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Overview of The Pentatonic Scale – Lesson 20

Dominik Gräber

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  • Nov 11, 2019
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    Okay seriously guys this might not sound cool but my girl was playing “if I was your man” Bruno Mars and this scale was perfect to play on it to have fun!
    I discovered you can play Jurassic Park using the Major scale introduced some Lessons before :D
     
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    Sesha Achilingam

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    Nov 11, 2019
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    I was playing around with the scale holding the notes for different lengths to the clicks of the metronome. I found it more difficult with the different lengths to remember the alternate picking pattern, but its fun :) I'm also loving the backing track option on the lesson.
     
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    Conor Mason

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    Nov 11, 2019
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    I didn't really understand this lesson. Can someone explain it really broken down? Not sure why how we went from playing a C Major scale to the 5th fret for example?


    Hey, I hope this helps. We started with C Major and that scale. In this lesson we are doing the Am Pentatonic scale, since it's starting on the root note A. A minor is the relative major key to C Major and you could play the Am pentatonic over a chord progression in the Key of C. Also, it's a common starting point for learning the pentatonic since the key of C Major has no sharp or flat notes to throw new players for a loop. The note on the 5th fret of the 6th (low E) string, is A and the root of this scale in the lesson. I hope this helps a little! I just saw this one. Cheers!
     

    Christian Schulze

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    I'm practicing the scale with a metronome right now, and it's going alright. What tempo would you recommend before moving to the next lesson? I can play the scale quite comfortably on 60 bpm right now
    I would say keep going up speed. 1 note per beat at 60 is good. Go up 10 bpm and if that is comfortable keep going up!
     
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    Imactuallyadrummer

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    I'm practicing the scale with a metronome right now, and it's going alright. What tempo would you recommend before moving to the next lesson? I can play the scale quite comfortably on 60 bpm right now

    Honestly I think it’s perfectly fine to move to the next lesson before 100% nailing everything in it. just remember to not forget about it.

    Just like in school you don’t only go to the next lesson when you’ve mastered one lecture or chapter, you move on but review your notes (or in this case practice the previous lessons).

    plus some things come together and make more sense as you move on. or while you are learning and absorbing the new lessons you’ve already unintentionally improved for the previous one
     

    gissoe

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    Honestly I think it’s perfectly fine to move to the next lesson before 100% nailing everything in it. just remember to not forget about it.

    Just like in school you don’t only go to the next lesson when you’ve mastered one lecture or chapter, you move on but review your notes (or in this case practice the previous lessons).

    plus some things come together and make more sense as you move on. or while you are learning and absorbing the new lessons you’ve already unintentionally improved for the previous one
    That is actually really solid advice. I'm following the lessons and it's going quite alright, but sometimes I'm not sure if I'm ready to move on yet. This helps a lot! Thank you very much.
     
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    ari.mac

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    Honestly I think it’s perfectly fine to move to the next lesson before 100% nailing everything in it. just remember to not forget about it.

    Just like in school you don’t only go to the next lesson when you’ve mastered one lecture or chapter, you move on but review your notes (or in this case practice the previous lessons).

    plus some things come together and make more sense as you move on. or while you are learning and absorbing the new lessons you’ve already unintentionally improved for the previous one
    Such a good advice! I totally agree
     

    chris_is_cool

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    So is the relative minor always the 6th note of the scale? For example if I play G major scale (starting from A string 10th fret), would the relative minor be Em?

    Or am I utterly lost? :D
    Yup, you got that right.

    Edit: to elaborate a bit...

    The interval structure of the major scale is (W = whole step, H = half step)
    W W H W W | W H.
    The | stands for the 6th note of the scale. If we start this pattern with the |, we get
    W H W W H W W,
    which is the interval structure of the natural minor scale. So, for any major scale, if you start the scale at the 6th note, you get a natural minor scale with the same notes, the relative minor of the major scale.
     
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    Des Christ

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    Dec 26, 2020
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    Hey guys, I got kinda confused with this lesson. What I understand at first was that the C major scale without the 4th and 7th note is called a pentatonic scale and because it's created from the C major it's the C pentatonic. But someone in the discussion said that because the root note is A it's called Am Pentatonic. Is it the same thing because A it's the minor relative of C or something? Can someone explain it please?
     
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    idssdi

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    Hey guys, I got kinda confused with this lesson. What I understand at first was that the C major scale without the 4th and 7th note is called a pentatonic scale and because it's created from the C major it's the C pentatonic. But someone in the discussion here someone said that because the root note is A it's called Am Pentatonic. Is it the same thing because A it's the minor relative of C or something? Can someone explain it please?
    Am is the relative minor of C so effectively they hold the same notes. If your root note is A it is an Am pentatonic, if it is C it is C major pentatonic.
     
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    J. Vader

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    I was playing around with a bluesy scale a friend taught me years ago that could translate over most of the fretboard that was pretty close to this. It made learning it pretty easy. The one I learned went
    -------------------------------------------------------------5---8----
    ----------------------------------------------------5---8-------------
    --------------------------------------5---7---8-----------------------
    ----------------------------5---7-------------------------------------
    --------------5---6---7-----------------------------------------------
    ----5---8-------------------------------------------------------------

    I loved playing all over that one to stretch my fingers out whenever it's been awhile since I've played.
     
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