9 formas de utilizar la escala menor pentatónica The minor pentatonic scale is a fairly well known scale, and I imagine many of you have used it before. However, I nd that many musicians think about using this scale with a limited perspective. !ften times it"s thought of in a blues conte#t, which of course the minor pentatonic scale lends itself to $uite nicely. %ut if you take a deeper look, you"ll discover that the minor pentatonic scale has a lot more to o&er' (ow before I dive in to the lesson, let me o&er up my philosophy on scales in scales in general) *cales can o&er us a way to conceptualize music and help us learn our instrument better. %ut they are not musical in and of themselves. They can help us group notes together in a functional way, and understand music theoretically, theoretically, but it is up to the musician to use that knowledge to create actual musical ideas. !kay, that"s my disclaimer, now let"s move on' In case you aren"t familiar with the minor pentatonic scale, here is an + minor pentatonic notated, which we will be using as a reference point for this lesson)
ou"ll notice I added the 9th -/ as the top note before going back down the scale. ou"ll also notice I notated two octaves of the scale, which I believe is important to be able to do. !kay, now let"s start checking out some di&erent ways to apply the minor penatonic scale to diferent kinds o chords. chords . 0or the most part, I"ll try to stick to the + minor pentatonic scale to help provide more clarity.
The Usual Suspects
1. Root Minor Chords This one makes a lot of sense right1 It"s a minor scale with 2 notes (hence minor pentatonic) so playing this scale over a minor scale is going to make sense. 3hen I say root minor chords, I mean that the root of the chord is the same root of the scale. *o you can play an A minor pentatonic over an Amin7 (or just Am) chord. Take a look and then a listen)
2. Root Dominant 7th Chords In the same way, an A minor pentatonic can be played over an A7 chord. This is most commonly applied in a blues situation. The scale does skip the 4rd of +5 -6/, which would spell out the di&erence between a minor and a dominant chord. 7egardless, this grouping of notes works out well. 8ust r emember, nothing is stopping you from adding that 4rd in yourself'
In the context of a key center 3e can also think about using minor pentatonic scales in the conte#t of a key center. The important thing to understand is this) or every minor chord there is a relative major and vise versa.
0or e#ample, +n A minor chord (which corresponds with our A minor pentatonic scale), is relative to C major. + trick to nding that out is to move up a minor third from the root. !r if you are starting with a maor chord, move up a maor si#th and that is the relative minor. (ow we are in the key of maor. 3hat chords are all relative to maor1 Here they are)
I: Cmaj7 ii: Dmin7 iii: Emin7 IV: Fmaj7 V: G7 vi: Amin7 (relative minor) vii: Bmin7(!) 0or pretty much all of these you can play an + minor pentatonic, although some I would suggest otherwise. :et"s go over them)
". #he relative major $hord The + minor pentatonic scale is really the same as a maor pentatonic scale, only starting on an + note. In a musical situation, what note you start on doesn"t really matter. This is only ust a way to conceptualize it.
%. #he major &' $hord o the relative major. If we are thinking in the key of maor, the I; chord is F major 7. The
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!. #he minor ii $hord o the relative major. In this case, we would be playing an + minor pentatonic scale over D minor 7. >ore accurately, you could play a Dmin or a Dmin!!, since both of those e#tensions are hit in the + minor pentatonic. !f course, you could also ust play a ? minor pentatonic over a ?min5 chord.
. #he ' s*s% $hord o the relative major. In this case, a @5sus. ou could ust play a regular ; dominant chord, but since the relative minor pentatonic emphasizes the susA, it would be appropriate to think of it this way. In fact, it would be more accurate to play a @=4sus chord since the |
Alternatives in the key center :ike I said, you could play an + minor pentatonic over any of the chords in the key center of maor, but for some there are better options. The most obvious one is playing an " minor pentatonic over the iii chord ("min7). %ut the one that deserves a little bit more attention is the vii hal diminished chord (#min7b$). This chord is often thought of as the ii chord in the relative minor -+ minor/, but the + minor pentatonic doesn"t highlight the most important note in that chord) the %at $ (F).
7. #he ii minor +entatoni$ over the vii $hord. The minor pentatonic scale that would highlight that b2 is the D minor pentatonic scale, therefore this is a better option to play over this chord.
The Unusual Suspects ,. Minor +ent. a hal ste+ do-n rom a Major 7(!) $hord. Have you ever saw this chord in a playing situation and ust had no idea how to improvise over it1 This is a great option for organizing a grouping of notes to play over this chord. In this particular case we are playing an A minor pentatonic scale over a #bmaj7(b$) chord. 3hy1 %ecause the scale starts on the 5th of %b maor and the pentatonic highlights the most important note in this chord) the %at $ (").
. A++l/in0 minor +entatoni$s to a ii'&. This is a really cool application to what arguably is the most important chord progression in azz. heck out this video for starters)
Bretty cool huh1 8azz guitarist ;ic 8uris has a pretty inventive way to help us start applying this scale with some chordal movement. Take a look at it notated out)
3e"ve already gone over how the + minor pentatonic works over a ?min5. 3e"ve also already covered the concept of playing a minor pentatonic scale a half step down from a ma5-b2/ chord. The new member to the group here is the A& pentatonic over the '7alt chord. ou can think of this as ust playing a minor pentatonic a minor third up rom the root o a iven dominant chord. Cssentially you are hitting all of the possible alterations in a dominant 5 chord -69, b9, 6==, 62/. It may sound a little bit DoutE but when you resolve to the ma5-b2/ it has a really nice sound. Hopefully this stu& gets you hitting the practice room to start working on some of these applications of the minor pentatonic scale. @ood luck'
