Back in the 1970s, when I’d be on my way to a class at Berklee College of Music, I frequently encountered hallway after hallway of guitarists jamming, always on pentatonic scales — nothing but pentatonic scales. Here I was, attending this prestigious jazz school, and all I could think was, “Enough of these dang pentatonics — I want the meat and potatoes!”

Many years later, the pentatonic scale remains the most widely used scale in popular music and a very useful tool (crutch?) for guitarists, and with good reason.

Before I digress too much, let’s define our terms. “Pentatonic” means “consisting of five tones”. In a pentatonic scale, the tones are arranged like a major scale with the 4th and 7th tones omitted, leaving you with these five notes — the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th. Those notes form a very powerful group when used in an atypical manner.

Played on guitar, pentatonic scales have a relatively consistent symmetry to them regardless of the position one uses. That’s because they most often are played using two notes per string instead of the usual combination of two and/or three notes per string. Plus, in each position those two notes are on the same fret across two and sometimes three adjacent strings! That makes it much easier to learn the fingerings and positions, to develop the “muscle memory” that is a main ingredient in the “speed factor”.

Contributing to the pentatonic scale’s popularity is its use in familiar musical genres. The minor pentatonic actually is a form of the blues scale, minus one note. That alone would explain its popularity, given the shared legacy of the guitar and the blues.

Now back to Berklee. I’m a few years down the road. I’ve finished college, and I got my meat and potatoes (mostly due to studying improvisation with Gary Burton and Mick Goodrick). So, here I am teaching a lesson on improv to a new student, who happily whips out his axe and lays the pentatonic scale on me — in every way, shape, and form. This guy was a very inspiring blues player, and although I really “dug his thing,” I couldn’t help but think, “If only he could have played this tonal area before going to the ‘one’ chord,” or “I’d sure like to hear this sound on that dominant chord for the turnaround,” etc.

That’s when the light bulb switched on for me. I had been working on improvisational shortcuts by experimenting with your standard seven-note chord scales and their derivations. I’ve never felt comfortable with the fact that we only have 12 notes in our entire tonal system, and yet someone can hand you a method book that has hundreds of chord scales to learn!

I started thinking that there must be an easier way to learn all those scales, or at least some cool tricks or shortcuts. At that point, I began seeing it all in more mathematical terms. All we ever really do is play the same notes (remember, there are only 12) in different orders and combinations.

I decided to experiment with pentatonic scales, and my research uncovered some fun “stuff” that’s fascinating and rewarding, especially when applied to guitar. In terms of improvisation, the scale usually used is a tonic major pentatonic scale or its relative-minor pentatonic scale. An example of this relationship would be the C Major and the A minor pentatonic scales. For this study, I’ll only use the “major” pentatonic scales.

Now, here’s a very traditional and simple jazz chord progression/turnaround that we’ll use to take your pentatonics to the next level.

[|: Dmin7 / / / | G7#5b9 / / / | Cmaj7 / / / | A7#5b9 / / / :|]

Here’s the deal. For every chord, there is at least one major pentatonic scale whose five notes represent a full seven-note scale (of another name) with which to improvise over the chord in question. Confused? Let’s look at this chord progression and get into it. Here are the rules (shortcuts):

1. For a minor 7th chord, you use a major pentatonic scale down a whole step. So, for Dmin7 you’d use “C” major pentatonic scale. This has an interesting tonal quality and is unique in that it has no 3rd in it. Characterizing a minor chord scale, the chord tones provided are: 1, 2 (or 9th), 4, 5, b7.

2. For a dominant 7th#5b9 (altered) chord, you’d use a major pentatonic scale from its tri-tone/raised 4. So, for G7#5b9 you’d use the “Db” major pentatonic scale. This is two notes shy of being the “big daddy” of jazz chord scales — the altered dominant — providing the following chord tones: #11, b13, b7, b9, #9.

3. For a major 7th chord, you’d use a major pentatonic scale up a whole step. So, for Cmaj7th you’d use a “D” major pentatonic scale. This emulates the Lydian mode and provides these chord tones: 2 (or 9th), 3, #11, 6, 7.

4. The last chord in our progression, the A7#5b9, is an altered dominant like the G7#5b9 we just referred to in rule/shortcut Number 2. It therefore would apply in the same manner, taking a major pentatonic scale from the tri-tone; this time the tri-tone from “A” is “Eb”.

Again, these same great chord tones are provided when playing an Eb pentatonic over the A7#5b9 to create this altered dominant texture: #11, b13, b7, b9, #9.

Here’s the real eye opener: you’ve just learned how to improvise over this four-chord progression by using only one pentatonic scale fingering! Notice that all you have to do in order to play over these four chord changes with this concept is to play C, Db, D, and Eb major pentatonics. It’s all chromatic — one fret up at each chord change. Great for guitarists!

I recommend recording this four-bar repeated pattern for several minutes in order to play along and practice over it. A simple looping device for real-time practice is very effective, as well. Practice over these “changes”, moving your pentatonic scale up a half step (one fret) at each chord change, and starting over when the progression repeats. As you get more familiar with the fingerings, try to get away from sounding like you’re practicing scales by playing more interesting intervals and rhythms. Practice playing melody!

