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Hi. I am a huge fan of your lessons and really click with the way you look at things. I am particularly fascinated (my wife would say obsessed) with relating everything (pentatonic patterns, fill licks, riffs) to CAGED CHORD SHAPES. The way I am approaching it, I play an E-shaped bar chord, for example, and then think, what is the MAJOR pentatonic pattern (and associated filler licks) under my fingers when in the E-shaped bar chord, and what is the MINOR pentatonic pattern under my fingers (and associated filler licks) the same E-shaped bar chord. Then I do the same for each of the CAGED shapes.
While I can find lots of separate lessons that answer my questions, I cannot find any that specifically break it out this way with all the information amalgamated by CAGED shapes. I find lessons that teach relative majors and minors, or teach patterns in a key, but many instructors use terms like “A Major pattern 3” to mean different things. For example, in the E bar chord shape, I recognize that the minor pentatonic is pattern 1, but then when it comes to the major pentatonic under that same bar chord, some instructors also call it Pattern 1 while others call it Pattern 5.
I am trying to learn “what is everything under my fingers when I am in a CAGED shape? Which major pentatonic pattern and associated filler licks, and which minor pentatonic pattern and associated filler licks, are associated with the E bar chord shape? Then same question while in the A bar chord shape etc.
Do you have any suggested lessons which look at it this way, and if not, would you consider such a 5 part video lesson:
1) Everything you need to know about whats under your fingers in the E bar chord shape
a. Minor pentatonic pattern 1
b. Major pentatonic pattern __ (still trying to figure this out- I call it the House of Blues shape, but different instructors label it different pattern numbers, which is part of the confusion)
c. Common licks and riffs (major, minor, mixed)2) Everything you need to know about whats under your fingers in the E bar chord shape
etc etc
Thaks for listening and keep up the great work. Stay safe!
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Your best bet is print out the patterns and learn them as
E shape major/minor D shape major/minor And so on.Even Brian has his own way of labeling them.
What he calls pattern 1 major pentatonic some call pattern 5
It is the G shape if you look at where the root notes are.
So if you learn the scales by chord shape and not numbers it
makes it a lot easier.For example the E shape minor pentatonic is what most call
pattern 1
The E shape major pentatonic is Pattern 2. What Brian calls
pattern 1 of the major pentatonic is the G shape pattern 5
It doesn’t matter what pattern people call it in reality
it’s the G shape -
Thanks! You are definitely talking my language. The problem is I cannot find anything definitive to print out (after scouring the internet forever) which presents the pentatonic patterns visually this way:
E Shape Major Pent: [insert photo of pattern]
E shape Minor Pent: [insert photo of pattern]
D Shape Major Pent: [insert photo of pattern]
D Shape Minor Pent: [insert photo of pattern]
etc
Anyone have a document or link that presents it this way instead of just “Pattern #”?
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Mike,
I think you are on the right track and it’s an excellent way to view the fret board. Everything is connected in the way you describe. That’s a big part of what this journey is about. I do try and take note in each lesson how some of my favourite “Brian” licks relate to a chord shape and over time I think you start to internalize many of them. Some of what you are looking for here are the result of layers of understanding that come in time, ie. scales, modes, chord inversions, intervals and might be difficult as many here are at different levels.
One epiphany I had of late revolved around the numbering of the major and minor pentatonic shapes. Everybody agrees on what Box 1 minor pentatonic is. I would argue that the E shaped major pentatonic pattern that overlays it should also be called Box 1. The reason being that both of these boxes share the same set of root notes. If you can relate minor and major scales and modes, diads and triads around a group of the contained 2 or 3 root notes within a shape, you are really progressing. If you can see those things, the licks will come. Remember, also, that many interesting licks are going to cross through two or three shapes. There is that horizontal as well as vertical perspective.
John -
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Hi Mike, I can help you with this. I have done up a visual pdf to easily identify the minor and major pentatonic associated with the caged patterns (thanks to Roland for his initial work on this). I can understand where you are at, as I couldn’t find anything on the internet either. It certainly makes my understanding of theory easier to have printed resources like this at hand. Hope this helps.
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Wow! That is really helpful. Thanks.
The melody of the notes is what expresses the art of music . 🙂 6stringerPete
It really is all about ”melody”. The melody comes from a language from our heart. Our heart is the muscle in music harmony. The melody is the sweetness that it pumps into our musical thoughts on the fretboard. 🙂 6 stringer Pete
Pete
Active Melody
Forum Moderator -
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Mike,
Laurel’s attachments show exactly what I was describing. A skill really worth developing is mixing the major and minor pentatonic in one position. Visualizing it around the shared roots, no matter how you number the boxes, is key.
John -
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Wow. Thanks everyone. Particularly Laurel—that is exactly what I have been looking for and tried to put together myself but yours is fantastic. Hopefully Brian will do a 5-part lesson (one for each shape) through this lense. I sent him a note and he responded saying he liked the idea.
Thanks again to everyone. Have a great day.
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As I have been going through Brian’s lessons, I am keeping a notebook with one page for each letter of E-D-C-A-G. Everytime I come across a lesson which has a cool fill, riff, lick or embellishment tied to a specific pentatonic chord shape (or as Brian calls them, Pentatonic Pattern # X), I jot down that lesson on the corresponding chord page. Then my process for practice is, for example, “today I am going to review all the cool things from different lessons that I can tie to the G Major pentatonic pattern).
If anyone else in interested, maybe we can create 5 forum pages and everyone can do the same everytime they encounter a lesson through this lense?
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Mike
Brian has a whole section called the Major Pentatonic scale
on the weekly lesson page.
It’s not lessons on the scales but more how to use them.
This may save you some time going thought lessons looking
for what you want to study.
You can also set up a folder in my favorites to save the
lesson you want.
Save a lot of time looking for lessons.
You could set up a folder for each chord shape. -
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I am going through lesson 356, and it looks like all the patterns for the minor pentatonic scales match up to Laurel’s patterns, but…
For the major pentatonic scales on his position 1 diagram major pentatonic scale pattern 4, on laurel’s diagram it matches major scale pattern 3.
On his position 3 diagram major pentatonic scale pattern 2 matches major pattern 1 on laurel’s major scale diagram.
Thanks Laurel for the diagram. It helped me make sense of the pattern #’s.
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