords. For
demonstrational purposes, let's pretend that the
major chord that we need to improvise over is
an Cmaj7 type chord. Here is the basic formula
to remember here: |
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Over
a major chord, you can play a minor pentatonic
scale based on the 7th, 3rd and 6th of the chord.
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| 1.
Minor pentatonic played on the 7th degree of a
major chord - Yes it's true, on the 7th. This
means that you first need to locate the 7th of
your maj7th chord, in this case, Cmaj7. What is
it? That's right, the major 7th of Cmaj7 is B.
So, you can play a B minor pentatonic scale against
the Cmaj7 chord. I know it seems strange but check
out the analysis below and you'll see why it works: |
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first thing that might strike you as odd is that
there is no root present in the scale. Don't worry
about it, roots are not a necessity in scales
when used for improvisation. When I realized the
fact that roots don't need to be present, it opened
up thousands of new scale/chord relationship possibilities.
It may be helpful to think of this pentatonic
scale as "lydian" because of the #11
present in the scale. As the scale played over
a C major chord contains all the upper extensions
(9, #11, 13) it may work better over a chord with
the same or some of the same extensions (Cmaj7#11,
Cmaj13, etc.) but it functions well over simple
maj7 and maj9 chords as well. |
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| 2.
Minor pentatonic played on the 3rd degree of the
chord - A minor pentatonic played on the 3rd
degree yields us another nice choice. The 3rd
of C is E, so all we need to do is play an E minor
pentatonic scale. Check the chord tones we get
below: |
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| As
in the previous example, we also do not have a
root present in the scale. Unlike the strait major
pentatonic scale, we get the nice addition of
the major 7th. We are kind of trading our root
we get in the major pentatonic scale for a major
7th in this one. |
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| 3.
Minor pentatonic played on the 6th degree of a
major chord - The 6th of C is A, so we need
to play an A minor pentatonic scale to give us
our next possibility. Check the scale tones we
get with this choice: |
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you know your theory, you know that the A minor
pentatonic and C major pentatonic scale are one
in the same. So nothing new and exciting here
but it will still come in handy later. |
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Here is the handy-dandy formula chart for applying
the minor pentatonic scale to major chords: |
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minor
pentatonic scales/major chords
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degree
to be played on
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chord/scale
tones created
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7
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2,3,#4,6,7
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3
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2,3,5,6,7
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6
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1,2,3,5,6
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Putting
it into practice
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| Putting
it into practice - Let's start by using what
we have learned over an all major chord progression.
It is a simple three chord progression made up
of a Amaj9, Cmaj9 and Emaj9 chords for four bars
each. I tend to make a mental (sometimes a physical)
chart of the minor pentatonic scale possibilities
and find the ones that are a fret or so apart.
This way it becomes very easy to connect lines
and motifs. In the example below, I would probably
tend to chose: |
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| chord |
minor
pentatonic |
| Amaj9 |
G# |
| Cmaj9 |
A |
| Emaj9 |
G# |
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or
maybe... |
| chord |
minor
pentatonic |
| Amaj9 |
C# |
| Cmaj9 |
B |
| Emaj9 |
C# |
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| Record
the changes and experiment with all possible pentatonic
scales: |
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| The
reason I picked these pentatonic scales is because
for the Cmaj9 chord all I have to do is move the
G# minor pentatonic scale up a half step to an
A minor pentatonic scale. Not so much for a lack
of effort but because it is a great way to connect
a motif over the barline. Check out how I use
this intervalic 4ths and 5ths pattern to do so: |
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| Audio
samples - The previous chord progression is
actually from the title track, "Prospects"
from my first solo release. I've posted two mp3s
of both guitar solos that I played. I play pentatonic
scales throughout both solos but the most obvious
lines can be found at 00:18-00:28 and 00:49-00:53
on the first solo and 00:37-00:43 on the second: |
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Minor
pentatonic scales over minor chords
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Applying
the minor pentatonic scale to minor chords
- Next we are going to do the same thing but
this time we'll be using minor pentatonic scales
to improvise over minor chords. The formula
to learn:
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Over a minor chord, you can play a minor
pentatonic scale based on the root, 2nd and
5th
of the chord.
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1.
Minor pentatonic played on the 1st degree (root)
of the chord - This scale over this chord
is most likely how you've been using it anyway
so I'm not going to get into much detail here.
Before you move on to the next examples at least
check what chord tones we get with the most
common application of the minor pentatonic scale:
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Minor pentatonic played on the 2nd degree of the
chord - You can play a minor pentatonic scale
a whole step up from a minor chord. Check out
why: |
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application of the minor pentatonic scale played
on the 2nd of the minor chord will give you the
major sixth which is "dorian" by nature
so I tend to think of this scale used in this
context as the "dorian" pentatonic.
