Am pentatonic

The illustration above has all of the A minor pentatonic scale positions circled. Don't let the word pentatonic scare you off, it just means a five note scale. I will be explaining two types of pentatonic scales, one is the minor pentatonic scale and the other will be the major pentatonic scale. To explain the differences in them now, would be to advanced. However, as the lessons advance the differences and the likes,  will be explained in more detail. These lessons will be a bit unconventional and won't follow the instructional guide you buy at the local book or music store. Why? Because you want to learn how to play the guitar and want to learn fast. There's a good reason why I want you to learn every position of the Am pentatonic scale. Once you learn each position of the illustration above, converting them into modes, won't be a problem. We will learn about all the modes in the key of C major later.

The first position we need to learn will be the A minor pentatonic at the root note fret position. The A minor pentatonic root note fret starts at the 5th fret A note, Low E string. Notice the yellow circle above, that is the root note fret for the A minor pentatonic scale. The Am root note fret is determined by the lowest A note on the Low E string. Look above and notice that the A note is on the Low E string, at the 5th fret. Don't let this illustration confuse you, things will become much clearer as we move along. 

The Am pentatonic scale has the same notes and fingering pattern as that of the C major pentatonic scale. However, if you played the C major pentatonic scale, you would use the C note for the home note and the C chord as the tonic chord. The tonic chord is the main chord or the chord that usually designates the key you are playing in. Everything revolves around or back to the tonic chord. For example, if you wrote a song in the key of C major, then C would be the tonic chord.

The Am is a natural minor or relative minor to the key of C major. Am and C major share the same notes and the same key signature. This means that if we wrote a song using the the key of A minor, A minor would now be the tonic or main chord. Usually songs are written in either major or minor keys. Minor key sounds give the sadder, darker sounds. While, the major key usually gives the happier type sound. For blues, you would usually use the minor or blues scales. We will learn more about this as we move on.

I will no longer refer to the C major pentatonic scale. Just remember, once you learn the Am pentatonic positions, converting them to C major pentatonic will be easy since they share the same notes. 

The illustration below has the A minor pentatonic scale illustrated. This is the root note fret position for the A minor Pentatonic scale. Notice that you can play every note in the fifth fret with just your 1 finger and never leave that 5th fret. The numbers below are not a chord, but a fingering pattern for the A minor Pentatonic scale. The A note is the root note or lowest sounding A note located at the 5th fret low E string.

This is one of the most important scales to learn. Before you do anything else, you need to memorize the fingering pattern above. Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen and just about everyone else have used this scale in some variation or another to play lead guitar. We will be using this scale for a while to let you become familiar with the guitar fretboard and to build your foundation. 

Look at the guitar fretboard above and you will notice six strings, Fat E A D G B E. Each string has 2 numbers 1 through 4 assigned to them. The assigned numbers 1 through 4 are the fingers that play these highlighted notes. Look above in the box to the right, notice what each finger number equals. The 1's are played with your index finger. The 2's will be played with your middle finger. The 3's are  played with your ring finger. The 4's are played with your pinkie. 

Below is what the tablature would look like to play the A minor pentatonic scale at the root note fret.

---------------------------------5--8----
--------------------------5--8-----------
-------------------5--7------------------
-------------5--7------------------------
------5--7-------------------------------
-5-8-------------------------------------

The next note is played with your 4 finger on that same Low E string, it is marked below in red as pick 2nd, on the 8th fret. Pick that note. So the first two notes played were 1-4, index-pinkie on the Low E string. 5th and 8th fret. I'm sure if your just starting out it may be hard to stretch your fingers this far apart, but in time it will become much easier. 

The next string will be the A string which is directly below the Low E string. Starting on the A string, use your 1 finger for the 5th fret and then your 3 finger for the 7th fret. They are marked below in gray pick 3rd and pick 4th. It is always a good idea to pick down and then up 1-3. This means to alternate the picking stroke. Down and then up, this will help to play with more speed down the road. One more thing that may help, for this exercise all notes are played from left to right on each string.

Now you would move to the D string, which is marked in lime below as pick 5th at the 5th fret.  The next note is played on the D string 3 finger 7th fret. 1-3 (Index-Ring) 5th and 7th frets D string.

I think it should be self explanatory now and we can finish off the scale with out the colors. I don't want it to get to cluttered up.

Just a quick secret. Did you know that once you learn the A minor pentatonic scale in the root note position 5th fret, you can move that same fingering up and down the guitar fretboard to play in different keys? Check out the Bm pentatonic scale and notice it has the same fingering pattern, but is played at the 7th fret. This would be the root note fret for the B minor pentatonic scale.

Below is what the tablature would look like to play the B minor pentatonic scale at the root note fret.

-------------------------------------7-10---
------------------------------7-10----------
------------------------7-9-----------------
-----------------7-9------------------------
---------7-9-------------------------------
-7-10---------------------------------------

You should now know the fingering pattern for the A minor pentatonic scale root note fret, 1-4 1-3 1-3 1-3 1-4 1-4. After all, you've practiced this scale over a hundred times by now and know it is the most popular position to play the Am pentatonic. This position is relatively easy to play, only because the 1 finger never has to leave the 5th fret. Eventually we will learn different positions of the A minor pentatonic scale hammer-ons, pull offs and bending.  

As you learn to play these scales, you will eventually learn how to play over the chords that form these scales. Since this is the Am pentatonic scale, you can play this scale over the Am chord. You can also play it over the Am7 chord and C major and Dm7 chord. You can also play this scale over root 5 chords. For this scale, you can play over the A5 C5 D5 E5 and G5 just to name a few. In time you will want to use the scales for each chord. For example, G major pentatonic over the G chord. Or maybe G Mixolydian, but that will be down the road.

When your playing over the Am chord, start with the A note or play the notes of the Am chord. The Am chord is made up of the notes, A C and E. If you are playing this scale over the C chord, start on the C note or play the notes of the C chord, C E G. The same goes for all chords. Have the illustrations above in front of you and play each note of the chord. Another good location to play over the C chord is the blue circle above. This is because the Root 6 E type bar chord for the C is over this position. In other words, the C chord using the root 6 bar chord can be played at the 8th fret. This will be explained later down the road too.

In the following lessons, I have you starting on a different note in each position of the Am pentatonic scale. But it is important to learn the location of the each A note, which is the root note for this scale. For example, in the next position of the Am pentatonic scale, we will be starting on the C note 8th fret. We should see how the chords of this scale relate to this position. How the Am, C and other chords relate to this position and all positions of the Am pentatonic scale. In the lessons to follow, we will continue to concentrate on the Am pentatonic scale. The pentatonic minor and pentatonic major scales are really that important.

So far you have covered the guitar fretboard and should know how many strings are on the guitar. You should know the difference between the high and low E string, which one is larger and the locations. You should know how many frets your guitar has. Now you should know that there is a scale which is called the pentatonic minor and major scale. Pentatonic means having 5 notes. There are other scales which have more notes and we will be covering later.

You should also know that the yellow circle in the illustration above is referred to the Am pentatonic scale's root note fret. We will be learning what notes are, what scales are, what chords are and all of the other terms soon. I believe it is a good idea to get you started picking some notes, so that's why we have covered this scale so soon. I understand that you may be picking these notes and not even know why. Your saying, what's a note, what's a scale, what's this or that? Don't worry, we will learn all about these things as we move along. 

Before we can play songs or play any music, we need to read tablature. This next chapter will begin to explain a few chords and more about the pentatonic scale. So work your way through the exercises above, it will all be worth the time. 

Assignment

Good luck,