It’s become fashionable to tune your guitar with an electronic
tuner, simply plug into one of these remarkable devices and …
hey presto your guitar is in tune … or is it? Actually, as you
might have guessed there’s more to it than that!

Your most important asset as a musician/guitarist is your ear
(your memory for sound) it’s essential that you don’t develop a
lazy approach to intonation, always be aware of the pitch of the
notes you are playing and make adjustments to the intonation
using finger vibrato to blend with the other instruments.

Tips for when to get new strings:

Tip# 1 - If your strings don’t play in tune all the way up the
fretboard:

Most beginner guitar players only play in the open or first
position as the player advances and begins to use more of the
fretboard intonation problems caused by old strings will become
more apparent. Generally, the problems usually occur notes above
the fifth fret.

Tip# 2 – If the harmonic produced on the twelfth fret does not
match the fretted note on the twelfth fret, that’s a good
indication that your strings need to be changed.

Tip# 3 - If your chords don’t sound right in the open position
and it’s difficult to get a good sound out of a variety of common
open string chords in the keys of G, D, A & E that’s also a clue
that your strings need to be changed.

String Brands: I’ve tried all the major brands and have found
“D’Addario” to be a very consistent, high quality and moderately
priced string.

String Gauges: The gauge of string you use is a matter of
personal preference based on the style of music you play, the
sound you want to achieve and your particular musical application
however, here is a basic guide to get you started:

Standard acoustic set .012 -.053

Basic “Strat” style electric guitar .009 – .042

Jazz style guitar .013 -.056

String types:

* nickel wound is a good all round string for electric guitar

* phosphor bronze works well for acoustic guitars

* half rounds and chromes are often the preferred type of string
for jazz.

Care: The best idea is to wipe your strings down with a lint free
cloth after you have finished playing, make certain to wipe the
under side of the string that’s where the corrosion sets in and
alters the diameter of the string causing the string to
vibrate at an irregular and inconsistent pitch.

Like everything in life the only place you can find shortcuts is
at the butcher’s everything thing else must be done one step at a
time; training your ear is no different and the first step to
accurately train your ear is by making certain your instrument is
producing the correct pitch.

Finger style guitar playing has been around for a long time,
classical guitar has always been played with the right hand
fingers on guitars that are strung with nylon strings. But it’s
not only soft, romantic or classical music that lends itself to
finger style playing just about any style of music can be play
with your fingers.

When you watch a skillful player playing finger style it does
look complicated, but what if there was an easy way to master
this style, the good news is there’s lots of ways to get into
finger picking here is just a few tips to get you started.

Finger picking tip #1: Bass notes – rule of thumb

In the following descriptions I’m presuming you are a right
handed player if you are left handed simply substitute left hand
whenever I refer to right hand.

Your right hand thumb can play either the fourth, fifth or sixth
string depending on what chord you are playing. The idea is for
your thumb to play a bass note of the same name as the chord
e.g., if you were playing a “D” chord the bass note would be the
note “D” therefore your right hand thumb would play the fourth
string open.

Here is my “rule of thumb” approach for finger style guitar.

Chord of A, Am or A7 = thumb plays fifth string

Chord of B, Bm or B7 = thumb plays fifth string

Chord of C, Cm or C7 = thumb plays fifth string

Chord of D, Dm or D7 = thumb plays fourth string

Chord of E, Em or E7 = thumb plays sixth string

Chord of F, Fm or F7 = thumb plays fourth string

Chord of G, Gm or G7 = thumb plays sixth string

I’ve listed the most common open string chords for chords played
in the first position if you need to play any other bass note
e.g., Bb all you have to do is locate a Bb note on either the
fourth, fifth or sixth string, in this instance Bb would be
located on the first fret, fifth string therefore your right hand
thumb would play the fifth string while your left hand fingered
the Bb chord shape.

Finger picking tip #2: Right hand fingers

We’ve covered the thumb what do we do with the other right hand
fingers?

1st finger plays the third string regardless of the chord being
played.

2nd finger plays the second string regardless of the chord being
played.

