A little quiz :)

viz

Ok boys and girls, if you take a minor pentatonic scale, say A minor pentatonic, what two additional notes can you insert to make a major scale (or one of its modes, depending on your starting point)?

There are three answers. In each case I’m looking for the two additional notes and the name of the major scale.

sweave

B + F gives A aeolian, mode of C major scale
B + F# gives A dorian, mode of G major scale
Bb + F gives A phrygian, mode of F major scale

viz

Wow you are the person!

beowulf

Nice little quiz, took me about 10 minutes as someone who used to know some theory but hasn't given it much thought for the past 10 years.

Trick I found was plotting the pentatonic scale in 5 different positions on the fretboard where it made different shapes, then looking visually to see what major scale patterns looked like they could go on top. In hindsight when you write out the notes in A minor pent, then C major is very quickly obvious. And of course you could say G and F major too if you're familiar with all of the major scales and which have how many #s. 

sweave

I approached it more from the angle that a minor pentatonic scale is 1 3b 4 5 7b, so the simplest extra notes to complete a scale would be different flavours of the 2 and 6

djspecialist

I took a similar approach to @sweave , although more "by example" than "from first principles". Meaning that I started by writing down the notes of A minor pentatonic (A C D E G), from which it was clear that I needed to add Bb/B/B# and Fb/F/F#. The only three combinations which result in (the mode of) a major scale are the ones in the answer above.

sweave

The really useful aspect for me is that it may only take one note choice to change the flavour of what I am playing.
I am (too) comfortable messing around in the minor pentatonic with the occasional drift into the natural minor (aeolian), but if I want a different vibe, then just adding an F# to the A minor pentatonic gives me a dorian feel, whereas adding Bb instead gives some phrygian vibes

Dr_Necessiter

I failed because I couldn’t work out what the question was asking. 

viz

I originally saw it by looking at the 5 black notes on a piano (which is F# / Gb major pentatonic), and thinking ok, that’s either the 5 sharps of B major, lacking the B and the E; or it’s the 5 flats of Db, lacking the F and C, or it’s 5 of the 6 sharps (or flats) of F# (or Gb), lacking the B (or Cb) and E# (or F). 

Then I transposed the question to A minor pentatonic to make it not so obvious

Al_Nico

viz said:

I originally saw it by looking at the 5 black notes on a piano (which is F# / Gb major pentatonic), and thinking ok, that’s either the 5 sharps of B major, lacking the B and the E; or it’s the 5 flats of Db, lacking the F and C, or it’s 5 of the 6 sharps (or flats) of F# (or Gb), lacking the B (or Cb) and E# (or F). 

Then I transposed the question to A minor pentatonic to make it not so obvious

I think a similar way in that I can picture it on a keyboard better, and be more confident about identifying the notes I'm playing compared to a silly fretboard going in all directions with duplicate notes and more strings than fingers......and breath

viz

^ totally agree!