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Learn Guitar Secret #7 – Major Pentatonic Scale System Bb major

By Mike Hayes | February 10, 2010

At my yearly health checkup a substitute doctor looking up my
file noticed I taught music; “what instrument do you teach” he
asked … “guitar”, I replied, I’m used to this by now so I
usually have to brace myself for a whole avalanche of sorrowful
stories about how they would have loved to learn but never had
the ____(insert here)_____ (opportunity / time / money etc.)

To my surprise the doctor went on to say that he had studied the
guitar for three years and never learnt anything! He said they
studied a ‘bar code’ system (I think he meant guitar TAB), he
went on to say he felt the problem was that because he was never
taught the language of music three years later he was still on
the outside looking in.

Boy, did this guy hit the nail on the head … because he never
learnt or rather because he was never taught the language of
music he was stuck! That’s it, the language of music … there’s
no point in doing something if you don’t know what you are doing,
guitar players usually learn chord shapes and scale patterns
without ever knowing what notes are under their fingers.

Time to put a stop to this nonsense and take a positive step in
the right direction let’s take a look at the notes in the Bb
Major pentatonic scale.

The notes in the Bb major pentatonic scale are …

Bb – C – D – F – G – [Bb]

Keynotes indicated as [ ]

Bb Major pentatonic scale pattern

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

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

———————————
—————————[11]–
——————10—12——–
–[8]—10—12——————
———————————
———————————

Major pentatonic scales sound good when played over major chords,
major chords with sustained seconds or major chords with added
seconds.

Style wise, the major pentatonic scale works well with country,
country rock, folk and bluegrass music; of course it can be
played in any style provided the chord progression is suitable.

Application:

Here is a typical major pentatonic type chord progression using
straight major chords

Bb ///| Bb ///| Bb ///| Bb ///|
Eb ///| Eb ///| Bb ///| Bb ///|
F ///| Eb ///| Bb ///| Bb ///||

This same chord progression could be played by placing a capo
behind the first fret and playing the following chord shapes.

(capo behind the first fret – concert pitch of Bb)

A ///| A ///| A ///| A ///|
D ///| D ///| A ///| A ///|
E ///| D ///| A ///| A ///||

Now for the same progression in Bb only this time I’m using
suspended second chords to give the chord progression a modern,
ambiguous feeling.

Bb2 ///| Bb2 ///| Bb2 ///| Bb2 ///|
Eb2 ///| Eb2 ///| Bb2 ///| Bb2 ///|
F2 ///| Eb2 ///| Bb2 ///| Bb2 ///||

This type of progression just floats along and is ideal for
practicing the Bb major pentatonic scale.

One more progression for you to try, this time I’m playing the
original major chord progression only adding an additional note
to the major triads.

Bb(add2)///| Bb(add2)///| Bb(add2)///| Bb(add2)///|
Eb(add2)///| Eb(add2)///| Bb(add2)///| Bb(add2)///|
F(add2) ///| Eb(add2)///| Bb(add2)///| Bb(add2)///||

The distinction between the suspended second chord and the add
second chord is that the suspended second chord is a three note
chord whereby the third note of the major chord is replaced by
the second. The ‘add second’ chords are four note chords where
the original three note major chord structure is retained and an
additional note (the second) is added.

Now it’s over to you to try some of these ideas out, remember
it’s the things you work out yourself that will ultimately help
you develop your own style on the guitar.

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

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