Guitar Scales - More Mileage From Your Pentatonic Scales

Most guitarists learn a minor pentatonic as their first scale. It's simple and useful. But there are lots of ways to use that good 'ol pentatonic box scale that go far beyond the normal. Let's take a look...

The most obvious use of a pentatonic minor is to play it over a minor chord. And that works all well and good. The next step is to play that same minor pentatonic over a major or dominant 7th chord. But isn't that against the rules? Technically yes. But it's become and acceptable sound in the blues and anything remotely related to it.

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You can also take that same box pattern and make it sound like a major pentatonic. We're going to use relative major and minor scales here. That means two scales that have the same key signature (and therefore the same notes), but use a different note as the root, or tonal center.

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Example:
C major has no sharps and no flats, as does A minor. If we look for the pattern, A is the 6th scale degree of C major. So if you were in D major, the relative minor would be B minor.

Since we're playing a minor pentatonic, we want to find the major. Work backwards. If A is the 6th scale degree, then C is one. Therefore you can play that same minor pentatonic box over a C major chord and it will work just as well.

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The key to this idea to change which note you're using as the tonal center or root. If you're playing over the A minor you're using A as the root. If you're playing it over a C major or C7 chord, you're using C as the root.

Here's a couple other less than normal ideas about using a pentatonic minor pattern. For our example these are all played over a C major chord.

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F# Minor Pentatonic - F# A B C# E - This gives you some seriously outside sounds by incorporating the b5 (F#), the major 7th (B), and a b2 (C# or Db)
Pattern: Play the pentatonic minor that is a tritone away from your major chord.

E Minor Pentatonic - E G A B D - This is a little easier to swallow. It gives you access to the major 7 (B) and 9th (D)
Pattern: Play the pentatonic minor a major 3rd above the root of your major chord

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B Minor Pentatonic - B D E F# A - Another squirreley one using accessing the major 7th (B), 9th (D), and b5 (F#)
Pattern: Play the pentatonic minor a half step below your major chord

C# Minor Pentatonic - C# E F# G# B - This is a rough one, but if your ear likes it, go for it. You've got the b2 (C#), b5 (F#), #5 (G#), and major 7th (B)
Pattern: Play the pentatonic minor a half step above your major chord

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Bb Minor Pentatonic - Bb Db Eb F Ab - Gives you the minor 7th (Bb), b2 (Db), minor 3rd (Eb - great for a bluesy sound), and minor 6th (Ab)

D Minor Pentatonic - D F G A C - Gives you the 9th (D), and a strange suspended sound on the F.

Some of these may not be to your liking, but they're worth experimenting with. The idea is that you can get some very complex sounds from that basic little box that you learned so early on. Milk it for all it's worth!