This module sits at the heart of the course. Nearly everything that follows is built directly on it, so time spent here will pay off later — and if something later in the course feels confusing, this is the module to come back to.
We start with the minor pentatonic scale because it is the scale guitar players use most often. It shows up across blues, rock, funk, country, pop, and a good deal of jazz. If the major scale is the language of music theory, the minor pentatonic is the way guitarists talk.
If you already know some pentatonic shapes, set them aside for the duration of this module. Nothing is being thrown away, but we are going to rebuild what you already know out of simpler, more flexible building blocks. That restructuring will be what makes the major scale, the modes, harmonic minor, and everything else connect later on.
The minor pentatonic scale is built from five intervals: the root, ♭3, 4, 5, and ♭7:
This scale is closely related to the major scale. If you take a major scale and start on the 2nd, 3rd, or 6th scale degree, a complete minor pentatonic scale is sitting there inside it. Each one is a different five-note subset of the major scale, which is a large part of why this scale connects so naturally to everything later in the course.
On the guitar, every note in the scale is either two frets or three frets away from the next one. The pattern of those spans is worth memorizing, and the two-fret spans are the key to it: there is one isolated two-fret span sitting between two three-fret spans, and then a pair of two-fret spans side by side.
Memorize this: The minor pentatonic scale spans, in order, are 3-2-2-3-2 frets. The root of the scale is the higher note of the isolated two-fret span.
Seeing the notes is only half of it. The other half is hearing how each one behaves against the harmony underneath it.
Over a minor triad drone with the same root, every note in the scale sounds good. The root, ♭3, and 5 are chord tones. The 4 sounds slightly less settled but still consonant. The ♭7 isn't in the chord, but adding a seventh to a minor triad almost always means a ♭7, so it sounds good. This is a large part of why the scale is so ubiquitous.
Over a major triad drone with the same root, the scale still works, with one exception. The root, ♭7, and 5 all sound fine. The 4 introduces a little tension, because it sits a half step above the major 3rd in the chord. The ♭3 is the problem note — it clashes with the major 3rd in the chord.
The fix is to bend it. You can bend the ♭3 all the way up a half step to match the major 3rd, but in blues-based music it is more common to bend it less than a half step, into the grey area between the ♭3 and the major 3rd. This is a huge part of the classic blues sound. Throughout the rest of the module, you'll learn to spot the ♭3 inside every shape, so that bending it becomes automatic whenever you are playing over a major chord.
The exercises below are best played over a drone, and you may not yet know every note on the fretboard by name. Here is a temporary shortcut for building a two-note minor chord from any starting note:
To turn it into a major drone, raise the upper note one more fret, which moves it from a ♭3 to a major 3rd.
No pedal needed — this player makes the two-note minor drone the method above builds. For Exercise 3-2, change the chord to A for the major version.
A2 · C3 ♭3
Exercise 3-1: Build a minor drone using the method above. Starting from the root, move up the scale along a single string using only your index finger, naming each interval out loud as you play it. Continue as high as the string allows, then descend as low as you can go, then return to the root. At all times, keep track of which interval is under your finger and listen to how it sits against the drone.
Exercise 3-2: Repeat Exercise 3-1 over a major drone. Everything is the same, but give the ♭3 a bend every time you pass through it.
Practice these on different strings and with different roots. You are not looking for speed. You are training your ear and your fingers to agree about where you are in the scale.
In the video, I demonstrated the E minor pentatonic scale on the B string and the C minor pentatonic scale on the G string. Here are both, extended across the full length of the string:
In 3-1 we looked at the minor pentatonic scale as a sequence of intervals along one string. Now we'll spread it across multiple strings, restricting ourselves to two notes per string.
It turns out that if you take any five-note scale and play it two notes per string, the scale plays out twice over five strings, and then the whole pattern repeats, starting on the same note two octaves higher.
That geometry is easiest to see on a guitar tuned entirely in fourths: E, A, D, G, C, F. This is not a tuning recommendation. It is just a way of simplifying the picture so the underlying shape becomes visible.
