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Learn Guitar Secret #3 – Major Pentatonic Scale System F# major

By Mike Hayes | February 4, 2010

Imagine this scenario …there’s a guitar solo coming up in a
country song, you should be able to handle it with ease after all
you only have to play a pentatonic scale don’t you and everything
should work out fine; you try your favorite licks but they sound
flat and some of the notes sound down right wrong.

Hoping for more success in the next song you try again this time
things work out fine, you are glad and pleased with the results
but you can’t help thinking how hit and miss this soloing thing
is.

The truth of the matter is there’s two pentatonic scales that are
in popular use in today’s music.

What-do-ya-mean? TWO … there’s only one pentatonic scale isn’t
there?

Actually any five note scale sequence would qualify to be a
pentatonic scale, the two we are most interested in are the major
and minor versions of the pentatonic scales.

Today we will investigate the F# major pentatonic and see what
makes it tick.

The F# major pentatonic scale:

F# – G# – A# – C# – D# – (F#)

By comparison here are the notes of the F# minor pentatonic …

F# – A – B – C# – E – (F#)

We create the major pentatonic scale by omitting the 4th and 7th
notes of the major diatonic scale like this …

F# major

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

By leaving out the fourth note (B) and the seventh note (E#) we
have our new scale.

F# – G# – A# – C# – D# – (F#)

If you played these notes anywhere on the guitar fingerboard you
will be playing the F# major pentatonic scale.

Here’s the most common fingering pattern for the scale

F# – sixth string with your first finger behind the second fret

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

A# – played with the third finger, fret six, sixth string

C# – first finger, fourth fret, fifth string

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

F# – first finger, fourth fret, fourth string

Here’s how that would look on the guitar:

Keynotes indicated as [ ]

F# Major pentatonic scale pattern

—————————
—————————
—————————
———————-[4]–
————–4—6——–
-[2]–4—6—————-

The same scale one octave higher would be played like this:

—————————–
————————[7]–
—————-6—8——–
–[4]—6—8—————-
—————————–
—————————–

You might like to compare these patterns with the minor
version(s) in the same position on the guitar.

F# Minor pentatonic scale pattern open position

—————————-
—————————-
—————————-
——————-2—[4]–
———–2—4————
-[2]—5——————–

The same scale one octave higher would be played like this:

————————[2]–
—————-2—5——–
——-2—4—————–
–[4]————————
—————————–
—————————–

Keynotes or root notes are your reference points in the scale,
they are the notes that the scale takes it’s name from e.g., the
note on the sixth string, second fret is called F#, similarly the
note on the fourth string, fourth fret is also called F# these
notes act as keynotes for the scale.

The scale most players know and use is the minor pentatonic,
unfortunately it does not always work well in all styles of music
hence the confusion.

Application:

Generally country, folk and pop songs with chord progressions
that consist predominately of major chords are a good indication
that the major pentatonic will work.

This progression made up entirely of major chords would work well
with the major five note scale.

F#///| F#///| F#///| F#///|
B ///| B ///| F#///| F# ///|
C#///| B ///| F#///| F# ///||

Whereas the following progression made up of predominately minor
chords would favor the minor five note scale.

F#m///| F#m///| F#m///| F#m///|
Bm ///| Bm ///| F#m///| F#m///|
C#7///| C#7///| F#m///| F#m///||

So there you have it! It’s possible to play two songs side by
side in the same key and have to apply two different pentatonic
scales because of the stylistic differences of the individual
songs.

It’s not as hard as it sounds the most important thing is to go
use this stuff on the guitar.

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, easy chords, simple scales, red hot rhythms, and successful practice strategies in text, audio and video.

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

Topics: Beginner Guitar Lesson, Guitar Fretboard, guitar scales | No Comments »

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