3rd finger plays the first string regardless of the chord being
played.

Finger picking tip #3: Finger picking patterns

Most popular songs are either in 4/4 or 3/4 time … here are my
favorite picking patterns for both time signatures.

3/4 = finger picking pattern code: T 12321 = 1 bar

Translated this means the T 12321 code is the finger sequence for
your right hand e.g., if you were playing a “Em” chord

1. your thumb would play the sixth string,
2. your first finger would play the third sting,
3. the second finger would play the second string,
4. your third finger would play the first string
5. then, your second finger would play the second string
6. next, your first finger would play the third string.

4/4 = picking pattern code T 121 3 121 = 1 bar

another variation in 4/4 is …

T
4/4 = picking pattern code 3 121 3 121 = 1 bar

T
In this example you will notice 3 which means you would play both
the bass note and the first string simultaneously.

This pattern works well in 4/4 when there is only one chord per
bar e.g., G /// | C ///| etc

In musical situations where there are two chords per bar e.g.,

G / C / | D / C / | etc

I would use this variation …

Two chord to the bar finger picking pattern:

T T
4/4 = picking pattern code 3 121 3 121 = 1 bar

As always experiment and see which pattern(s) suit your style of
guitar playing.

Learning blues chord progressions is one such vital piece of
information, you probably already play some blues chord
progressions without even realizing it; it’s highly likely …
there’re almost impossible to avoid!

Blues chord progressions are found in rock, country, jazz and
folk music and just about everywhere else in between. Let’s get
started with the most basic examples.

Basic Blues Chord Progressions:

The most common format for the blues is the twelve bar blues
chord progression, there’s four variations of this progression,
the trick is to learn to play these progressions in all keys and
be able to recognize each progression by their distinctive sound
and feel.

12 bar blues chord progressions:

Blues 1

1 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// |
4 /// | 4 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// |
5 /// | 5 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// ||

Blues 2
1 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// |
4 /// | 4 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// |
5 /// | 4 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// ||

Blues 3
1 /// | 4 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// |
4 /// | 4 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// |
5 /// | 5 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// ||

Blues 4
1 /// | 4 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// |
4 /// | 4 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// |
5 /// | 4 /// | 1 /// | 1 /// ||

At first glance it looks complicated, the idea is to break
everything down into tiny bite-size pieces i.e., take a closer
look a Blues 3 notice how except for bar two it’s exactly the
same as Blues 1.

Similarly, Blues 4 apart from the second bar is identical to
blues 2.

I’ve presented each progression using numbers instead of chord
names to make it easier to convert each progression into
different keys.

Here’s how that works …

The number 1 refers to chord one of that particular key e.g., in
the key of ‘G’ chord one would be ‘G’.

The number 4 refers to chord four of that particular key e.g., in
the key of ‘G’ chord four would be ‘C’.

The number 5 refers to chord five of that particular key e.g., in
the key of ‘G’ chord five would be ‘D’.

I’ve listed the most popular keys below to help you get started.

Key of C

1 = C
4 = F
5 = G

Key of G

1 = G
4 = C
5 = D

Key of D

1 = D
4 = G
5 = A

Key of A

1 = A
4 = D
5 = E

Key of E

1 = E
4 = A
5 = B

Here’s a few working examples of the 12 bar blues chord
progressions in different keys and formats to help you recognize
them when you hear, play or see them.

