New Ways to Use Pentatonic Scales
(05 Apr 05)
Minor pentatonic scales over major chords
Applying the minor pentatonic scale to major chords - I'm going to get us started on using the minor pentatonic scale over major family chords. For demonstrational purposes, let's pretend that the major chord that we need to improvise over is an Cmaj7 type chord. Here is the basic formula to remember here:
Over a major chord, you can play a minor pentatonic scale based on the 7th, 3rd and 6th of the chord.
1. Minor pentatonic played on the 7th degree of a major chord - Yes it's true, on the 7th. This means that you first need to locate the 7th of your maj7th chord, in this case, Cmaj7. What is it? That's right, the major 7th of Cmaj7 is B. So, you can play a B minor pentatonic scale against the Cmaj7 chord. I know it seems strange but check out the analysis below and you'll see why it works:
The first thing that might strike you as odd is that there is no root present in the scale. Don't worry about it, roots are not a necessity in scales when used for improvisation. When I realized the fact that roots don't need to be present, it opened up thousands of new scale/chord relationship possibilities. It may be helpful to think of this pentatonic scale as "lydian" because of the #11 present in the scale. As the scale played over a C major chord contains all the upper extensions (9, #11, 13) it may work better over a chord with the same or some of the same extensions (Cmaj7#11, Cmaj13, etc.) but it functions well over simple maj7 and maj9 chords as well.
2. Minor pentatonic played on the 3rd degree of the chord - A minor pentatonic played on the 3rd degree yields us another nice choice. The 3rd of C is E, so all we need to do is play an E minor pentatonic scale. Check the chord tones we get below:
As in the previous example, we also do not have a root present in the scale. Unlike the strait major pentatonic scale, we get the nice addition of the major 7th. We are kind of trading our root we get in the major pentatonic scale for a major 7th in this one.
3. Minor pentatonic played on the 6th degree of a major chord - The 6th of C is A, so we need to play an A minor pentatonic scale to give us our next possibility. Check the scale tones we get with this choice:
If you know your theory, you know that the A minor pentatonic and C major pentatonic scale are one in the same. So nothing new and exciting here but it will still come in handy later.
Here is the handy-dandy formula chart for applying the minor pentatonic scale to major chords:
Putting it into practice
Putting it into practice - Let's start by using what we have learned over an all major chord progression. It is a simple three chord progression made up of a Amaj9, Cmaj9 and Emaj9 chords for four bars each. I tend to make a mental (sometimes a physical) chart of the minor pentatonic scale possibilities and find the ones that are a fret or so apart. This way it becomes very easy to connect lines and motifs. In the example below, I would probably tend to chose:
Record the changes and experiment with all possible pentatonic scales:
The reason I picked these pentatonic scales is because for the Cmaj9 chord all I have to do is move the G# minor pentatonic scale up a half step to an A minor pentatonic scale. Not so much for a lack of effort but because it is a great way to connect a motif over the barline. Check out how I use this intervalic 4ths and 5ths pattern to do so:
Audio samples - The previous chord progression is actually from the title track, "Prospects" from my first solo release. I've posted two mp3s of both guitar solos that I played. I play pentatonic scales throughout both solos but the most obvious lines can be found at 00:18-00:28 and 00:49-00:53 on the first solo and 00:37-00:43 on the second:
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