Superimposed this way, the minor pentatonic scale
contains all the upper extensions of the minor
chord (9th, 11th, 13th) and works nicely over
a min6 or min13th chord. |
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Minor pentatonic played on the 5th degree of the
chord - This is another nice alternative for
the plain old minor pentatonic. Played up a fifth
you will get the following chord tones: |
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| Unlike
the straight minor pentatonic scale, you get the
nice addition of the 9th when played in this context.
You will also be losing your b3rd which gives
the scale more of an ambiguous tonality which
I personally like. |
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again the formula chart, this time for applying
the minor pentatonic scale to minor chords: |
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minor
pentatonic scales/minor chords
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degree
to be played on
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chord/scale
tones created
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1
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1,b3,4,5,b7
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2
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1,2,4,5,6
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5
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1,2,4,5,b7
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Putting
it into practice
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| Putting
it into practice - Let's start by using what
we have learned over an all minor chord progression.
This chord progression is a simple two chord vamp
of a Cmin9 and a Emin9 chord for four bars each.
Again, I tend to pick the pentatonic scales that
are close to each other so I can connect motifs
over the barlines: |
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| chord |
minor
pentatonic |
| Cmin9 |
C |
| Emin9 |
B |
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or
maybe... |
| chord |
minor
pentatonic |
| Cmin9 |
G |
| Emin9 |
F# |
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| Record
the changes and experiment: |
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| This
is an intervalic 5th sequence played over the
barline: |
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| Audio
samples - I used the same chord progression
on "Where Spirits Dance" on the "Prospects"CD.
Check out the guitar solo. The blatant pentatonic
phrases can be found at 00:35-00:42 and 00:57-01:09: |
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Minor
pentatonic scales over altered dominant chords
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| Applying
the minor pentatonic scale to altered dominant
chords - Next we are going to do the same
thing but this time we'll be using minor pentatonic
scales to improvise over altered dominant chords.
The formula to learn: |
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Over
an altered dominant chord, you can play a minor
pentatonic scale based on the b3rd, 4th and
b7th of the chord.
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| 1.
Minor pentatonic played on the b3rd degree of
the chord - The flat 3rd or #9th of C is Eb
so that is the minor pentatonic scale we will
play here. Check out what we will get: |
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| What
more could you ask for here? You get all four
of the altered extensions (b5,#5,b9,#9). |
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Minor pentatonic played on the 4th degree of the
chord - In the case of C7(alt), a F minor
pentatonic scale: |
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not the best choice for a 7(b9,b5) chord but a
great match for a C7(#5,#9) chord. You will have
to be a little careful in your handling of the
natural 4th but because the pentatonic scales
have so many perfect 4th intervals anyway, it
doesn't seem to bother the ear too much. |
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Minor pentatonic played on the b7th degree of
the chord - In the case of C7(alt), a Bb minor
pentatonic scale: |
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| As
with the previous example, you'll need to exercise
a little caution with the 4th but other than the
b5 you get all the other extensions for the altered
dominant chord (#5, b9, #9). |
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again the formula chart, this time for applying
the minor pentatonic scale to altered dominant
chords: |
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minor
pentatonic scales/alt chords
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degree
to be played on
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chord/scale
tones created
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| b3 |
b5,#5,b7,b9,#9 |
| 4 |
1,4,#5,b7,#9 |
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b7
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4,#5,b7,b9,#9
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Putting
it into practice
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| Putting
it into practice - Let's finish by using what
we have learned over a ii-V-I chord progression.
As I mentioned in the previous examples, I tend
to look for the scales that are a half step apart.
Out of the three pentatonic choices we get for
each chord, these are probably the scales I would
pick: |
| chord |
minor
pentatonic |
| Dmin7 |
A |
| G7(alt) |
Bb |
| Cmaj7 |
B |
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or
maybe... |
| chord |
minor
pentatonic |
| Dmin7 |
E |
| G7(alt) |
F |
| Cmaj7 |
E |
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| Record
the changes and experiment: |
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| Notice
how in this example I simply move the pentatonic
scale up half steps to accommodate each chord: |
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| Using
the same pentatonic scales over a two chord per
measure ii - V - I chord progression: |
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| In
this example I use the same intervalic motif as
our first example but this time starting on an
E minor pentatonic scale, moving up a half step
for the G7(alt) chord and resolving it by moving
back to the E minor pentatonic scale: |
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| It
is still important to learn all your scales and
arpeggios but the various applications of the
minor pentatonic scale we covered in this lesson
are just one improvisational tool that you can
keep up your sleeve. Until next time... |
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