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Chapter 8: Playing Lead: Soaring Melodies and Searing Solos
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Table 8-1 Comparing the Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales
E major E minor Pentatonic Interval
E E 1
F# — —
G# G %3
A A 4
B B 5
C# — —
D# D %7
Two notes in particular clash in Table 8-1: the third (G# versus G) and the seventh
(D# versus D). But the tension created when a minor, or flatted, third (G)
occurs against an expected major third (G#) in the tonic chord gives the blues
its energy and vitality. It’s a large part of what makes the blues blue.
A common scale for practice:
E minor pentatonic
In this section, you start practicing the pentatonic scale in open position
(using open strings and the first three frets), and in Chapter 9 you can practice
closed position (no open strings), which gives you the opportunity to
transpose the scale to any key and any position on the neck. You apply the
same approach to the six-note blues scale as well. (See the section on the
blues scale later in this chapter.)
An E minor pentatonic scale has five notes and fits the key of E minor (or an E
minor chord). Traditional major and minor scales have seven notes (you
don’t count the octave, or eighth note, as part of the scale), but a pentatonic
simplifies life a little by counting just five notes as its members.
Though the minor pentatonic scale has minor in its name and fits well in the
key of E minor and its related chords, you can also apply that minor quality
to the chords in a blues progression, which are major. This minor/major combination
is what gives the blues its special character.
TEAM LinG