Hi sumanto, I would suggest stick with those pentatonic shapes so much music within them , this is how I look at the five boxes , every box has two pentatonic scales within it one major and also the relative minor as an example cmajor pentatonic box 1 is the same as Aminor pentatonic box 1 . C is the first note of the major scale in the key of C ,A is the sixth the relative minor so share the same notes but in a different order if you look at those pentatonic shapes in any key that rule applies , I find theory is better gleaned in little steps , the above concept helped my understanding of the five pentatonic boxes a lot . Also I would suggest learning the intervals of the major scale this will also unlock many things . Hope this helps .

Martin

Sumanto,
Martin makes excellent points.
An approach I like is to relate each major pentatonic shape to it’s associated CAGED chord shape. Learn what intervals you are playing in each of those shapes, ie, R, 2,3,4,6,R. Now learn the arpeggio of the major chord in that CAGED shape and, again, try to see the intervals. Now fill in the missing major major 7 and you have the major scale in each shape. I think seeing the scales around the chord shape (arpeggio) is the key to the fret board. Now try and fill in the minor pentatonic and minor scale around those intervals you have learned. I think Brian has a lesson on relating the minor pentatonic boxes to CAGED minor chord shapes. If not, you can find that on YouTube. If you can see intervals you can create the myxolydian, dorian mode etc within those CAGED or pentatonic shapes, ie. see all the colour and chromatic tones. One caution, though. Sometimes it is better to master all this in one or two boxes and start to make music with it. Trying to do everything at once can be overwhelming.
John

Hi Sumanto,
I was referring to the major pentatonic over major chords. You can do the same with minor pentatonic over minor chords. Remember major pentatonic and minor pentatonic overlap in any one CAGED position and all those colour tones are nearby.
John

What happens if you stop thinking of them as scales, and think instead in terms of a collection of notes.

The first point is that everything you play comes from the chromatic scale. But endlessly practicing chromatic scales isn’t going to help that much with making music.

As the major scale is a subset of the chromatic, so too the major pentatonic is a subset of both of those. But there are lots of melodies that are entirely made from notes in the pentatonic scales. Learning that sound is useful, just as learning the sound of the arpeggios is useful, learning the triads, learning other note collections (diminished, whole tone, harmonic minor, etc…)

Hope this helps.

Hey, I’m new here but have been on a bit of a music theory bender myself over the past year.

RE: Pentatonic scales, this was very useful to me and may help you out. The first pattern of minor pentatonic (lets say A minor pentatonic), can be used to solo/improvise over both Am and C major since they contain the same notes. Therefore, if you know the root of the scale you want to solo over, you can use the 1st minor pentatonic pattern to solo over any scale, major or minor. Note that if you put your 1st finger on the root of the minor pentatonic (on the 6th string) your 4th finger will land on the parallel major root note (3 frets up). You can use this to focus your soloing around the root. Hope that helps.