5 Pentatonic Shapes Pdf
Nayra Waddles
If you look closely at the patterns below you will see the chords C, A, G, E, D. Further, to make the scale pattern boxes, the C shape is bounded by a D chord in that key and the C chord. The A shape is bounded by a C chord and an A chord
Of course, I DO put in passing and blues notes which belong to the major and minor scales into CAGED. Often though, that comes from muscle memory after having learned and practiced the three note per string. I do present the major modes with CAGED in another section of this site. But only in passing.
Once you learn the sound of the pentanonic scales, you really need to learn the diagonal scale system by learning how the root notes create repeating patterns up the neck every two strings (note the 1 fret upward shift on the B string).
Well it all depends on where you start the pattern. If you look at the E minor pentatonic above, the pattern starts on the 3rd of the major scale of E. However the Major G pentatonic scale pattern is the exact same pattern in the same fret position. However, it starts on the tonic (1st note) of the scale of G.
If you only learn to play leads with pentatonics then you will NEVER be a nuanced and advanced lead rock player, not a good heavy metal player; and NEVER a jazz player. There are many more modes to come. Go to the Lessons page.
The pentatonic scale is a five note scale. It comes from the major scale, which is a seven note scale. In this lesson, we are going to be in the key of G major. The notes in a G major scale are G A B C D E F#.
Shape #1: The first major pentatonic scale shape starts with our G root note on the 3rd fret of the 6th string. With each of the shapes we learn, there will be a chord shape that will go along with it. In this case, it's an E major chord shape.
Once you know the five major pentatonic scale shapes, you automatically know the five minor pentatonic scale shapes. It all relates back to the major scale. If we take the notes in our major pentatonic scale, and start on the 6th scale degree of the major scale, you'll be playing in the relative minor key.
You can use all the same shapes you've already learned for the G major pentatonic scale. All you have to do is emphasize the E notes in your scale shapes and they become E minor pentatonic scale shapes.
I've included a Jam Track that you can download at the top of the page. This track is basically just four measures of the G major chord, followed by four measures of the E minor chord. Listen to how the scale shapes sound different over each chord. Work on emphasizing the root notes of each chord with each shape.
My philosophy about teaching theory to bassists and other instrumentalists and improvisers is: use shapes. There are many ways to conceptualize music via shapes: shapes fingers make on the fretboard, auditory shapes, letters and numbers (theory shapes!), and visual shapes (patterns on the fretboard). On the bass, they represent in beautifully symmetric patterns on the fretboard or notes on a staff. In this post, I focus on visual shapes on the fretboard.
In a nutshell, if you know the key and which scale to use, you can play notes within that scale and it will sound good. And knowing the CAGED shapes for the scales you are playing make it relatively easy to switch between major and pentatonic scales, and also arpeggios (which, basically, are chord tones).
CAGED letters do not refer to the guitar strings at all.
There is no C string on a guitar anyway.
CAGED refers to the shapes of the open position major chords:
C major
A major
G major
E major
D major
@RobDickinson I understood what you meant and it makes perfect sense.
If your root is on the E string and your scale is forward of the root it would be an E shaped scale
Same Root same string but the scale is being the Root then it would be a G shaped scale.
Same goes for the A string with the A ans C shaped scales.
The root on the D string scale forward is D shape if the root is in the middle of the pattern its and E shape.
This is down to the 'caged' system that works so well for guitarists. The open chords - C A G E and D all have specific open shapes, all of which can be moved up the fingerboard, a barre added underneath, and new chords produced.
The problem I have with this sort of portrayal is that it shows as much as possible, all the available notes under the hand at that position on the neck. Pentatonic major and pent. minor both use the same set of notes - G pent. maj. = E pent. min. BUT - if playing as a scale, one needs to know where to start/finish. It's like a lot of sites show similar for maj. scales, but if one plays all the notes, one is far more likely to end up playing a mode (or two!) and it doesn't sound too much like a scale. Rant over!
In my opinion, learning how to connect the 5 pentatonic shapes across your fretboard is one of the best ways to improve your lead guitar playing. It will help you to improvise freely, to create interesting blues guitar solos and to navigate comfortably across the entire neck of your guitar.
