I don't want to get to deep in theory right away, but I would like to explain some important information about the Am pentatonic scale and it's relation to the key of C major.
The key of C major is made up of 7 chords. These chords are C Dm Em F G Am and B dim.
The Am pentatonic scale comes from the key of C major and this will be explained in more detail later. We will be adding two notes to this scale which will allow us to play lead over all of the chords in the key of C major and in the Am pentatonic root note position. You will begin to see why it is important to learn every position of the Am pentatonic scale. We will eventually convert each of the positions into modes of the major key.
Since we will be covering the key of C major, it would be a good idea now to learn the chords and notes of this C major key.
The next page shows a few chords in more detail and also includes sound files for each of the chords.
Major chords are always shown by their name alone. Example, E G C D F and so on.
Minor chords are always shown with the small (m). Example: (Am) = A minor (Em) = E minor and so on.
The guitar chords that I would like for you to learn first are listed below.
C Dm Em F G Am and B
diminished.
Don't worry about playing these chords, I just want to explain a little bit about them first.
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By adding these two extra notes we have formed or created a mode. This mode is the A Aeolian mode. Am pentatonic is formed directly from this mode. The Aeolian mode is a minor mode and is the 6th note in the key of C major. Modes will be covered soon, but a brief explanation is needed here. Since we have added those two extra notes to the Am pentatonic scale, we can now use this scale or mode, to play over each and every chord of C major in this position.
 | The chords of C major are as follows: C Dm Em F G Am B dim. |
Just like the Am pentatonic scale you can also play this at different positions. This will also be covered in the mode section. Although I've mentioned you could play over every chord in this position, it is really not all that practical. You will learn how to play lead over each chord and at different positions. This example is to open your eyes to different possibilities.
The chords and notes in the key of C major are shown below. Notice how each of those notes are in the scale or mode above.
| The notes of the C chord | C, E, G |
| The notes of the Dm | D, F, A |
| The notes of the Em | E, G, B |
| The notes of the F | F, A, C |
| The notes of the G | G, B, D |
| The notes of Am | A, C, E |
| The notes of B diminished | B, D, F |
We will now learn how to play these chords. You will start out learning these chords in the open position. Once you learn these chords in the open position, we can learn to play them as bar chords.
| Open position chords. |
Good luck,
From the Jam Room