5-5 · Fretboard Practice: Switching Pentatonic Scales for Each Chord

We will practice changing scales for each chord in the D - A - Bm - G progression introduced earlier.

Exercise 1: Position your fingers anywhere on the fretboard and find a D note under them. Play the D note. Then visualize a D major pentatonic rectangle or stack that fits under your fingers. If the D note is under your index finger, use a stack; if it’s under your ring finger, use a rectangle. Then visualize how rectangles and stacks alternate vertically around it to create one of the five standard pentatonic forms. Then play some notes from that pattern. Keeping your hand in the same position, do the same thing with an A note and the A major pentatonic scale. Then do it again with a B note and the B minor pentatonic scale. Finally, do it with a G note and the G major pentatonic scale.

That’s one of the most challenging exercises in the module, but it’s really good practice for quickly finding root notes and constructing pentatonic scales around them.

Memorize this: The six pentatonic scales you need to play over most diatonic chord progressions are easily accessed by shifting a neutral-position scale (corresponding to the vi or I chord) up one string to play over a ii or IV chord or down one string to play over a iii or V chord.

For our example progression, the D chord is I, A is V, Bm is vi, and G is IV. That means that we can play both the D major and B minor pentatonic scales in the neutral position, and we will shift down a string to play the A major pentatonic scale and up a string to play the G major pentatonic scale.

In the key of D major, these are our shifts:

Exercise 2: Shift a single rectangle through the progression. For each position, play the root of the chord/scale and then play all four of the notes in the shape. Start on any D note on the B or G string and visualize the appropriate rectangle or stack that falls under your fingers. Play the root and then the other notes of the shape. Shift the shape down one string set for the A chord and do the same. Shift back to neutral for the B minor chord and play the B root followed by the other notes of the shape. Finally, shift up a string set for the G chord, play the G and then the other notes.

Exercise 3: Repeat Exercise 2 using the stack shape.

Exercise 4: For each D note on the B and G strings, repeat Exercises 2 and 3.

Exercise 5: Repeat the process of the previous exercises, but only play notes on a single pair of strings. While you do this, visualize the rectangles and stacks shifting under your fingers as you change chords. Note that the root of the chord may not always fall on those two strings. In those cases, feel free to play the root on an adjacent string.

Exercise 6: Repeat the process of the previous exercises, starting on any D note and playing through the full six-string pentatonic pattern for each chord, emphasizing the roots as you go.

For any of these exercises, you can increase the level of difficulty by playing in time along with a metronome or backing track.