On an all-fourths instrument, moving up one string is exactly the same as moving up five frets, because a fourth is a five-semitone interval. Laying out the scale two notes per string gives this:
Notice that the root on the top string is one fret lower than the root on the bottom string. Five strings of fourths is 25 semitones, which is two octaves plus one fret, so the pattern repeats itself shifted one fret toward the nut. On an all-fourths instrument, you could start anywhere on any string and get the same result.
That five-string pattern is a useful picture, but it's a lot to hold in mind at once. Rather than memorize the whole thing, break it into two neighboring pieces.
The rectangle sits on two adjacent strings, with the notes on each string separated by three frets. It contains four of the five notes: the root, ♭3, 5, and ♭7. The only note missing is the 4.
The missing 4 is easy to find when you need it. It is two frets above the higher note on the upper string, or two frets below the lower note on the lower string. Don't worry about memorizing that yet.
The stack sits on three adjacent strings, with the notes on each string separated by two frets. It contains all five notes, with the 4 repeated as both the lowest and the highest note in the shape.
In both shapes, pay close attention to where the roots are. Those root locations are the visual anchors you'll use to place these shapes anywhere on the neck.
Memorize this: In the minor pentatonic rectangle, the root is the lower note on the upper string, and the ♭3 is in the upper note on the upper string. In the minor pentatonic stack, the root is the upper note on the middle string, and the ♭3 is the lower note on the upper string. In both shapes, the 5 is directly below the root.
Everything above assumes a perfectly uniform tuning, but a real guitar is not quite like that. Most pairs of strings are tuned a perfect fourth apart, but between the G and B strings the interval shrinks to a major third.
This is what I call the warp. The name comes from Jon Finn, an influential guitar teacher at Berklee, who must be a Star Trek fan, because he called it the "warp refraction threshold." Brilliant concept, but the name is a mouthful.
In fretboard diagrams, I represent the warp as a dashed red line between the G and B strings, often with a red arrow showing the direction of the shift.
Memorize this: Whenever a shape crosses the warp, the part of the shape on the higher strings shifts one fret toward the bridge.
A rectangle that sits across the warp stops being a rectangle and becomes a parallelogram. Nothing breaks — the intervals are identical and you are playing the same notes. It just looks different, and the fingering has to adjust.
The stack changes in the same way. On either side of the warp it looks like a box, but it can fall across the warp in two different ways, which gives us two more shapes. Again, nothing breaks. You are still playing the same five notes.
People sometimes ask why we don't simply tune the guitar in all fourths, since that would eliminate all of this. My answer is that the warp changes fingerings in musically interesting ways. Many classic guitar licks depend on it, and so do most chord shapes, especially barre chords. Standard tuning is a compromise, but it's a worthwhile one. Thinking in terms of the warp takes a little practice, and then it becomes second nature.
Exercise 3-3: Pick any starting note on the fretboard and create a minor drone from it, as in 3-1. Find either a rectangle or a stack at that location: if your index finger is on the root, play a rectangle, and if your ring finger is on the root, play a stack (this isn't a rule, just a reliable starting point). Part of the shape may fall off the edge of the fretboard, and that's fine. Once you've found the shape, make short phrases using only the four or five notes inside it. Then keep the same root, shift your hand, and switch from the rectangle to the stack (or vice versa). Don't worry about connecting the two shapes smoothly yet. Focus on how each note sounds against the drone.
Exercise 3-4: Repeat Exercise 3-3 over a major drone, bending the ♭3 each time you play it. In the rectangle, the ♭3 is the highest note. In the stack, it's the lower note on the top string. Bending with the index finger is normally awkward, but because this bend is small, it's very manageable.
Minor drone for Exercise 3-3; switch to A major for 3-4 and bend those ♭3s.
A2 · C3 ♭3
Being able to find the ♭3 this quickly is one of the first real payoffs of the rectangle and stack system: every interval is always in the same place relative to the shape, so target notes stop being something you have to search for.
If you have spent any time with pentatonic scales, you have almost certainly met the five box patterns. This one is usually called Form 1, and for most guitarists it is the first scale shape they ever learn.
