8-5 · Fretboard Practice: Blues Target Notes and Mixing Minor and Major Pentatonic

The idea of combining the minor and major pentatonic (or blues) scales into a single hybrid scale is often discussed amongst players. Combining these scales results in a monster scale with 9 notes, which does not lend itself to playing melodically.

Rather than learning a new hybrid scale, I recommend switching back and forth between the two scales. Using the rectangle and stack method, this is possible even midstream during a single phrase.

To pivot from one scale to the other, visualize a major stack and a minor rectangle sharing a single root:

or a major rectangle and minor stack with their roots aligned:

One classic way to mix these scales is to play a call and response where the call is in major pentatonic and the response is in minor. This is often done over the opening four bars of I7 in a 12-bar blues.

There are five different transitions between pairs of chords inside a 12-bar blues: I7→IV7, IV7→I7, I7→V7, V7→IV7, and V7→I7. It is worth practicing each transition individually.

Exercise 1: Practice transitioning from I7→IV7 using a looped backing track. Using a single rectangle, for each chord change, play two approach notes from the pentatonic scale leading to a chord tone of the new chord.

Exercise 2: Repeat Exercise 1 using a stack.

Exercises 3-4: Repeat Exercises 1-2, allowing yourself to play more freely, but still landing on a chord tone on each chord change.

Exercises 5-20: Repeat Exercises 1-4 for each of the four other transitions.

Exercises: 21-n: Repeat the previous exercises, allowing yourself to move more freely around the fretboard. Be sure to practice pentatonic Form 1, Form 2, and Form 4, and explore the diagonal pathway that connects Form 1 to Forms 2 and 5. These are the areas that blues players most often explore.