Blues 1 – key of G

G /// | G /// | G /// | G /// |
C /// | C /// | G /// | G /// |
D /// | D /// | G /// | G /// ||

Blues 2 – key of G

G /// | G /// | G /// | G /// |
C /// | C /// | G /// | G /// |
D /// | C /// | G /// | G /// ||

Blues 3 – key of G

G /// | C /// | G /// | G /// |
C /// | C /// | G /// | G /// |
D /// | D /// | G /// | G /// ||

Blues 4 – key of G

G /// | C /// | G /// | G /// |
C /// | C /// | G /// | G /// |
D /// | C /// | G /// | G /// ||

Blues 1 – key of E

E /// | E /// | E /// | E /// |
A /// | A /// | E /// | E /// |
B /// | B /// | E /// | E /// ||

Blues 2 – key of E

E /// | E /// | E /// | E /// |
A /// | A /// | E /// | E /// |
B /// | A /// | E /// | E /// ||

Blues 3 – key of E

E /// | A /// | E /// | E /// |
A /// | A /// | E /// | E /// |
B /// | B /// | E /// | E /// ||

Blues 4 – key of E

E /// | A /// | E /// | E /// |
A /// | A /// | E /// | E /// |
B /// | A /// | E /// | E /// ||

As you learn or play a song run it through the “12 bar blues”
filter, ask yourself is this song a 12 bar blues, if so, which
version.

Here’s an example …

Did you know that two popular Eric Clapton songs use the same 12
bar blues, blues 4 format?

Do you know which ones? …

“Crossroads” and “Before You Accuse Me”.

“Crossroads” is played in the key of A

“Before You Accuse Me” is in the key of E (MTV unplugged version)

Don’t forget to check both songs out next time you play your
guitar.

If we think of each string on the guitar as a piano keyboard it
will make it easier to understand how the fretboard works. The
key of unlocking the fingerboard is understanding how the
chromatic scale works and how it applies to (a) the piano
keyboard and then (b) transferring the visual patterns of the
keyboard to each string on the guitar.

The piano keyboard model and the chromatic scale:

Almost every modern piano has 88 keys, 36 black keys and 52 white
keys if you were to start in the centre of the keyboard and play
every note (black and white notes) until you reached a note of
the same name as you started on you would have played a chromatic
scale.

If you played your scale moving up to the higher notes on the
keyboard (to the right) you would have played an ascending
chromatic scale; similarly if you played your scale by moving
down to the lower notes on the keyboard (to the left) you would
have played a descending chromatic scale.

Which chromatic scale did we play … the scale would take it’s
name from whichever note you began on; if you started on a ‘C’
and played all the notes on the keyboard until you reached the
next ‘C’ you would have played a ‘C’ chromatic scale.

If you started on a ‘Eb’ and played all the notes on the keyboard
until you reached the next ‘Eb’ you would have played a ‘Eb’
chromatic scale.

Beginning on a ‘F’ playing all the notes on the keyboard until
you reached the next ‘F’ would create an ‘F’ chromatic scale.

Simple isn’t it?

Well it certainly is on the piano … but we’re supposed to be
playing the guitar aren’t we?

Now that we know how the chromatic scale works on the keyboard
it’s a simple matter to transfer our newfound knowledge to the
guitar fretboard.

Rotating fingerboard concept:

If we view each string of the guitar in a linear fashion and
think of each string as being a chromatic scale learning the
guitar is a breeze.

Imagine for a moment that we were in a piano factory where five
piano technicians were each busy at work building a piano, the
factory was noisy and each of the technicians were a little bit
hard of hearing so when forman called out the instructions each
piano builder accidentally started building their keyboard on a
different note.

Here’s what happened …

Piano builder #1 started his piano keyboard on the note ‘E’.

Piano builder #2 started his piano keyboard on the note ‘B’.

Piano builder #3 started his piano keyboard on the note ‘G’.

Piano builder #4 started his piano keyboard on the note ‘D’.

Piano builder #5 started his piano keyboard on the note ‘A’.

Now let us say that they were designing a seven octave piano
keyboard, actually most keyboards are seven octaves plus a minor
third but we’ll modify things slightly for our guitar fretboard
project.

If each builder began on their respective notes and continued
building the keyboards here is how it might turn out …

Builder #1:

E – F – F# – G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E

(an ‘E’ chromatic scale repeated seven times)

Builder #2:

B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G# – A – A# – B

(an ‘B’ chromatic scale repeated seven times)

Builder #3:

G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G

Builder #4:

D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D

Builder #5:

A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G# – A

Of course this result would be a disaster for the piano building
company however this concept would be an excellent way to learn
the guitar, think of each keyboard as the strings on the guitar:

Builder #1 = string 1

Builder #2 = string 2

Builder #3 = string 3

Builder #4 = string 4

Builder #5 = string 5

String 6 is the same as string 1

Using string one as an example

E – F – F# – G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E

The first ‘E’ would be the open string, the last ‘E’ would be
played on the twelfth fret, after the twelfth fret the guitar
fretboard simply starts again, fret thirteen is the same as fret
one, fret fourteen is the same as fret two etc.