The standard advice is to memorize all five patterns along with the order in which they appear as you move up the neck. That works, but it isn't necessary, and treating each pattern as a separate thing to learn rather than one more view of a single structure is a large part of why players end up feeling stuck in the box.
Pick a root note anywhere on the fretboard. We'll use the A at the 5th fret of the low E string. Put your index finger on it, which, as we saw in 3-2, calls for a rectangle. Its lower string falls off the edge of the fretboard, which is fine. From there, rectangles and stacks simply alternate as you move up the strings.
The stack sits directly on top of the rectangle, with no gap and no overlap. The second rectangle does not: moving from the G string to the B string crosses the warp, so it lands one fret further toward the bridge than it otherwise would. The rectangle and the stack are not two separate shapes coping with the warp individually, but neighboring pieces of one repeating pattern, so the warp shifts everything above it.
What comes out is exactly the in-position pattern that most players learn as a separate item, except that now you can see where the root and the ♭3 sit inside it. Every other interval works the same way, which is what lets you deliberately choose a sound rather than hope to land on one. It also works identically on a four-string bass or an eight-string guitar.
Now put your ring finger on the 5th fret of the high E string, two octaves above where we started. A ring finger on the root calls for a stack, and this time it is the top string of the shape that falls off the edge. Below it comes a rectangle, and below that, the top two strings of another stack. This is Form 5.
Here the warp is crossed in the other direction, so the shift reverses: the rectangle sits one fret closer to the nut than it otherwise would.
Memorize this: Crossing the warp from the lower strings to the higher strings shifts the pattern one fret toward the bridge. Crossing from the higher strings to the lower strings shifts it one fret toward the nut.
Three more. Ring finger on the A at the 12th fret of the A string: a stack on the three lowest strings, a rectangle across the warp, then the lowest string of another stack. That is Form 3. Index finger on the same note: a rectangle, a stack across the warp, then one string of a second rectangle. That is Form 4. Same root, different finger, different form. Ring finger on the A at the 10th fret of the B string: a stack, a rectangle below it, then the top string of another stack. That is Form 2.
Wherever you start on the fretboard, you land on one of these five patterns, and all five are built from rectangles and stacks.
The names Form 1 through Form 5 are worth recognizing rather than memorizing, and there is an easy way to keep them straight. The Form number is the position of the pattern's lowest note within the minor pentatonic scale. The lowest note of Form 1 is the root, the 1st note of the scale. The lowest note of Form 5 is the ♭7, the 5th note of the scale.
Exercise 3-5: Choose a root anywhere on the fretboard, build the in-position shape around it out of rectangles and stacks, and play up and down the scale in position. This is not a speed exercise. The point is to reinforce the visual structure, to notice where the roots and ♭3s are as you pass through them, and to get comfortable alternating rectangles and stacks as you cross the strings. Play it over a drone, as in 3-1 and 3-2, and keep listening to how each position in the rectangle and the stack sits against the chord. Over a major drone, don't forget to bend the ♭3 a little.
Keep this running while you work the in-position shape. Major drone: change the chord to A.
A2 · C3 ♭3
Here is that exercise applied to the shape we built first:
We won't add any new shapes in this lesson. We are still alternating rectangles and stacks inside a single position. What changes is that instead of playing the scale one note at a time, we play it in small groups.
In 2-3, we defined a melodic sequence as an ordered set of notes played inside a three-note fragment. The idea here is the same, except that the group now moves through a whole in-position shape rather than staying on one string. Patterns like these turn up constantly in real solos, so these are not exercises invented for practice.
One word about scope before the examples. There are a great many possible variations, and you do not need to work through all of them. The goal isn't to check boxes. It is to get comfortable seeing and hearing these shapes, and to turn the head knowledge from the last two lessons into hand knowledge.
Pick a root and visualize the in-position shape as you did in 3-3. Start on the root, play three notes up the scale, move to the next note in the scale, and play three more. Keep going to the top of the shape, then finish on the nearest root.
As you do this, visualize only the rectangle or stack under your fingers and the next one in the pattern. There is no need to hold the whole six-string shape in mind at once. If you already know the six-string patterns, set that knowledge aside for now and watch how each group flows through the rectangles and stacks and across the warp.