If you’re really adventurous, check out the other pentatonic scale forms. There are five commonly used patterns that will give you access up and down the entire fingerboard. For this study I’ve only used one. I’ll look forward to diving into these others with you in a future “session.”

There are many pentatonic substitutions and tricks for playing through progressions. I’ll be sharing these and many other concepts in my Taylor workshops. Over the years, I’ve developed a lot of fun teaching material that I’ll be throwing into the mix, as well. Beginning in June, check my page in the “Owners/Artists/Clinicians” section of the Taylor website for my scheduled workshop dates, then look for my workshop listings in the “Almanac” section of the Summer issue of Wood&Steel. I hope you have a lot of fun with this. Until next time….

Pentatonic Substitutions - PART II
In the first installment, we learned how easy it is to substitute familiar pentatonic patterns for more complex chord scales used in advanced improvising. I’d like to show you many more such substitutions, but we can only do so much at one time and we have a bit of work to do first, so I’m saving some for future installments.

This time around, I’ll give you the tools that will allow you to fully utilize all of the pentatonic substitutions in your future. We are going to learn “Lesson 1” over the entire fingerboard, using new scale forms and chord voicings.

To make Lesson 1 more focused and concise, we limited the study to one pentatonic scale form, starting in position 2 and moving up chromatically to position 5. We played four different major pentatonic scales (C, C#, D, and D#) using only one pentatonic scale form, limiting us to the lower positions on the fingerboard. Now we’re going to “blow it out” by adding the remaining four basic scale forms, which will allow you access to the entire fingerboard.

To start with, let’s take a simple approach to learning the five basic pentatonic scale forms in “C” major, including the one you learned in Lesson 1. We know that there are five notes in a pentatonic scale. Let’s take those five notes in the C major pentatonic scale and find them on our 6th (low E) string. Starting with the tonic, or “root”, we have C on the eighth fret, D on the 10th fret, E on the 12th fret (or back to the open/nut position), G on the third fret, and A on the fifth fret. These five notes not only make up the C major pentatonic scale, but individually they start each of the five basic pentatonic scale forms.

Keep in mind that throughout this whole process you are simply playing the same five notes (albeit in a variety of octaves) over and over, starting on a different degree of the scale. Follow the scale form chart as we walk through this.

Scale form I starts on C, or the tonic. Scale form II starts on D or the 2nd degree of the scale. Scale form III starts on the 3rd, or E. There is no F (or 4th) in the major pentatonic scale, so we’ll skip that one. Scale form IV starts on G, or the 5th degree. The last scale form is V, starting on the A or 6th degree of the C major pentatonic scale. There is no 7th degree in the major pentatonic scale so, as with the 4th degree, we’ll skip it.

You now have five completely different scale forms that will enable you to play the C major pentatonic scale in these different positions, up and down the fingerboard. I recommend that you work with one at a time, examining its individual shape, the symmetry of the strings/frets, where tonic C is within the form, or whatever it takes for you to learn these as individual patterns. (I like to look at the strings-to-frets symmetry.)

First, all of these scale forms have only two frets fingered per string. For example, in scale form IV (from Lesson 1), you play two notes each on strings 6, 5, 2, and 1 on identical frets — 3 and 5. Strings 3 and 4 also are symmetrical, in that each of their two notes are played identically on frets 2 and 5. Do you see this simple pattern? I think of this scale form (IV) as 2-2-2.

Look at it again: strings 5 and 6 (same frets, the first 2), strings 3 and 4 (same frets, the second 2), and strings 1 and 2 (same frets, as well as the same strings, 5 and 6 —that’s the last two of 2-2-2). In the same manner, scale form V could be looked at as 1-3-2. This is just one method that can help you memorize patterns, especially the more symmetrical ones. (Please read this paragraph over and look at the chart. I promise, it makes sense!)

Visualizing this symmetry really aids in learning the shapes of these scale forms. And by seeing these shapes you can play better randomly, paying more attention to melody as opposed to learning/practicing in a typical scale-like fashion. It’s a simple fact that if you try to play in the middle of a scale, your fingers likely will insist on starting at the beginning — simply because you learned and practiced in a scalar manner. In general, with regard to all scale practicing, I suggest getting away from playing them in the same way.

After familiarizing yourself with note locations, practice scales by playing the different notes in a random fashion, listening as you go to the different intervals you come up with. It’s also good to practice with rhythmic variation, as opposed to strict quarter-notes, for example. I’m a firm believer that “you play as you practice.” If you practice your scales in a typical scale-like fashion — do-ra-me-fa-so-la-te-do — that is how you will approach your improvisation. This subject is big enough to be a lesson unto itself.