E = open

F = first fret

F# = second fret

G = third fret

G# = fourth fret

A = fifth fret etc

Each note is represented by a fret on the guitar.

The chromatic scale

The chromatic scale (or color scale) is the one scale that
includes all the twelve notes in our music system hence the
reference to color meaning all the individual musical colors
available to us are contained in this scale.

Concept #1:

Think of an endless musical chain, each link in this chain is
a note, you can start at any point (note) in our chain and move
in any direction forwards or backwards until you arrive back at
the point (note) you started on; to achieve this you would have
to travel past twelve musical links, this is exactly how it works
on a piano keyboard and on each string of the guitar.

Taking this concept further you can see that it is possible
therefore to build a chromatic scale (loop) from any note in the
scale.

A to A playing all notes in between would be an ‘A’ chromatic
scale.

B to B playing all notes in between would be an ‘B’ chromatic
scale.

C to C playing all notes in between would be an ‘C’ chromatic
scale.

D to D playing all notes in between would be an ‘D’ chromatic
scale.

E to E playing all notes in between would be an ‘E’ chromatic
scale etc

“What about the sharps and flats haven’t we forgotten them?”

To answer that question we have to go back to our musical chain
or loop concept.

Here is a an example of a loop starting from the note ‘A’

A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A

As you can see we don’t have twelve notes only seven different
pitches, the other missing five notes that make up our chromatic
scale are sharps or flats.

Concept #2:

If you look at a piano keyboard you will notice that two pairs of
notes B – C and E – F do not have a black note in between them;
black notes on the piano keyboard indicate sharps and flats.

IMPORTANT: When creating a chromatic scale always remember that
there isn’t any sharps or flats in between B – C and E – F!

Now back to our ‘A’ loop scale, all we have to do to convert this
scale into an ‘A’ chromatic scale is to insert a sharp in between
each note EXCEPT the notes B – C and E – F.

A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G# – A

Now our twelve note scale is complete!

Concept #3:

“What about flats?” I hear you ask …

If we were playing an ascending scale we would call the notes by
their sharp names, if we were playing a descending chromatic
scale we would refer to the notes by their flat names. Still
keeping in mind that there wouldn’t be any flats between the
notes B – C and E – F.

Concept #4:

Ascending version using sharps …

A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G# – A

Descending version of the same scale using flats …

A – Ab – G – Gb – F – E – Eb – D – Db – C – B – Bb – A

Concept #5:

Enharmonic equivalent

The term enharmonic equivalent refers to notes that “look
different but sound the same”.

There are five notes that have an enharmonic equivalent.

A# = Bb

C# = Db

D# = Eb

F# = Gb

G# = Ab

Time your time to absorb the information on the chromatic scale
in this article and look for my next article on applying the
chromatic scale to the fingerboard of the guitar.

Let’s start at the beginning …

The basic scales to learn would be:

1.The minor pentatonic scale

2.The major pentatonic scale

3.The blues scale

I’d learn them in that order, master the minor pentatonic, next
the major pentatonic and then the blues scale. I’ve covered the
major and minor versions of the pentatonic scales in previous
articles today our focus will be on the blues scale.

The Blues Scale

The blues scale is one of the most unique and frequently used
scales. It is also important because it is the first real scale
of American origin. The reason for the flexibility and feeling
inherent in the blues scale are these:

(a) All of the traditional scale forms that form the backbone of
“legit” musical training such as the diatonic major scale stem
from the European musical culture. These scales all began and
developed in an atmosphere of disciplined conditions e.g., they
are a product of the piano keyboard.