Descending works the same way. Start on the highest note in the shape, play three notes down, move to the next note down, and play three more. Finish on a root again, which is good for both your ear and your muscle memory.
You may notice that groups of three keep alternating between your index finger and one other finger. That makes them comfortable to play, especially if you use hammer-ons and pull-offs. Don't chase speed. A steady pace matters more, and a metronome set so that each group of three fits into one beat is an easy way to hold yourself to it.
Nothing about this depends on the position you chose. The same pattern runs through any of the five forms, from any root, starting with whichever shape your finger calls for.
So far the sequences have risen as the scale rises and fallen as it falls, but they don't have to. You can play descending groups while moving up the scale. Many players find this harder to play smoothly because it is harder to visualize, which is exactly why it is worth some practice.
You can also change the length of the group. Once threes are comfortable, try fours and fives. Nothing else about the process changes.
Start with groups of three. The longer groups are more advanced, and they are worth coming back to once threes feel automatic.
Exercise 3-6: Pick a root anywhere on the fretboard and make a drone. Decide which finger is on the root, build the in-position shape from rectangles and stacks, and play groups of three ascending and descending. If the visualization is a struggle, slow down and stay with the same configuration for several repetitions. The next day, change one variable: a different root, a different position, a different starting finger, a different group length, or a different articulation. Try picking every note with a downstroke, then alternate picking, then using hammer-ons and pull-offs to pick as little as possible. Every change forces your brain to pay attention, which is what makes the practice work. Over a major drone, keep bending the ♭3s as you pass through them.
Set the chord to your root of the day — the exercise wants a different one each session.
A2 · C3 ♭3
The last two lessons worked vertically: we built in-position shapes and then explored them with melodic sequences. Now we move across the neck. Nothing new is being added. We are following the same rectangles and stacks diagonally.
A stack spans exactly one octave. Its lowest note and its highest note are the same scale degree, twelve semitones apart, which means a new stack begins exactly where the last one ends. That makes stack-to-stack movement one of the most natural pathways on the instrument.
Memorize this: A stack spans an octave, so the next stack up the neck starts on the same note the current one ends on. Consecutive stacks share a string, and that shared string carries three notes instead of two.
There are two stack pathways. The first runs through the middle of Form 1, up into the top of Form 2, and down into the bottom of Form 5. The Form 2 piece is sometimes called the "house of the blues" because of its little upside-down house shape, and if you have played guitar for any length of time, you have almost certainly used this path already. It also reaches the top string of Form 3, though in practice you might choose to bend the upper note in Form 2 rather than shift position to get there. The second pathway connects the bottom of Form 3 to the middle of Form 4 and the top of Form 5, picking up the bottom string of Form 2 on the way.
Play through a stack pathway in groups of three, as in 3-4. You are not switching shapes, but you are shifting your hand each time you move from one stack into the next. Going up, I usually slide into the new position with my ring finger. Coming down, I slide with my index finger.
As you shift positions, stay aware of the root and the ♭3. When the notes are passing quickly, you don't need to worry much about bending the ♭3. It is when you land on it or lean on it that it wants a bend.
The same movement works with rectangles, with one complication. A rectangle does not span a full octave, because it is missing the 4. To move from one rectangle to the next, you have to put that note back.
Memorize this: The 4 that a rectangle is missing sits two frets above the highest note in the shape, or two frets below the lowest. Going up the neck, use the higher one. Coming down, use the lower one.
Slide into that note rather than reaching for it, and your hand will arrive in position to play the next rectangle. Crossing the warp shifts the pattern here exactly as it does vertically.
There are two rectangle pathways as well, differing from each other because of the warp. They are not used as often as the stack pathways, which makes them a good source of phrases that don't sound like everybody else's. Groups of three are trickier here because of the slides, but your hands will adapt to the pattern quickly.
Diagonal pathways are one of the most efficient ways to cross the fretboard without feeling like you are jumping between boxes, so it is worth spending some time on this technique.
