The Famous 5 Note Scale – Play Great Guitar Solos With Only Five Notes

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By Mike Hayes | November 16, 2010

Some guitar players seem to pick up a guitar and start playing
great solos without any effort, they hardly raise a sweat; other
unfortunates struggle with their instrument all their life
without making any noticeable progress.

I guess it just comes down to those that ‘have it’ can do it and
the those who ‘don’t have it’ are never are able to do it.

WRONG!!!

It all comes down to ‘those that know how to do it’, can do it
and ‘those who don’t know how to do it’ can’t. It has nothing to
do with natural talent or any other ‘old wives’ tales about
learning music.

Early on in my guitar playing adventures I was often puzzled by
certain individuals who were ‘not the sharpest knives in the
draw’, yet they could play really neat solos on the guitar,
whilst I (who was taking music lessons) could only play a few
kiddies tunes.

It turns out that a particular five note scale is the secret,
which five note scale? The minor pentatonic scale.

Technically speaking any group of five notes could be called a
pentatonic scale but the one that interest us as guitar players
is the minor pentatonic scale.

Extensive research has revealed that the notes of the minor
pentatonic scale can be found in almost every culture on earth,
this is truly a universal scale and of course explains it’s
popularity (both on guitar and in music.)

Music of the whole earth:

Here’s something to think about … in days gone by, people all
over the world working in isolation (from each other) arrived at
the same (or almost the same) set of notes.

Why five notes? … easy, people have five fingers.

Why do the notes(s) in the scale vary (slightly) from country to
country? Again, that’s an easy one, it’s because of the size of
the individual’s hand.

When a person in India is making a wooden flute the distance
between the holes will be slightly differ to a flute made in
Africa – it makes sense doesn’t it? The instrument maker would
craft their instrument to suit the size and shape of their
hand(s), this accounts for some slight variations in the same set
of ‘universal’ notes.

The amazing discovery is that people all over the world have been
searching for a particular set of notes that all feel ‘right’.
It’s as if we all come to the planet with the music inside us,
it’s just a matter of working out how to get the music out.

Now, let’s take a look at the famous five notes of the minor
pentatonic scale; I’ll use the “F” minor pentatonic scale for
demonstration purposes.

The notes of the “F” minor pentatonic are:

F minor pentatonic scale = F – Ab – Bb – C – Eb – (F)

If you are familiar with minor scales on the guitar you will
realize that the minor pentatonic scale could be created by
modifying the ‘natural minor scale’.

F natural minor scale = F – G – Ab – Bb – C – Db – Eb – (F)

By omitting the second and sixth notes we produce the “F” minor
pentatonic scale.

Topics: Beginner Guitar Lesson, Guitar Tips, guitar scales | 2 Comments »

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