Traditional scales where created and developed over the passage
of time on the piano keyboard using a mathematical and
scientific approach. The history of music shows the human
intellect’s even increasing need for more and more complex
harmonic textures and with that need for harmonic complexity and
sophistication came the need to create more harmonically rich and
exotic scales.

(b) In contrast the blues scale had its roots in an untrained,
natural vocal origin. The important distinction between the
“legit” scales and the blues scale is that the blues scale was a
human vocal sound transferred to the instruments available at the
time such as guitars played with a slide often referred to as
“bottleneck” guitar as the slide was more often that not created
out of the glass “neck” of a bottle.

Other instruments such as the bugle, trumpet and later the
saxophone emulated the vocal sound or the work songs of people
working on plantations, road and railway gangs.

Most early exponents of the blues scale, for example could not
read music; did not study to develop their talent and facility;
they were not technically aware of what or how they arrived at
the music they produced. They heard and felt their music and that
was all they needed.

Basic blues song structure

The blues started back in the 19th century as a form of folk
music, it was originally performed by individual singers,
guitarists, and banjo players. By 1920 three distinct blues
formats had developed: the 8 bar blues, the 12 bar blues and
the 16 bar blues.

From these three the 12 bar blues quickly became the most popular
format it is still the most common blues form use by contemporary
musicians.

The versatile nature of the blues scale makes it one of the most
popular scales in modern music make sure you learn how to play
this scale on the guitar.

You may find this hard to believe but it happens quite often,
people wanting to learn to play a musical instrument when they
have spent very little actually listening to music.

It’s quite easy to teach a person the mechanical aspects of
playing a guitar however it’s an entirely different another
matter to learn how to play music on the guitar. It’s extremely
difficult to do something if you don’t know what it is that you
are trying to do.

Let me explain … let’s say we have a person who has never paid
any attention to music, they have never spent any time carefully
thinking about the basics of music; rhythm, melody and harmony.
If, in a moment of madness this person decides to go out and buy
a “top-off-the-line” Gibson Les Paul electric guitar what are
their chances of success?

I’d say very slim indeed, this person will still have the same
skills or should I say ‘lack of musical skills’ as they did
before they bought the Gibson .. nothing changed except their
bank account balance.

The situation I’ve described above explains the current worldwide
problem where people inspired by a recent concert and seduced
by clever marketing rush out and buy expensive musical equipment
only to be subjected to an avalanche of information more of which
could be accurately termed as ‘disinformation’, six months later
they are confused, frustrated and aggravated at their attempts to
master the guitar in five minutes (as promised by the marketing
guru’s) they invariably feel they just don’t have what it takes
and the guitar ends up in a garage sale.

You see, it simply can’t work because there’s nothing ‘in’ a
guitar, it’s simply a ‘tool’ for musical expression in exactly
the same way a computer or word processor is a tool for the
writer.

When you try to by-pass learning the language of music by
attempting to learn a musical instrument by TAB you essentially
cut yourself off from the rest of the vast blood bank of musical
thinking … all of the greatest musical works have been
carefully and accurately documented waiting to be discovered by
the dedicated music student … why spend your entire life trying
to re-invent the musical wheel.

Now the situation becomes even worse when our illiterate musical
friend has not a musical thought or musical idea in his or her
memory bank. Music exists in our memory that’s the only place it
does exist so the importance of developing your listening skills
is imperative if you want to be a great guitarist.

If you don’t develop your musical appreciation skills and
increase your ability to think musically all the practice in the
world won’t amount to anything … at best you will just be a
well-trained musical robot.

Can you see the importance of developing your musical
appreciation skills? If you don’t have reference points in your
musical memory how will you be able to produce quality musical
ideas … after all the ideas have to come from you, they can’t
come from the guitar.

Remember the question was where is music … or more specifically
where does it exist?

Let’s take each of the examples given above and have a closer
look at then one by one:

* a CD is not music it’s a piece of Perspex, it only produces
musical sounds when it is placed in a CD player by itself it
doesn’t do anything probably the only practical use for it would
be as a drink coaster although with that hole in the middle I’m
not so sure of that.