Exercise 3-7: Choose a root and make a drone, minor at first and then major. Follow one stack pathway upward, either in groups of three or simply ascending the scale, then descend back through the same path. Then choose a rectangle, practice adding the connecting 4, and move diagonally between rectangles. Start slowly and focus on precision rather than speed, staying aware of the root and the ♭3 as you shift. Over a major drone, give the ♭3 a slight bend; you will find that the faster you play, the less it needs one. Start without a metronome if you need to, and add one once the movements feel steady.
Drone first, minor then major. When the diagonal moves feel steady, the Metronome pane above is one tap away.
A2 · C3 ♭3
In 3-1 we played the minor pentatonic scale along a single string, but only far enough to see its interval structure: the 3-2-2-3-2 pattern of gaps, with the root sitting at the upper note of the isolated two-fret span. We used that view to understand the intervals and then moved on to shapes.
What we haven't done is treat one string as a way to get around the neck. That is what this lesson is for. By the end of it, you will have three ways to move through the scale (vertically in position, diagonally along stacks or rectangles, and horizontally along one string), and, importantly, you will have a way to switch between them at any note.
Each pair of neighboring notes on a single string is one string of a rectangle or a stack. It helps to have names for those strings, so for the length of this lesson: a rectangle has an upper string U and a lower string L, and a stack has a top string T, a middle string M, and a bottom string B. The letters aren't worth memorizing. We won't use them outside this module.
The isolated two-fret span is M, the middle of a stack, with the root as its upper note. The two neighboring two-fret spans are T and B, the top of one stack and the bottom of the next stack up, which is exactly why they sit side by side. Of the two three-fret spans, the one below M is L, and the other is U.
Think of the single-string pattern as a highway. It covers a huge range of the neck in a hurry, but a highway is only useful if you can get off it, and each of those five spans is an exit.
At T you step down into the stack below you. At B you step up into the stack above, which puts you on the same diagonal pathway as T but in a different in-position pattern. At M you are already in the middle of a stack. At U there is a rectangle hanging down from the string, and at L the rectangle is above it.
From any of those, you can stay in position by alternating rectangles and stacks, or take the diagonal pathway from 3-5. It works in reverse too: any string of any rectangle or stack is an on-ramp back onto a single string.
Memorize this: Every two-note span along a single string is one string of a rectangle or a stack. That makes every note on the string a place where you can stop moving horizontally and switch to in-position or diagonal movement, and every note inside a shape a place where you can rejoin a string.
A note on bends while we are here. A whole-step bend works from the upper note on either string of a rectangle, and from the top note of a stack. Those are the most commonly used bends inside the scale. The other two upper notes in the stack can be bent a minor third, which sounds good too.
Exercise 3-8: Pick a string and a root and set up a drone. Play freely up and down the string inside the scale, using more than one finger and adding slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and bends. Keep track of where you are in the pattern of intervals — the two neighboring two-fret spans, the isolated one, and the two three-fret spans. Once that feels comfortable, notice the shape that intersects the string at each position as you pass through it, particularly when you pause or lean on a note. Then start taking the exits: stop moving horizontally, switch to the in-position pattern or the diagonal, and rejoin the string somewhere else. Make a game of it, and use all five off-ramps. If you get lost, go back to your root and start again.
One string, one drone. Change the chord to match the root you picked.
A2 · C3 ♭3
Single-string playing gives you long-range mobility, but you only ever have two notes under your fingers. Two adjacent strings double that, and four notes is enough for real melodic sequences while keeping the neck just as easy to travel.
Put the minor pentatonic scale on any pair of adjacent strings, and you get five distinct box shapes. Each holds four notes, they appear in a fixed order, and together they tile the entire fretboard. Nothing here is new; it is the same geometry viewed a different way.
Take the D and G strings, which sit clear of the warp. The familiar three-fret rectangle is there. On either side of it are halves of stacks: the lower half of a stack below it, and the upper half of another above it. That leaves two shapes we haven't met, which I call the lower and upper trapezoids. In the in-position patterns, they are what sit in the transitions between rectangles and stacks.
Finding the root is easy. It is still the lower note on the upper string of the rectangle, and that same note is the highest note in the lower stack. The other root sits inside the upper stack, and is also the lowest note in the lower trapezoid. Taking each string on its own, both are the upper note of the isolated two-fret span, exactly as we would expect.
