That sounds way cool too. After doing the regular Major and Minor a few years back, I have got fonder of the pentatonic scales. That could be a great lesson.

fresnojohns

Yes, you’re totally right. I do need to switch gears and demonstrate major pentatonic scale as well. I didn’t want to confuse folks in the Blues Lead Course – wanted that to be the ground work and the plan is to create a part 2 that demonstrates the major pentatonic scale and then how those 2 work together.

You’re correct Tom – essentially that’s it. I thought I could just elaborate on that in more detail w/ examples.. but in essence – it’s just sliding everything up 3 frets the way that you described

Tom, I hope I am not confusing you here but you can either slide up three frets and play the major pentatonic using the same scale shape as you did for the minor scale. OR you can play the minor pentatonic then play the major pentatonic shape two over the top without moving on the fretboard. You can then create maj/minor licks.

Brian, I really hope you can put a Major Pentatonic course together, particularly if it’s as detailed as the current blues course (covering the five positions). I would buy it.

Rickey wrote:

Now I’m confused. I thought if you wanted to play the major pentatonic scale you just slide up 3 frets from the minor pentatonic scale. I thought I saw this in Brian’s video on “Understanding Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales”.

Could somebody explain this for me?

Thanks,

Tom

I hate to do this to such an old post, but it could confuse the heck out of someone if it is left un-corrected. If currently playing the MAJOR pentatonic scale pattern #1 with your pinky on the root note, then desire to switch to minor pentatonic using that same exact shape, just slide up three frets or position your index finger on the root note and that same exact pattern now functions as the minor pentatonic. So Ricky said it exactly backwards because if you want to play major from the existing minor, you would slide down three frets by locating your pinky on root note.

This was very clearly demonstrated in the referenced video now labeled LEG024 using E as the root note. Even though this is an older lesson, the backing track that goes with that lesson is quite good and a lot of fun to jam to.

Of course the more advance way to play major from minor pattern #1 is to play pattern #2 from virtually the same position. This is something Ricky probably eventually learned later after learning all five patterns and had his mind blown.