* a mp3 file is exactly the same it does not produce a musical
sound until it’s loaded into a specific piece of software.

* a piece of sheet music is just a piece of paper with a
musician’s ideas frozen in time on paper once again the written
music is not music, it does not become music until it is
performed by a musician, it’s the musician that brings it to
life.

All of the above examples are storage and retrieval systems …
they are not music; I’m sure you could think of other examples,
jot them down … it’s important because you starts you thinking
about something that most people take for granted.

So where does music exist … give up?

The only place music exists is in your MEMORY!

Think of that for a moment, if I where to mention a song you knew
you would immediately hear that song being played in you mind, it
would be as if you had placed a CD in a CD player, that’s your
musical memory at work and the more we use this aspect of your
memory the better the musician you will become.

How is your musical memory is it working well or could it do with
a tune up?

A great place to start is by examining your listening skills. Do
you have a listening library of reference music? If not start
building your reference library, you could simply start with a
one CD, it’s not the size of your library that matters it’s how
well you know your library.

What has this got to do with guitar playing? … absolutely
everything, what you play on the guitar is a result of what you
are hearing internally, there’s two levels to reach with guitar
(a) to be able to play what you hear and (b) to make sure what
you hear is worthwhile playing.

The musical quality of your ideas are directly linked to quality
listening habits and how well developed your musical perception
skills are.

So the moral of the story is … “there’s more to playing the
guitar than playing the guitar.”

Just because someone has done something for a long time does not
automatically qualify them as being any good at it; it only means
that they have been ‘doing’ something for a long time … nothing
else, over the years their guitar playing skills may have
actually deteriorated or at best they may be simply going around
in circles picking up a hot lick here and random chord there.

As I’m speaking to the perspective student I suddenly pick up the
guitar and turn away from the guitarist so they cannot see the
fretboard of the guitar, I play a familiar chord, one that they
would have heard many times in the playing career and I ask them
what chord am I playing … to their surprise most of the time
they cannot answer correctly.

Remember, I’m not playing E7#9, Bb13b9 or some more obscure chord
that only jazz players would recognize, I’m talking about E, D
and A7 … garden variety chords that almost every guitarist
plays daily. Of course this tells me immediately how developed
the guitar player’s ear is.

Why can’t they pick simple chord sounds? The answer is simple …
to develop your musical ear you must may a conscious effort to
remember the sounds you are playing.

Jot that down … it’s important “to develop your musical ear you
must make a CONSCIOUS effort to remember the sounds you are
playing or hearing.”

Surely we down need to practice hearing, unless we a born deaf we
can all hear very well can’t we? I agree unless a person is deaf
we all can hear, the distinction we need to make is between
‘hearing’ and listening.

Hearing is being aware of sounds in your environment such as a
truck or bus driving past in the street … you are aware of the
sound but you are not really listening intently to what type of
motor it is, it’s just a bus going past. It’s important for your
survival to be able to identify sounds but we don’t really get
past the initial identification of that’s a ‘lawn mower, phone,
or bus’ type signal.

Listening on the other hand for the musician has many different
levels.

The reason why or ‘experienced’ guitar playing friend cannot
correctly identify a familiar chord is because he or she did not
make a conscious effort to register the chord in their memory;
quite possibly they have playing this particular chord hundreds
of times in their guitar playing experience but they have been
busy looking a the chord symbol on the paper and not paying
attention to the sound of the chord.

How To Improve Your Musical Ear:

A great way to improve your ear is to record a chord; just one
single strum and let the chord fade away, as the chord fades you
will notice yourself listening more intently … this is good.

Start with just this one chord, try a use a chord you think you
are familiar with, give this chord an musical ID e.g., chord
number 1 then say the musical ID out loud so it will be recorded
before you play the chord; next strum the chord and let the chord
fade away, write the chord name down in a notebook with it’s
musical ID next to it so you can check your answer later on.

Like this;

ID 1 = E
ID 2 = A
ID 3 = B7

Obviously it’s going to be easy for a start because you will only
have one chord as you get used to the sound of the chord add
another chord to your collection; don’t forget to give each chord
their unique ID code.

