Swapping Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2024
- The Pentatonic scale is incredibly useful. Being able to mix the major and minor versions together in the same solo or improvisation is a great way to both extend the mileage you get from knowing the scale as well as start to hear the differences in the harmonic signature of each of the versions.
Controlling this type musical tension is powerful tool to use when improvising.
00:00 Demonstration
01:08 Thesis
01:58 Introduction
02:58 Lesson
14:49 Wrap Up
TABs are here: / chrissherland
Curious about music theory on guitar, looking for where to start? Free Fretboard Harmony Primer here: www.curiousguitarist.com/ - เพลง
You’re like the Bob Ross of music lessons! I can watch you play all day! Love the content
Best comment of the day :) All I need now is an afro!
Bob Ross quote of the day, "We have no limits to our world. We're only limited by our imagination."
@@charlesbolin7249 nice!
Interestingly enough I'm a huge fan of limits...constraints if you will. Its as if you force the creative energy into somewhere new and unexpected when you "cut off" a well worn route.
@@curiousguitarist Totally agreed, less is often more, and less with more variety is even better. Best part of this lesson, is you showed us how to think outside of one box in a way that allows us not only to control the "mood/vibe", but more importantly to understand it and do it deliberately. There are lots of great musicians out there, but you my friend are on a higher level being one of very few who can convey what makes a great musician to those who would like to learn. Your passion for the art is incredibly positive and apparent. You showed me how to control something I was doing without knowing it in this lesson, thanks for filling in the gaps and helping me understand the how and why of it. My fretboard map just doubled in size with many new ways to get home!
@@charlesbolin7249 thank you so much Charles. It's these types of comments that provide me a guiding light to keep going. Being valuable to anyone on this journey is the best result I can possibly imagine of the work and effort I'm putting into the channel.
I'm so glad this is helpful for you!
You are one of the best kept secrets on TH-cam. Another great lesson that is well taught.
Thanks!
🎸 🪕🎶🎵❤💯🔥👏 👏 👏
I've often thought about this after learning an AC/DC solo or some other dual scale usage song. Thank you for explaining it an easy to understand manner (as usual) and making this easily reachable by us intermediate players! You are killing it! Keep it up!
Thanks Vaughn! Good to see you back again!
Chris, I really appreciate your videos! You're an outstanding teacher.
Thanks Manuel! I really appreciate your comment too! Glad you're enjoying these.
Great lesson. Nice breakdown for transitioning between both the major and minor sound. I'll be watching this one over and over!
Glad to hear this was helpful, Jeff. Thanks for being here!
knowing a chord scale and recognizing Dominant Sub Dominant , Tonic is the most important thing I have learned about blues .
and the" Dorian mixolydian" relationship
Once again, taking concepts that are often rushed over or simply just "shown" how to do, you take the extra time to explain the "why" and "how", which resonates so much more. Thanks so much Chris and keep up the great work!
You bet!
So much good content in such short bits!
Those two licks at the end summed up the whole lesson. Great lesson as usual.
I love the way you put techniques into two musical contexts.
1. Melodic/harmonic context: where’s the tension, and where does it want to go/resolve?
2. Historical context: notable examples of how different artists have used them to good effect
Just recently came across your channel, Chris. Loving not just the content, but the intelligence and articulacy in your presentation. Refreshing to see a teacher who goes deeper, and I love your use of the concept of ‘the architecture’ in the music. This really resonates with me.
Thank you, and respect.
karlfarren, thanks so much. That means a lot to me and I'm glad to have you on board!
Awesome lesson, congrats on 12k!
Thanks a million Jake!
Thank you for painting a great vision of the concept.
Of course!
This information could not be presented any better. Well done and thank you so much for the lessons!! ❤
You bet, Todd! Glad you’re here
After ingesting massive amounts of information from various you tube guitar instructors, I have found my home. Your channel has inspired me more than any other so far. Your concise and Lazer like precision of word choice combined with a methodical and logical approach has helped me tremendously. Sincerely, thank you.
Wow, Stan. Thank you, and I’m so glad you found the churns that the content resonates for you! Welcome!!
This is brilliant! I have been playing those 2 scales for over 2 years now and never knew how to use them PROPERLY !! It's like they are played together, yet separately is the best way to use them
Thanks
Thank you Colm! Glad you like this one, thanks for the comment.
Fun and refreshing when you include examples from jazz tunes!
Thanks apl, glad you enjoyed that addition!
Thanks for another great lesson! Growing up I didn’t have access to instructors, and tried to learn from records with no knowledge of theory. Thanks to you and other TH-cam instructors, I’m picking up quite a bit...enough that I now know some of the whys behind the stuff I’ll never be able to play. Keep up the good work! I can’t get enough theory.
You're welcome Riley! Glad you're here!
Your lessons are pretty much over my head musically and guitaristically, but I really enjoy them anyway. Very informative and well presented.👏
Thanks Michael,
What about the octaves and harmonizing scales videos? Those two should be right in your wheelhouse. All you need to know is the notes on the E string for the octaves video and the major scale to harmonize...
