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Learn Guitar Trick #6 – Minor Pentatonic Scale System G minor

By Mike Hayes | December 22, 2009

Sooner or latter you and your guitar are going to end up at a
musical jam session where someone will call out “let’s play a
blues”, now one thing you can be sure of is it will be either a
blues in ‘G’ or ‘E’.

Knowing the basic blues chord progressions and how to solo in the
keys of G and E is essential stuff the advancing guitarist must
know.

Today’s project will focus on the key of G and specifically the G
minor pentatonic scale.

The G minor pentatonic has a great earthy quality that makes it
ideal for blues, rock and jazz music in fact just about everyone
will love this scale.

The notes in the G minor pentatonic scale are:

G – Bb – C – D – F – (G)

If you played these notes anywhere on the guitar fingerboard you
will be playing the G minor pentatonic scale.

Here’s the most common fingering pattern for the scale

G – using your first finger behind the third fret, sixth string

Bb – played with the fourth finger, sixth fret, sixth string

C – first finger, third fret, fifth string

D – played with your third finger behind the fifth fret, fifth
string

F – first finger, third fret, fourth string

G Minor pentatonic scale pattern

—————————
—————————
—————————
——————-3—[5]-
———–3—5———–
-[3]—6——————-

Keynotes indicated as [ ]

Here is the same scale one octave higher.

G minor pentatonic one octave higher:

———————-[3]-
————–3—6——-
——3—5—————
-[5]———————-
————————–
————————–

Now for another popular way to play the G minor pentatonic scale:

———————————
———————————
———————————
————————-3—[5]-
—————–3—5———–
—1—[3]—6——————-

Notice how in this instance the first note is not the keynote,
remember it’s vitally important to identify where the keynote is
situated in the scale as it will help you transpose the scale
into different keys.

Our next project is to pre-record a background to practice the G
minor pentatonic scale over.

Many rock and pop songs use chord progressions derived directly
from the notes in the pentatonic scale,

Typical chord progression (s) would be:

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

or

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

One of the key ingredients to creating your own individual style
is learning the names of the notes in each scale rather than just
learning a fingering pattern.

I invite you to play the notes of the pentatonic scale on
different strings and positions all over the fretboard, remember:
it’s the notes of the scale that are important, the fingering is
entirely up to you.

And now I’d like to invite you to get free access to my “How To
Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse. You can download the course for
free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com

You’ll learn about hit song templates, simple scales,easy chords, red hot rhythms,
and successful practice strategies in text, audio and video.

From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System

Topics: Guitar Fretboard, Guitar Tips, Learn And Master Guitar, guitar scales | No Comments »

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