Hi Guys... I'm probably stating the obvious here and it will probably make a few of you laugh (or cry!) but as I'm just starting out on learning how to play lead guitar after 50 years of chords, this seems to be a big breakthrough for me... so... I've been messing around with the minor pentatonic (not to mention filling my head with hidden triads, riffs, major pentatonic, 3, 4, 5, 6, note leads, boxes, modes, etc. etc.),sometimes getting totally lost but at the same time slowly making my way into the mysterious world of playing leads in tune, when I discovered (I say "discovered" as I have never seen or heard about this in any of the hundreds of videos that I've watched!) that if I, say, take the 1st minor pentatonic position starting on the low 'E' string at the 5th (A) fret, and I play 5 -8, then 5 - 7 on the' A' string, and then 5 - 7 on the 'D' string, that last 7th fret being the (A) octave, I discovered that, instead of going straight across the neck and playing the usual 'shape' ( 5-8,5-7,5-7,5-7,5-8,5-8) I can instead repeat that same sequence from that same 7th fret on the 'D' string and play 7 - 10, then 7 - 9 on the 'G' string, then 8 - 10 on the 'B' string, another (A) octave reached... then 10 - 13 on the 'B' string, then 10 - 12 - 15 - 17 on the high 'E' string to reach a 3rd (A) octave... I have watched many videos showing how to break out of the box and get away from simply playing across the neck and back again, and play diagonally up the neck but I haven't seen this actually explained, that you can repeat the same sequence (3, 2, 2, etc. until you reach the high 'E' string and run out of notes!) and that you can do this starting from any root note and repeat it, up or down the neck depending where you are, from each root note octave... this has not only started to teach me where the root note octaves are, it's also opened up the neck and given me a wider area to play around in. So now, instead of having to stick to starting from the low 'E' string each time, I am able to jump straight to an octave (root note) of whatever key I'm playing in and start the 3, 2, 2, etc. sequence from there, or jump backwards and forwards and have a lot more variation... this is a great discovery for me and has made learning a lot more fun... I know that I am using the same sequence of notes as going across the neck, but using the root note octaves as a jumping off point to start a minor pentatonic lead, or riff, seems to allow a lot more freedom and helps with learning one's way around the neck at the same time... sorry if this is all boringly obvious guys but I'm pretty excited about it, just a little step forward for me...
Ps: I just bought a Ditto X2 Loop pedal so that I can record a backing track and then try to play a lead over it... it's great! Sometimes I even sound in tune...!!!
Cheers, Hansi
TO DO IS TO BE - Nietzsche TO BE IS TO DO - Kant DO BE DO BE DO - Sinatra
Comments
https://grunfy.com/pentanizer.html
It's not very mobile friendly, so use some device with larger screen. You can turn any shape on and off, switch to interval view or see what is the relative major/minor scale (press R button)
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What @HansiR has discovered is the way to abandon the five shapes, or at least link partial shapes together to use the fretboard in a diagonal fashion, which is really the end point of learning the five shapes.
To add my little contribution, my diagonal Am pentatonic would end up (starting at b7 on 6th string)
1 --------------------------------8-10-12-15-17
2 ------------------------8-10
3 ----------------5-7-9 (slide to 9)
4 -----------5-7
5 ----3-5-7 (slide to 7)
6 3-5 <-start here
The advantage being you can cover three octaves instead of two. I might go back to shape 1 if I was adding passing notes on the B string (b6th at fret 6 or 6th at fret 7) - it seems to make more sense to me to put them there but of course they can be played anywhere. I particularly like a 6th-b7th bend on the B string (bend 7th fret one semitone). It's the little touches that elevate a solo from just pentatonic-by-rote into something more creative.
The major and minor pentatonics are the building blocks for everything. They tell you essentially what you need to know about the essential differences between major and minor - 3rd v ♭3rd, 6th v ♭7th. And they also tell you the constants - roots, 4th and 5th. Then it's basically a case of learning how the "in between" notes add colour - 2nds, ♭5ths, ♭6ths, maj7ths, etc.
When you're playing it doesn't really matter if you don't know the mode names, although in the longer term is becomes helpful to be able to describe what's going on in words. A ♭5th will usually want to resolve to the 4th, a ♭6th to the 5th, a maj7th to the root. Then weird notes like the ♭2nd can be added sparingly if necessary. Any note can be played over any chord, knowing what's going to happen when it does is the key.
Sorry I couldn't answer your question!
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The usage of modes of our major scale helps us to generate key signatures. If you write out the intervals of the Cmaj scale (no sharps or flats) for each of its modes, you find that the one on the 4th degree has a #4 and all the other notes are as per a maj scale, and the one on the 5th degree is the same as the maj scal except that it has a b7. Applying a tweak to each if those to turn them back into major scales means you flatten the B in the 4th mode to get F major and sharpen the F in the 5th mode to get G major. Then you can repeat the process on your new major scales. Hence you can generate key signatures.
The process doesn't really apply to pentatonics.
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one of them I posted in this thread:
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/135200/oh-no-not-scales-again#latest
Take a few minutes maybe it will start making sense.
I also hope you found out you can turn shapes on/off on pentanizer thingy, to isolate shapes/intervals, demo:
https://imgur.com/gallery/Ei5xdOe
Don't give up that easy ;-)
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
@machak thanks - I'll take a look at your links.