Intro to Pentatonic Scales: Open Position E & A Minor Pentatonics

The Minor Pentatonic Scale might be the most important scale for a guitarist to learn. It is used in an array of styles like rock, blues, jazz, folk and pretty much any type of music you can think of. There are countless melodies, riffs and guitar solos that use the pentatonic scale, and luckily for us guitar players it is quite easy to get started. Knowing your pentatonic scale patterns will allow you to start soloing and will give you a better understanding of how your favorite riffs are crafted. It is also a great way to start learning the fretboard and how to find specific notes on different strings.

In this video we touch on how to play the E and A Minor Pentatonics in open position. We go over how to read scale diagrams and what the "formula" for the minor pentatonic is. The scale patterns learned in this lesson lay the groundwork for ,moving the scales up and down the neck. This will allow us to play a minor pentatonic in any key, which we will go over in the following lesson. Check back for more updates and DOWNLOAD the PDF associated with the lesson below. In there we go into more depth on the scales and offer up a few exercises to get more proficient at playing them.

A PDF with exercises, scale diagrams and other resources can be found here or by clicking the image below.