At this point, we bring all of Lesson 1 into the picture. You learned C major pentatonic scale form IV and moved it up chromatically (one-half step at a time) playing C# major pentatonic, then D major pentatonic, and finally D# major pentatonic You also learned that these major pentatonic scales (in that same order) are substitutions for more advanced chord scales used to improvise over the following chord progression: Dmin7 to G7#5b9 to Cmaj7 to A7#5b9. (By the way, #5 chords also can be referred to as b13 chords, but it’s much easier for a guitarist to look at the fingerboard and see a raised 5th than try to imagine a 13th, which is an octave higher.)

I want you to take the remaining pentatonic scale forms (I, II, III, and V) and do exactly what you did in Lesson 1 with each new form. This is basically “Lesson 1 times five”, and will amount to the equivalent of four additional charts, just like the one you see in Lesson 1, only you have to substitute the new “Corresponding Scale (Form) Positions to Chord Forms” [Spring ’05]. Everything else is identical.

Because you just learned scale form IV (in position 2) you might want to start out this new lesson with scale form V (position 5). Do everything the same as in Lesson 1. Practice C major pentatonic starting on the 5th fret and simply move it up one-half step at a time through C# major pentatonic (6th fret), D major pentatonic (7th fret), and finally D# major pentatonic (8th fret). Now you’re ready to play over the same four-bar chord progression.

When you’ve had enough of scale form V, move up the neck to scale form I (7th position). Repeat the entire Lesson 1 process, learning the four chromatic pentatonic substitutions, and then play them over the four-bar chord progression. When you’ve finished tackling that, move on to scale form II and scale form III. You now have the tools necessary to play these interesting pentatonic substitutions all up and down the fingerboard.

Another great way to practice this exercise (eventually) is to connect the scale forms together before moving on to the next chord change with a corresponding pentatonic substitution. Start with two scale forms. For example, when playing over the Dmin7, combine the C major pentatonic scale forms IV and V. Think of it as one large scale form and try playing in a more random fashion, making use of the more “linear” possibilities now that there are three notes available per string. Do the same with the remaining chord changes and corresponding pentatonic substitutions.

After that, try connecting three scale forms together, then four, then all five. It won’t happen overnight, so don’t panic or get discouraged; soon, you will recognize an almost infinite number of combinations with which to experiment. At the same time, you’ll tremendously improve your linear (horizontal/“Eastern”) approach, in terms of making great melody while freeing yourself from the “crutch of exclusive position playing” (vertical/“Western”). With that last statement in mind, I’d like you to ponder something: if I snipped five strings off of your guitar, leaving you only one to play on, could you play the four pentatonic scales we’ve been working on?

Finally, you’ve probably noticed the chart on the variations of our four-bar chord progression. These new voicings will help to familiarize you with this same progression in various positions up and down the fingerboard. You can mix them up as you wish. The different voice leading also will add a nice sonic variety, so that you’re not stuck listening to the same four chords over and over. To eliminate some confusion regarding voicings and chord function, let me offer the following short explanation. Although some of these new chord voicings are labeled in a slightly different manner, they function exactly the same as the original four chords.

The D minor chord is exactly that, and does not change function by adding the 7th, 9th or 11th in its voicing/name. These “tensions” simply lend sonic coloration to the D minor chord. Also, these tensions actually are notes that exist in the C pentatonic scale, with which you are improvising over the D minor. Example: the 7th, 9th, and 11th of the D minor chord are C, E, and G. These are the 1st, 3rd, and 5th degrees of the C major pentatonic scale.

The same goes for the remaining three chords of our progression. Regardless of the altered tensions listed in both the G7 and/or A7 dominant chord names, their functions remain the same — altered dominant 7th chords — so you use the same pentatonic substitutions in your improvisation. These altered tensions noted in the chord name, whether it be b9, #9, #5, or b13, are all notes that exist in the pentatonic scales you’ve already been playing over G7#5b9 and A7#5b9 — namely, the Db/C# pentatonic and the D#/Eb pentatonic. In these new voicings, we’re simply highlighting a few new tensions, but your improv scale remains the same!

Likewise, the C major chord functions the same whether it is a simple major 7 or if tensions 6, 9, #11, or 13 are listed in its name to describe added coloration in the voicing. In any case, the scale used for one voicing will work for them all. In this case, you’re using the D pentatonic, which incorporates all of these notes.

Using text to try to provide a clear picture of music theory as applied to guitar presents many challenges. These concepts are much easier to demonstrate than to explain in words, so we’ve created a short instructional video that you’ll find in the Taylor Video Library. There, you’ll be able to watch yours truly demonstrating these “Pentatonic Pleasures”, as Taylor PR staffer Anthony Adams calls them.

Also, watch for a future installment in which I’ll list more pentatonic substitutions for you to check out, with additional harmonic backgrounds. Over time, we’ll cover many more exciting subjects and shortcuts, along with some right-hand rhythmic independence techniques to get your solo grooves happenin’.

I look forward to meeting and talking to some of you at my Taylor workshops, which begin this summer. I want to see those “light bulbs go on”, so check my “Clinicians” page on the Taylor website (click on Owners/Artists, then Clinicians) for specific dates and places. Cheers! WayneJohnsonOnline.com.

Anthony Adams contributed to these articles.