Learning Pentatonic: Major

If you are done with the Pentatonic Minor Scales, then lets go for the Pentatonic Major! If you haven't studied the pentatonic minor, then its better to go through it before learning Pentatonic Major. Take a look at the lesson Learning Pentatonic: Minor and then come back to this lesson if you haven't already done that.

Okay, I presume you know the Minor Scales now? Basically the pentatonic major and pentatonic minor are the same scale depending on which note you consider to be the tonic. Check the diagram below, the blue dots are the minor tonics and the red dots are the major tonic. For example if we play the first shape in the diagram from the 5th Fret (which would be the red dot and is 'A' note) of the E (6th String) String, the blue dot will be on the 8th Fret on the same string and which is a C note. Thus, A minor Pentatonic Scale is Same as C Major Pentatonic Scale! Simple, right?

In the Diagram:
Blue Dots: Root Note For Minor Scale
Red Dots: Root Note For Major Scale
Number inside dot: Which finger to use? 1-index, 2-Middle, 3-Ring, 4-Pinky

A little info about Pentatonic Major Scale:
It is a Country Flavored Scale
Quality: Bright Sounding
Musical Styles: Country, Blues, Rock, Jazz, Fusion
Chords: Major, Major Sevenths, Dominant Sevenths
Intervals: Root -2-3-5-6-Octave or W-W-W+H-W-W+H

Now the Different Patterns of the scale in order and on the fretboard are shown below:

Fig: Different Pentatonic Major Boxes in order!

Fig: Pentatonic Major Boxes across the fretboard

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Learning Pentatonic: Minor

As the guitarist dive into a melodius solo in a song, have you wondered how they do it? Well, its the game of scales and basically the pentatonic scale is used by most rock guitarist! So, today I will be talking about the Pentatonic Minor Scale, will talk about the major in the later lesson.

A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes ('Penta' means 5, 'tonic' means tones) per octave in contrast to a heptatonic (seven note) scale such as the major scale and minor scale. The advantage of this scale is that it has small number of notes and thus has a small margin for error when you are playing over a chord progression of the chords that go with the scale!!! Well, there are five shapes of pentatonic scale, but before you learn them consider the following points:
1. Memorize one position (or box) at a time. Nothing to hurry about.
2. Use a metronome. Practice with a slow steady tempo and gradually increase your speed.
3. Practice different patterns, its is the best way to really learn and absorb guitar scales.
4. Create your own licks.
5. Find other musicians and friends to jam with. Or use a looper if you have one.

Now study the following scales:

The 'R' indicates the root note of the scale!

Now some info about the scale:
Quality: Its bluesy sounding scale!!!
Musical Styles: Blues, Rock, Heavy Metal, Jazz, Fusion
Chords: Minor, Minor Sevenths, Dominant Sevenths
Intervals: "Root -b3-4-5-b7-Octave" or "W+H-W-W-W+H-W" (W - Whole Step, H - Half Step) for example the A Minor pentatonic has the notes A - C - D - E - G.

Well, if you have learnt all the five different shapes, now its time for their application. The five scales for a particular 'key' are over lapping, that means each two boxes (scales) has some notes in common and you can move from one shape of the scale to the other through the common notes. See the diagram below as all the five scales are spread over the fretboard!

Hope this helps!

Go to Learning Pentatonic: Major

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Audio Phonics Guitar Tuner for Perfect Tunings!

The Audio Phonics Guitar Tuner or AP Guitar Tuner is a simple guitar tuner that runs in Windows 95/98/NT/2000. It works by tracing the sound waves that is created when you play a string and displaying the corresponding note on the screen of your laptop or PC. Using proprietary pitch recognition technology, the program can find exact notes in less than 50ms latency. The recognition technology also adapts to the speed of the processor for smooth tracking. The program is easy to use, good looking and best of all it's FREE!!!

The requirements for the software are very basic. Minimum Requirements are:

Pentium compatible CPU, 200 MHz or greater
Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, or Windows Vista
32 megabytes RAM
2 megabytes of available disk space for installation
Sound card
Microphone (or adapter if connecting directly to electric instrument)

Well, I use this tuner very frequently before recording some acoustics on my PC, and found it to be very useful.
DOWNLOAD AP TUNER

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GUITAR SOFTWARES

A list of Softwares for guitar that are available online:

AUDIO PHONICS GUITAR TUNER
The Audio Phonics Guitar Tuner or AP Guitar Tuner is a simple guitar tuner that runs in Windows 95/98/NT/2000. A small software for perfect tuning!

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ABOUT

Hi, fellow musicians, my name is... oh wait! For the time being know me as STRINGHEAD! And I am the admin of the blog! Like you, I too love music and I too play the guitar. Let, me tell you something I am not a guitar teacher and neither I have learnt guitar from any teacher, well its books and friends from whom I have learnt. Although I tried my best to explain the stuff from easy to hard, beginners might get some problems in understanding, and sorry I can't help that, you have to find your own way! In short "GUITARESOURCES" (Guitar Resources), is a project which is good for intermediates and above, obviously there are more stuff for beginners but they must first know what they want to learn and search the blog accordingly because most articles here starts with the basic things! Another point for making GUITARESOURCES is that as I write it helps me brush up the things that I have learnt. Thus, you see two persons getting benefit from it at a time- - You and Me! Well, have a nice time playing the strings.

Thanks,
Stringhead \m/

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