Learning the connections between the 5 pentatonic shapes will allow you to break out of patterns and areas of your fretboard where you feel stuck. And this in turn will reduce the likelihood of your solos sounding repetitive and potentially uninteresting.
Regardless of the level of your playing, take time to get to grips with these concepts. The minor pentatonic scale provides the foundation for blues lead guitar playing. It is a hugely important scale and it is one that you are likely to use extensively in your playing.
Finally, the material here is focused solely on the minor pentatonic scale. This is unquestionably the most popular scale amongst blues guitarists, and it is also typically the first scale that most players learn.
However the ideas outlined here also apply to both the blues scale and the major pentatonic scale too. So if you are using those scales in your playing, then the material outlined here will also help you to develop connections between those shapes.
So once you have played the fifth shape in any given key, the next shape to appear on your fretboard will always be the first shape. After that you have the second shape, and then the third shape etc.
This concept is one with which I suspect you are already familiar. I do think it is worth reiterating though, that shapes 1-5 of the minor pentatonic scale do not cover your whole fretboard. In the key of A for example, position 1 of the scale starts on the 5th fret, and position 5 ends on the 17th fret.
At this point it is important to remember, that the numbers simply reset. So in the key of A, once you reach shape 5 of the minor pentatonic at the 17th fret, the next shape to appear on your fretboard is shape 1.
This concept might seem very obvious. Yet it will help you to know exactly where you are at any given point on the fretboard. This will help you to make connections between adjacent pentatonic shapes. And this is the first step to connecting all 5 pentatonic shapes with confidence.
This diagram shows all of the positions of the A minor pentatonic scale. It shows all 5 pentatonic shapes, but actually shows 7 different positions of the scale. This is because, as noted above, the scale shapes are sequential.
So after reaching shape 5 of the scale at the 15th fret, you then play shape 1. Similarly, shape 5 appears at the 3rd fret, before shape 1 at the 5th fret. The light blue dots on this diagram show all of the notes of A that appear on the fretboard.
This has both positive and negative implications. The good news is that the pentatonic shapes you are trying to connect, are already connected. The bad news, is that there is so much crossover between the shapes and so many areas of potential connection, that it is difficult to know where to even begin.
As you can see, the 2 shapes overlap to such an extent that the notes on the right hand side of shape 1 are exactly the same as the notes on the left hand side of shape 2. In other words, there are connecting points at every step of both scale shapes.
I would recommend that you use your middle finger to play the 9th fret of the G string. This will allow you to easily play the notes in the second bar, and it will put you in a great position to move between the 2 pentatonic shapes.
This final lick presents a smoother and more musical way of shifting between the 2 pentatonic shapes. Rather than shifting between the shapes in between phrases, here you connect them as part of the lick.
As you can see from the diagram above, when you lay all of the 5 pentatonic shapes out across your fretboard, you are presented with a huge range of different notes. If you then try to establish connections between all of those different notes, you are likely to struggle to know where to even begin.
The first pentatonic box that I recommend focusing on appears in shape 2 of the minor pentatonic scale. Albert King used this box shape to great effect, and it appears in a whole range of his most famous guitar solos.
This minor pentatonic box forms a very compact shape, which makes it both easy to play and to remember. Additionally, the shape lends itself well to string bending on the high E string, which sounds brilliant. The root note is at the 10th fret of the B string here. And this is a great note to play at the end of your phrases.
The shape is not as compact as the one listed above. Yet you can make it so by avoiding playing the note at the 9th fret on the G string. In this way you can focus on bending the 12th fret of the G string, and playing the notes on the B and E strings.
This shape lends itself well to slightly heavier techniques, like unison bends. As such, it is a shape that Eric Clapton favoured in his early playing. Having said that, it is suitable for more nuanced playing too.
I think this is partly because it is asymmetrical, and partly because it is higher up on the fretboard, in an area where a lot of guitarists rarely venture. Again though, we can make the full scale shape easier to implement by just focusing on the top few strings:
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