Major and Minor Pentatonic Scale Patterns

DeafBlind Renee · May 19, 2022

I have been really loving the Master Classes in Academy. Great lessons by great teachers which has helped me to really work on scale patterns, especially the minor pentatonic patterns and some of the major. Of course, they stress and I know in one way that the scales for minor and their relative minor are the same notes with a different root note specified in each. Still, it can be daunting to "see" that when you are trying to improvise and use various scales and patterns. I made a visual that I seems to be helping me get them all down even more. It's the idea of wrapping my head around how these patterns flow across the entire fretboard (and of course, is movable no matter the key you choose), so that I don't get lost going in either direction or maneuvering between major and minor. It really is simple, but you have to "see" first however it is you best see, anyway.

I'm attaching my visual to see if others will look at it and be able to understand it from what I have done. The graphics just came from other places, but arranged in a new way on one page. Hopefully, it makes sense enough that it will flip a switch for the lightbulb for someone else, too. By all means, make suggestions, too, of how you might show this concept. The thing is these patterns are the same in a linear fashion, and the numbers attached to the patterns were what were throwing me off making me think there were so many to learn and so different. They aren't. Ignore the numbers for a bit and focus on the pattern shapes themselves and how only the root note focus changes whether you are wanting to play major or minor. It really is just one big pattern whether you want to focus on Major or Minor pentatonic. The shapes across the fretboard are the same. You just have the root note in different places to put your focus on.

Major and Minor Pentatonic Scale Patterns- Linear.pdf