« | Home | »

Learn Guitar Secret #11 – Major Pentatonic Scale System D major

By Mike Hayes | February 17, 2010

One of the most popular keys on the guitar is the key of D major.
If you play country guitar, I’m sure you would have come across
the key of D and if you are looking for the ideal scale to solo
over chord progressions in the key of D look no further than the
D major pentatonic scale.

Of course the application for this scale can be anything from pop
to jazz and everything in between, let’s get down to business and
see what make this scale tick.

The D major pentatonic scale

The notes in the D major pentatonic scale are …

D – E – F# – A – B – [D]

Keynotes indicated as [ ]

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

Pattern 1:

—————————
—————————
———————-[7]–
—————7—9——-
-[5]—7—9—————
—————————

Pattern 2:

—————————–
—————————–
—————————–
———————–[12]–
—————12—14——-
-[10]–12—14—————

Pattern 3:

———————————
—————————[15]–
——————14—16——–
–[12]—14—16—————–
———————————
———————————

Application:

You can play this pentatonic scale over any of these four bar
chord sequences.

Ex 1.

D /// | Bm /// | G /// | A /// ||

Ex 2.

D /// | D/F# /// | G /// | A /// ||

Ex 3.

D /// | F#m /// | G /// | A /// ||

Ex 4.

D /// | Bm /// | Em /// | A /// ||

Ex 5.

D /// | D/F# /// | Em /// | A /// ||

Now for another way to play the same scale this time in the open
position

————————–
——————-0–[3]-
—————2———-
-[0]—2—4————–
————————–
————————–

The trick is to know the names of the notes that make up the
scale and then apply these notes to the guitar fretboard in the
best way that suits your own individual style. In fact that’s the
key to effortless guitar playing, make sure that you are
fingering the scale or chord the best way for you.

Time to take a look at some four bar chord progressions in the
key of D

Ex 6.

D ///| D ///| D ///| D ///|
G ///| G ///| D ///| D ///|
A ///| A ///| D ///| D ///||

Ex 7.

D ///| G ///| D ///| D ///|
G ///| G ///| D ///| D ///|
A ///| G ///| D ///| D ///||

Ex 8.

D ///| G ///| D ///| D ///|
G ///| G ///| D ///| D ///|
A ///| A ///| D ///| D ///||

Ex 9.

D ///| G ///| D ///| D ///|
G ///| G ///| D ///| D ///|
A ///| G ///| D ///| D ///||

If we harmonized the D major scale by layering the notes of the
scale in thirds we would come up with the following set of chords

Three note chords created from D major scale:

D – Em – F#m – G – A – Bm – C#dim – D

Four note chords created from D major scale:

DMaj7 – Em7 – F#m7 – GMaj7 – A7 – Bm7 – C#m7b5 – D

If you study the chord progressions below you will discover that
all the chords in the progression are to be found in either the
three note (triadic) or four note (scaletone seventh) chord
families of the key of D.

Ex 10.

D ///| DMaj7///| G ///| GMaj7///|
Em///| A7 /// | D ///| D /// ||

Ex 11.

D /Bm / | G /A/| D /Bm/| G /A/|
D /D/F#/| G /A/| D /G /| D ///||

You can also spice things up and make your songs sound
interesting by using suspended second and suspended fourth chords
the major pentatonic scale will work well over the suspended
chords it’s really quite easy to make things sound great on the
guitar.

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

Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.