Across the warp, you get the same five shapes with the geometry shifted by a fret, exactly as it shifts for the full rectangles and stacks.
Exercise 3-9: Pick two adjacent strings and a root, set up a drone, and play inside one shape for a while. Then shift up or down to the next shape in the sequence and play those notes. The goal here is only to learn the order of the shapes and keep track of where you are in the scale.
For the two-string work in Exercises 3-9 and 3-10 — minor here, or A major with a gentle ♭3 bend.
A2 · C3 ♭3
Four notes per shape is enough for a real melodic sequence. Choose a pattern inside one shape, play it, shift to the next shape, and play the same pattern there. The sequence carries itself along the neck. This is the idea from 3-4, but the shifting is easier to see and much simpler for the hands.
Starting from the second-lowest note of each shape instead gives a similar result with a different feel, and both are worth practicing. So are the two descending versions. You can also use all four notes.
More interesting still is to make the internal motion and the lateral motion work against each other, playing a descending pattern while moving up the neck, or an ascending one while moving down.
Longer patterns are worth experimenting with. They tend to sound more complicated and harder to play than they actually are, which is probably why they turn up so often in rock solos.
Memorizing these as a list would miss the point. The principle is the thing: take any pattern and apply it to each shape in turn. Once your fingers know the shapes, you can invent sequences on the spot with much more variety than any fixed list could give you. Get comfortable with one, then change it the next day.
Exercise 3-10: Start with one pair of strings and one key, and learn the five shapes in order, ascending and descending, before worrying about sequences. Then add a simple three- or four-note sequence and apply it to several shapes in succession, aiming for consistency rather than speed. Move to another pair of strings and notice how the shapes look different across the warp while remaining the same five shapes. Then spend part of each session combining two-string movement with single-string, in-position, and diagonal playing, which matters more than perfecting any one of them on its own. Always use a drone or a backing track, bending the ♭3 slightly over a major drone and letting it sit over a minor one. And invent your own sequences rather than just replaying mine.
Everything in this module has been the same scale and the same geometry approached four ways: in position for a vertical view, diagonally for an oblique path, one string for horizontal movement a note at a time, and two strings for horizontal movement with enough notes for real phrases. None is more fundamental than the others, and the goal is not to keep switching for its own sake, since you may well spend a whole solo in one position. It is to have the options, so you can follow your ear instead of feeling "stuck in a box."
By now you know the minor pentatonic scale from several angles: on one string, in position, diagonally, and across two strings. With this foundation, learning the major pentatonic is going to cost you almost nothing.
Here is the whole thing in two sentences: The shapes don't change. What changes is which note inside the rectangle and stack you treat as the root.
The two scales share the same five notes. The A minor pentatonic scale is A, C, D, E, and G, and those are exactly the notes of C major pentatonic, with C acting as the tonal center instead of A. Played over an A minor drone, they sound minor. Played over a C major drone, the same notes sound major.
The shift is easy to see on a single string. The minor pentatonic root still sits at the upper note of the isolated two-fret span, and the major pentatonic root is three frets higher, at the lower note of the pair of adjacent two-fret spans.
This changes the intervals inside the scale. Instead of ♭3, 4, 5, and ♭7, we now have 2, 3, 5, and 6.
Over a major drone, the root still sounds like home. The 2 is a new color, and probably my favorite note in the scale. The 3 is inside the chord and is the heart of this scale's character — it is what makes the sound unambiguously bright. The 5 is consonant, just as it was in the minor pentatonic. The 6 is the most dissonant note here, but it's still pleasant.
In practice, you will use this scale over chords with a major third: major triads, major sevenths, and dominant sevenths. And unlike the minor pentatonic, where the ♭3 needed careful handling, there is nothing here that needs special treatment.
Memorize this: In the major pentatonic rectangle, the root is the upper note on the upper string, which is the highest note in the shape. In the major pentatonic stack, it is the lower note on the top string. The note missing from the rectangle is now the 2, and it sits exactly where the 4 did: two frets above the highest note, or two frets below the lowest.
