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Add a second shape to your toolkit. Alongside the stack you already know, this lesson introduces the rectangle — two strings, notes a minor third apart (a parallelogram when it crosses the warp) — and shows how rectangles and stacks alternate up the neck so you can build a major or minor pentatonic scale from any root, reconstructing all five familiar "Forms" as you go. Most important, you'll learn where the root, third, and fifth sit inside each shape, since those are the target notes you'll reach for most when you improvise.
What follows is this lesson’s section of the Course Guide — you can read it here or in the full guide →
The pentatonic rectangle consists of two three-fret intervals on two adjacent strings:
As with the stack, we can use the rectangle shape to play either the minor or major pentatonic scale depending on which note we treat as the root.
Memorize this: In the minor pentatonic rectangle, the root is the lower note on the upper string:
Memorize this: In the major pentatonic rectangle, the root is the upper note on the upper string:
The rectangle only contains four of the five notes in the pentatonic scale.
Memorize this: The fifth note in the pentatonic scale can be found two frets above the highest note, or two frets below the lowest note. You can bend the highest note in the rectangle to reach the missing note, and you can bend the upper note on the lower string to reach the same note as the lower note on the upper string. Both of these bends are commonly used:
Memorize this: Rectangles and stacks alternate vertically on the fretboard like this:
Make a note of the horizontal alignment of these shapes. If we alternate rectangles and stacks on a guitar in standard tuning, we can recreate the five traditional pentatonic scale shapes:
The “Form” numbers come from the order in which these patterns appear as you ascend the fretboard.
Memorize this: It is easy to use the rectangle and stack framework to play a major or minor pentatonic scale anywhere on the fretboard that you can find a root note. The shape you will start with depends only on whether you are playing minor or major and which of your fretting fingers is closer to the root:
The notes of the major triad are located inside both the major pentatonic rectangle and stack. Similarly, the notes of the minor triad are located inside the minor pentatonic shapes.
Memorize this: The notes of the minor and major triads are embedded in their corresponding pentatonic rectangles and stacks:
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