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Learn Guitar Secret #12 – Major Pentatonic Scale System Eb major

By Mike Hayes | February 21, 2010

The key of Eb always sounded flat to me when I tried to play the
bar chord shapes on the guitar; it sounded like ‘tapping on wet
cardboard with a drum stick’… soggy and dull if you know what I
mean that was before I discovered the capo, now I simply use easy
‘guitar friendly’ chord shapes like ‘D’, ‘G’ and ‘A’ and the key
of Eb sounds just fine.

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.

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

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