Everything else carries over untouched. In position, you still alternate rectangles and stacks and get the same five forms, albeit with different root positions. The diagonal pathways are the same shapes. We have the same two-string shapes in the same order, with the root now the highest note in the rectangle, which is also the lowest note on the top string of the upper stack; the other root sits on the lower string, between the two trapezoids.
I am going quickly here not because any of this is unimportant, but because there is almost nothing new to learn. The work you did in the last several lessons already covers it.
You can also play a minor pentatonic over major harmony, and switching between the two is a staple of blues and rock playing. With the same root, the roots stay in exactly the same places on the fretboard. The shapes, though, trade places.
Memorize this: To switch between the major and minor pentatonic on the same root, keep the root where it is and swap the shape. A major pentatonic stack becomes a minor pentatonic rectangle, and a major pentatonic rectangle becomes a minor pentatonic stack.
Exercise 3-11: Take any exercise you have been doing with the minor pentatonic (one string, in position, diagonal, two-string sequences) and play it again with the major pentatonic over a major drone. Then, over the same drone, switch between the two scales on the same root, keeping the root fixed and trading rectangle for stack. Notice how different the two feel despite sharing so much geometry. Don't forget to give the ♭3 a slight bend whenever you are in the minor pentatonic.
A major drone for both halves: major pentatonic first, then trade scales on the same root and hear the difference.
A2 · C#3 3
In this short lesson, we'll learn five new scales. We can do this because each one is a small modification of the framework you already know. In most cases, it is a single note added or a single note moved. The geometry barely changes.
| Scale | Built from | The change | Formula |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blues | minor pentatonic | add the ♭5 | 1 ♭3 4 ♭5 5 ♭7 |
| Major blues | major pentatonic | add the ♭3 | 1 2 ♭3 3 5 6 |
| Minor hexatonic | minor pentatonic | add the 2 | 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭7 |
| Dominant pentatonic 1 | major pentatonic | 6 becomes ♭7 | 1 2 3 5 ♭7 |
| Dominant pentatonic 2 | minor pentatonic | ♭3 becomes 3 | 1 3 4 5 ♭7 |
Memorize this: Several useful variations on the pentatonic scale can be created by adding one note or moving one note:
In the blues scale, the added ♭5 is a tension note, and it often clashes with the harmony, which is why it is usually treated as a passing tone. It's a note you move through, bend into, or resolve away from. You don't park on it.
In practice, when you're alternating rectangles and stacks in position, most players use the two notes from the stack and skip the one from the rectangle. Do it that way and you get exactly the fingerings you'll find in books.
The other ♭5 location is there if you decide you like it. If you use it, leave out the one just above the stack, because they are the same pitch.
Here, the added note is ♭3, which sits in the same locations as the ♭5 in the blues scale. So the minor blues and the major blues have identical fingerings: the A minor blues and C major blues scales are the same notes, differing only in the root. Like the ♭5, the ♭3 here is a passing note, adding a little grit to an otherwise very bright scale.
The added 2 sits one fret below the ♭3, or two frets above the root. This is a subtler addition than the blue note. The 2 is usually consonant and sits comfortably over most minor and major contexts, so it adds melodic options without adding much tension. This makes it a good halfway point between the minor pentatonic and the minor modes we'll get to later.
In the rectangle, it lands on the upper string, one fret below the ♭3. In the stack, it sits just below the lower note on the upper string. Building in-position shapes now gives you three notes on some strings and two on others, which makes melodic sequences harder to play cleanly and worth some extra practice time.
You can use the minor hexatonic any time you'd reach for the minor pentatonic or the blues scale. The one exception, which will make more sense later in the course, is over the minor three chord in a key, where the 2nd is usually flattened.
These are specialty scales, less common than the ones above but useful later. Both are called the dominant pentatonic scale, but they are not the same scale. Both contain the root, 3, 5, and ♭7, all four notes of a dominant seventh chord, so they both work well over a dominant chord. A basic blues progression is made entirely of dominant chords, which makes both of these scales a good way to add variety to your blues playing.
