A Minor Pentatonic Help

Ok I believe I understand the position on the neck for A minor pentatonic, 1-5

Now what is the difference between A minor pent and A major pent E minor E maj etc? is it just the position on the neck? or is it a whole different pattern.

If anyone knows of examples pls let me know, I am a moron when it comes to music theory, but Im trying to rectify that :D

The positions on the neck comes from the notes used in a particular scale. Since each scale has different notes, each scales has different position. The key in finding positions is to know your fretboard and which notes are where.

A minor pentatonic
Notes : A - C - D - E - G

A major pentatonic
Notes : A - B - C# - E - F#

So to answer you question, the difference between A minor and A major is they use different notes and since they use different notes, they have different positions on the neck.

I'll take myself as an example. I'm a visual person. I remember patterns and position more than actual notes. So when I start playing over a backing track, I see where I need to play, but I couldn't tell you on the spot what are the notes in the scale I use. I'd have to stop and think about it.

In the beginning I learned scales and positions on the fretboard without knowing I was actually playing a specific sequence of notes. after years of playing I started asking question and that's when I learned that a scale is made up of a bunch of notes.

The best tutorial we have on learning the pentatonic (minor and major) scales is probably Christopher Schlegel's "Pentatonic Scales & Frameworks". What is great about his tutorial is that he will not only show you the pattern, but the logic behind it also.

hey Benoit,

I am kinda like you I guess in that I am a visual person and I know all sorts of shapes and stuff on the fret board but very few of the notes. I have tried memorization but it doesn't really seem to hold, even if I can get my self to si down and right out the whole fret board it doesn't seem to transfer into an ability to quickly recall the notes or be able to dissect the notes of scales. I know that this is important because it wold allow me to quickly figure out what I shoul be playing when I am laying with other people with out just going, oh well they are starting with an A minor chord and I want to play rock so... A minor pent., this works sometimes but it'd be nice to be able to see a whole progression and the notes and then know which scales and notes I need to use to play with it.

How did you learn them, just memorizing, or is there better way I might try. This is something I really think is important if I want to progress but I can't get myself to sit down and just memorize, which like I said doesn't seem to transfer into playing very well.

Well Drew, at first I started downloading backing tracks ... A LOT of backing track, even if they were only midi files. I would take one backing track and figure out the chords used. Then I would try to find a scale that I could use over it. You can imagine how long that took lol . Once I got a scale I liked, I would jam and jam and jam until I started associating patterns with certain sounds. It usually takes me a few bars before I can figure it out what patterns/shapes to use.

I guess with time my ear became better too with all the jamming.

The problem was that even if someone told me to use that scale over that progression, it wouldn't stick. I forgot about it the next day but since I tried to figure it out myself, I actually was able to find a way to remember the shapes. That's how I am. That's how I was in school too, I didn't always grasp what they were teaching until I got home and did my homework lol

pentatonic major = 3 frets lower than pentatonic minor

ok so, I've tabbed out the A minor pentatonic, at least I think I have, so for a G minor pentatonic do I just move the entire pattern down two frets?

If anyone knows of a pic? that would be nice

Thanks

Originally Posted by: Eyepootedok so, I've tabbed out the A minor pentatonic, at least I think I have, so for a G minor pentatonic do I just move the entire pattern down two frets?

If anyone knows of a pic? that would be nice

Thanks

Yes you've got it.

The A minor Pentatonic scale will work over a chord progression like A, D, E (I, IV, V) for example

The G minor Pentatonic scale will work over a chord progression like G, C, D (I, IV, V) for example

Awesome, I wish someone would have done a lesson about this kinda stuff and not just little parts all over the web to piece together :-)

Originally Posted by: EyepootedAwesome, I wish someone would have done a lesson about this kinda stuff and not just little parts all over the web to piece together :-)

There's a fantastic book by Harvey Vinson called 'Lead Guitar' which not only shows the Pentatonic minor & Blue scales but teaches how to improvise using them. It may be out of print now but you could probably pick up a second hand copy. Anyway that's how I learnt.

Originally Posted by: Drew77hey Benoit,
How did you learn them, just memorizing, or is there better way I might try. This is something I really think is important if I want to progress but I can't get myself to sit down and just memorize, which like I said doesn't seem to transfer into playing very well.

The way I learnt my way around the fretboard was to learn the notes on the 6th(E) and 5th(A) and then learn all the different octave positions which basically fills in the gaps on the other 4 strings. Once I had learnt this it became easier to figure out what notes are in which scale.