Important: Knowing a chord shape and it’s physical fingering is
only the start, you must also know how each chord sounds, only
then can you use it, only then do you own it!.

Your eyes can ‘hear’ consequently staring at a chord book or
Guitar TAB won’t improve your ear, get the chord off the page and
into your head, and while we’re talking about getting things into
your head keep in mind that when someone refers to having an
‘ear’ for music what they really are referring to is someone who
has a good MEMORY for sound!

That’s it … your ear simply sits on the side of your head and
picks up signals, it’s your well trained musical memory that
allows you to instantly recall a sound you are hearning and play
that sound correctly on your guitar.

With the capo placed behind the first fret the ‘D’ chord shape
produces the pitch of Eb; here’s how that works.

When the capo is placed behind the first fret D chord shape
becomes Eb; G chord shape becomes Ab and A chord shape becomes
Bb.

Now it’s time to fill in all the gaps, here is the complete set
of chords in the key of D.

D – Em – F#m – G – A – Bm – C#dim – D

Capo the first fret and we have the following set of chords:

Eb – Fm – Gm – Ab – Bb – Cm – Ddim – Eb

The chord shapes convert like this:

D = Eb

Em = Fm

F#m = Gm

G = Ab

A = Bb

Bm = Cm

C#dim = Ddim

Which brings me to today’s topic the Eb major pentatonic scale.

The best scale to begin soloing with the key of Eb is the Eb
major pentatonic as you become more experienced you should try
other scale options but for newbie players the Eb major
pentatonic will produce very satisfactory results almost
instantly.

The Eb major pentatonic scale

The notes in the Eb major pentatonic scale are …

Eb – F – G – Bb – C – [Eb]

Keynotes indicated as [ ]

Here are three common scale patterns for the Eb major pentatonic
scale

Pattern 1:

—————————
—————————
———————-[8]–
—————8–10——-
-[6]—8–10—————
—————————

Pattern 2:

—————————–
—————————–
—————————–
———————–[13]–
—————13–15——–
-[11]–13–15—————-

Pattern 3:

———————————
—————————[16]–
——————15—17——–
–[13]–15–17——————-
———————————
———————————

Application:

Any chords derived for the harmonization of the Eb major scale
will work as a background for the Eb major pentatonic scale.

Here is the three note harmonization

Eb – Fm – Gm – Ab – Bb – Cm – Ddim – Eb

Do you remember these chords, they are the exact same chords
that are created by placing the capo behind the first fret using
the D – Em – F#m – G – A – Bm – C#dim – D shapes that we
discussed earlier in this article; since you already know how to
play the chords let’s have a look at some common chord
progressions.

Ex 1.

Eb ///| Eb ///| Eb ///| Eb ///|
Ab ///| Ab ///| Eb ///| Eb ///|
Bb ///| Bb ///| Eb ///| Eb ///||

Ex 2.

Eb ///| Ab ///| Eb ///| Eb ///|
Ab ///| Ab ///| Eb ///| Eb ///|
Bb ///| Ab ///| Eb ///| Eb ///||

Ex 3.

Eb ///| Ab ///| Eb ///| Eb ///|
Ab ///| Ab ///| Eb ///| Eb ///|
Bb ///| Bb ///| Eb ///| Eb ///||

Ex 4.

Eb ///| Ab ///| Eb ///| Eb ///|
Ab ///| Ab ///| Eb ///| Eb ///|
Bb ///| Ab ///| Eb ///| Eb ///||

Remember the idea is to learn the name of the notes in the scale
that way you can play the same series of notes many different
ways on the guitar fretboard.

Here is another way to play the same scale.

————————–
———————-[4]-
—————3—5——
-[1]—3—5————–
————————–
————————–

There are always a number of solutions for musical problems on
the guitar, in fact that’s what guitar playing is about …
problem solving, finding new and easier/better ways of playing
things, by using the capo we escaped the ’soggy’ sounding bar
chords and created fresh and exciting sounding chords on the
guitar.