The first is the major pentatonic with the 6 raised to a ♭7. Along a single string this produces an interesting symmetry: all three two-fret spans become adjacent, with the root between the lowest two, and the two three-fret spans end up next to each other. In the rectangle, raising that note turns the shape into a trapezoid; in the stack, the lower note on the middle string moves up a half step. It has a bright, open quality.
The second is the minor pentatonic with the ♭3 raised to a 3. It has a slightly exotic edge, from a four-semitone interval sitting next to a one-semitone one. In the rectangle one corner of the shape moves up a fret; in the stack the same note shifts up a half step. In position, the four-fret stretch between the root and the 3 makes these a little awkward.
The connection between a scale and the harmony under it is what turns a fingering exercise into a musical tool. Seventh chords add one note on top of a triad, and three types matter right now.
| Chord | Formula | Character | Scales that fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| maj7 | 1 3 5 7 | stable and bright | major pentatonic, major blues |
| 7 (dominant) | 1 3 5 ♭7 | tense — this is the blues sound | all seven |
| m7 | 1 ♭3 5 ♭7 | smooth and dark | minor pentatonic, minor hexatonic, blues |
Over a dominant 7, the major pentatonic and the two dominant pentatonics fit especially well, and in a blues context, the minor pentatonic, blues, and minor hexatonic all work too, as long as you watch the ♭3 and give it a bend.
Rather than a single-note drone, use a shell chord — just the root, 3rd, and 7th. Shell chords sound thin and open, leaving room for the scale to breathe, and they make the chord type explicit. One common voicing puts the root on the low E string, the 7th on the D string, and the 3rd on the G string. From the dominant 7 shape, move the 7th up a fret for a major 7, or the 3rd down a fret for a minor 7.
Exercise 3-12: Pick a scale and a matching shell chord, and play. Start with something you know well, such as the minor pentatonic over an m7 shell. Add the 2 to make it the minor hexatonic and listen to the difference. Try the blues scale over the same chord, then move the shell to a dominant 7 and play the blues scale over that, and then try one of the dominant pentatonics. The point is listening and exploring, not fingering. A scale is a set of sounds relative to a chord, and the more time you spend with each combination, the faster you'll reach for the right one when you're actually playing.
The m7 shell to start. Work the table above by retyping the chord: A7, then Amaj7.
A2 · C3 ♭3 · G3 ♭7
The takeaway is that a new scale is often a close relative of one you already know, so your existing skills can transfer without starting from scratch. If any of it feels difficult right now, go back to the beginning of the module and reinforce the minor pentatonic, because everything else is built on it.
Seven scales sounds like a lot until you think of it as one scale and six variations. Nothing in this lesson is new. The point is to see the connections that tie them together.
Another idea worth taking away from this module:
Scales aren't sacred. It is fine to add a note, drop a note, or shift a note if the change sounds good or helps you be more creative.
Start with the minor pentatonic rectangle and stack, which is the foundation. Add one note, the ♭5, and you have the blues scale. Go back and add a different note, the 2, and you have the minor hexatonic. Go back again and, instead of adding a note, move one: raise the ♭3 a half step to a 3, and you have a dominant pentatonic. In all three cases, the root stays exactly where it was.
Now move the root instead, and you have the major pentatonic, with the shapes completely untouched. From there, add a ♭3, and you have the major blues scale, which is the same shapes as the minor blues with a different root. Or raise the 6 to a ♭7 and you have the other dominant pentatonic.
The same idea works with every visualization method in the module. Chain either rectangles or stacks diagonally, and you add or shift the same note inside each shape. Build any of the five in-position forms and do the same. And on a single string, if you ignore the extra note, each pair of notes is still one string of a rectangle or a stack, so all the off-ramps into diagonal and in-position playing are still there.
Shifting a note is harder to visualize than adding one. The sequence of shapes stays the same, but the shapes themselves morph a little, and that is worth some slow practice.
The distance between any two of these seven scales is usually a single note. If you are playing the minor pentatonic and want the color of the minor hexatonic in the middle of a phrase, it is right there. If the blues scale would sound better in that moment, you already know where that note lives.
The rectangle and stack isn't only a system for learning scales. It is a way of seeing how scales relate to each other, so that when you want to reach for something, you know exactly where it is.