How to Play Guitar: Pentatonic Scales

Now you know a couple of chord patterns. Practice those, change between chords—change from a G to E, throw in a B. Practice those until you feel comfortable moving in between chords and ready to continue.

We are going to take a look at scales. The first scale I am going to teach you is the Major pentatonic scale. A pentatonic scale is made up of a series of five notes that repeat themselves.

We are going to start with the G-Major pentatonic scale. The G is located on the third fret of the sixth string. We are going to move up to A which is a whole step up. Then we go to our fifth string second fret, which is our B note. You go up three frets to D. We go to go to the fourth string second frat, which is E, and then we go up three frets to our G. G is the root note. (Demonstration) We will work our way up to the octave (Demonstration), this G. Here we go. Let us start with G. go to A, B, D, E, and G.

Now, we have the first half of this pattern, the first octave. Let us play the second half where it is going to repeat itself, find our octave. Let us start with our G the fifth fret of the fourth string. We are going up to the second fret of the third string, which is A. We are going to the fourth fret of the third string, which is B. Now, we are going to go the third fret of the second string, which is D, fifth fret of the second string which is E, and the third fret of the first string which is back to our G. That is another octave.

To finish this scale off, we are going to actually add another A, which is at the fifth fret of the first string. Let us practice the second half of this scale pattern. (Demonstration) That is the Major Pentatonic Scale.


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