The minor pentatonic scale series

[Dan Shipway]

Hey guys, I thought I would do a thread to talk about the way I solo this is not something that is too hard to learn and it will give a good foundation and provide motivation to people who are uninspired or have never solo’d before. Let me know what could be changed and if you have anything specific you want to see
I will cover
Basic theory
What notes bend well
Building speed
Licks
3-1-3 pattern (eventually)
And anything else you want to see

 

[Jak Angelescu]

You have no idea how much i’m looking forward to this

 

[Jamie London]

Can’t wait for this! Looking very forward to it

 

[Dan Shipway]

Other than what is listed, is there anything else that may be useful?

 

[Dan Shipway]

Sorry guys, I can’t start it until next week due to things getting in the way, hope you can understand, I just didn’t want to rush it at the cost of quality

 

[Ekrem Taha Ünlü]

Thanks for helping the other students like this! You must be proud of yourself dude!

 

[Dan Shipway]

Thanks Ekrem, I just felt like lots of people were sharing really good advice and being really helpful so it is just my way of giving back to the school what they have given to me!

 

[Ekrem Taha Ünlü]

So nice Dan! This community just marvelous

 

[Dan Shipway]

A taste of what is to come

 

[Dan Shipway]

The first thing I want to cover is the theory behind the minor pentatonic scale and to do that we must firs take a look at the scale it is derived from, the Minor scale!
“But Dan, I dont here you ask, how do you make a minor scale?”
Good question!
The minor scale is made by flattening the 3rd 6th and 7th notes (intervals ina major scale.
For this example and the rest of the series we will focus on the D minor scale.
This is a D major scale (with intervals beneath):
D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D
1-2-3#-G-A-B-C#-D(octave)
“So to make a D major scale into a D minor scale you flatten F#, B and C#?”
Yes you do!
The D minor scale is as follows (With note intervals underneath):
D-E-F-G-A-B♭-C-D
1-2-3-4-5-6♭-7-8(Octave)
“This is all well and good but how does this link to pentatonics?”
The way to thun this into the start of a pentatonic scale stems from how you play it, instead of playing 2 notes on the E, 3 on the A and 3 on the D, play 3 on the E, 3 on the A and 2 on the D.
This results in the following notes played:
Low E string-D-E-F
A string-G-A-B♭
D string-C-D
This may seem daunting and confusing but just take time and it will come.
Next lesson will be taking the notes in the pattern shown and turning it into a pentatonic scale.

 

[Dan Shipway]

Sorry it is meant to say “The way you run this” in the last paragraph

 

[Dan Shipway]

sorry for the re upload but there were quite a few grammar mistakes which drove me mad
The first thing I want to cover is the theory behind the minor pentatonic scale and to do that we must firs take a look at the scale it is derived from, the Minor scale!
“But Dan, I dont here you ask, how do you make a minor scale?”
Good question!
The minor scale is made by flattening the 3rd 6th and 7th notes (intervals) ina major scale.
For this example and the rest of the series we will focus on the D minor scale.
This is a D major scale (with intervals beneath):
D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D
1-2-3#-4-5-6-7#-8(octave)
“So to make a D major scale into a D minor scale you flatten F#, B and C#?”
Yes you do!
The D minor scale is as follows (With note intervals underneath):
D-E-F-G-A-B♭-C-D
1-2-3-4-5-6♭-7-8(Octave)
“This is all well and good but how does this link to pentatonics?”
The way to turn this into the start of a pentatonic scale stems from how you play it, instead of playing 2 notes on the E, 3 on the A and 3 on the D, play 3 on the E, 3 on the A and 2 on the D.
This results in the following notes played:
Low E string-D-E-F
A string-G-A-B♭
D string-C-D
This may seem daunting and confusing but just take time and it will come.
Next lesson will be taking the notes in the pattern shown and turning it into a pentatonic scale.

 

[Dan Shipway]

Hey synners, I thought that I would create a short post with some backing tracks to help with soloing. These are a selection that I tend to use and I find they work really well with things like bending and sliding.




A new part to the series will be coming in a few days.

 

[Dan Shipway]

I just wanted to massively apologise about the delay in making the next post. It will be up around 1pm gmt and there will be a save me video at roughly the same time on wednesday!

 

[Dan Shipway]

Dan….Dan I hear a faint cry in the distance say “you can’t keep to a schedule and we want another section” I KNOW, that is why I’m back with part 2 which builds on the previous knowledge we discussed on how to form the D minor scale from the D major scale and how to play it in such a way that it is easy to form the D minor pentatonic scale and so we will now form it.
Scales are made up of 7 notes (and an 8th note which is an octave of the root and optional to include when writing scales). The prefix pent means five and tonic referring to the different intervals and notes. As a result of this, to make the pentatonic scale from a minor scale we remove two notes and those are the second and sixth notes (which are the E and B♭ in D minor).
This means that two notes are played per string and these are:
Low E= D and F
A= G and A
D= C and D
To complete the scale just continue playing D-F-G-A-C-D across the rest of the strings playing 2 notes on each.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

I am SOOO glad I have the time now to sit and go through all of this. You’ve put so much work into it and I can’t wait to take it all in today!

 

[Rod Azeite]

Well Jak, I’m finally not jealous of you cause I’m gonna have a LOT of time to go through this as well! Gonna be a busy week for me but for once, I’m not complaining XD