Try those out and see if they sink in. I'm curious to see.
I know this is an older clip.. but it just made my day. Totally get it and love it!
Wow, thank you, Shaun, I appreciate it!
Hey Chris! It is my first time viewing your video. Mixing pentatonic minor with major considering 3b and 3M when moving through the fretboard was such a great lesson for me today and it is really opening my mind (and it will for the rest of my life!) With my theoretical background I was able to fully understand it. Great video!
Great to hear Luis! Welcome to the channel!
I really like learning about mixing scales👌🏾
yeah Joel, this stuff really increases you mileage on any scale.
Chris, I truly appreciate you. Take care.
Thanks Owen, I appreciate that.
Love the opening little piece ala (Steve Gaines) " I Know A Little" Great Lessons! Always !... thank You Sir !
Thanks Tone!
Chris I think your a mind reader, past few days I’ve been trying this. The big difference is you have explained what I’m trying to understand, thank you.
...you're getting very sleepy...
:D
Nice to know the timing worked out!
Fantastic lesson. Thank you so much.
You are welcome, Annara!
I believe that harmonic tension is the essence of music.. Thanks man.👍🏼
Yup, the creation AND release of it is what it's ALL about, Joe!!!
@@curiousguitarist .. this concept gives me a new focal point for my other studies..It’s one of those things that are so obvious..but only after someone points it out..👍🏼
Thanks for doing this Chris. This helps cement the relationship between major and minor for me.
Excellent John! Glad this made sense.
Brilliant again Chris sounds so cool
Thanks Dean!! Hope all is well~
What a brilliant lesson thank you so much Chris 👍
You bet Diesel!
I love your soapbox and blathering - it all make sense to me... and that's saying something! Love the lesson - I really got a lot out of it. Many Thanks Chris.
Thanks so much Chuck! More blathering on the way!! 😆
You said it yourself.. Fascinating!!
Hahah! I know, it's incredibly satisfying to just sit and think on these things, then play them and just be blown away by the sheer coolness of the underlying math of it all :)
Don't get me started!!
@@curiousguitarist that's why your lessons are always so useful.
If you learn the fundamentals of something you only have to learn it once, and then build on top of that.
Whereas learning a bunch of disconnected stuff only seems to complicate things and make you overwhelmed.
This is a really interesting, different lens take on the minor/major pentatonics. Thanks
Clapton said everything there was to say about that "shifted" method in Sunshine.
You bet Robert!
Very interesting as to how to do. I am gona have to watch a few times, again great amount of info to take in.
This one is really fun Chad...looking forward to hearing how it goes for you.
Didnt realize I was able to lay over in the position. Always just moved up to my pinky root. Once I saw it, no metronome needed I have to time already. Been working on harmonizing harmonic min. It was challenging an goung to have to spend some time, difficult to stretch when making the chord but I am taking the time an noticing so much more than I ever thought possible. Also I must have missed the lesson on harmonizing every string in A an I finally can see an hear the modes what order all 7 for every key. Just amazing progress Chris!
@@chadharland7700 That is incredible to hear Chad...just amazing! Glad you're here, and thanks for the support!
I was already a “mixer” of the major an minor pentatonic scales...BUT....I’ll now understand both of them better, have a better sense of when and how....as usual...excellent teaching an explainations! Thank You!
Great to hear Dustin. It's that 2 and 6 relationship to the root that makes the maj pent really shine, as softly as it does :)
Loved this didnt know that you could do this in the same position. I got that now, tool box is growing!
I really like the long am slide you put up its has a quality I like. I am record tonight to backing track let you know how it turns out. Really gaining confidence.
sunshine is a great example
because when it goes to A C G Clapton keeps the D minor Pentatonic blues going , proving the Dominant sound .
D minor pent starting on A is similar to playing a A Dominant arpeggio . being as the 7th degree of the major scale is Dominant ( half whole diminished ladder)
it could also be seen as the A is the 6th mode of Melodic Minor with half whole diminished to give you blues patterns
retaining the D pentatonic minor blues and A natural minor relationship ( dorian)
starting to sound like pat Martino in my speech .
"we have a new development which has brought us to a platou we can view the other events from ."
Such great context, thanks John!
12.2 subs and 1.9K views. Must be exciting to know that each one-off lesson of yours now reaches a thousands + (Nearly 2K) folks.
Thats cool!
Humbling really. Thanks for being here dj!
I simply loved this lesson Chris! I will study it and practice. I already had thought vaguely about the blend of both scales but never new how to do it, although they sound weird if they are not well applied. Thank you for that! I could be practicing all the lessons all day long for sure. Eric Clapton kicks ass but so do you!
Thanks Fernando! Glad you liked this one, thanks for your support!
Just clicked play but know this is going to be full of gems!!!!
Haha Thanks JB!!
"Control and destroy harmonic tension at will, and consciously." BAM!!!!
Right?
@@curiousguitarist Right!
You know when you smoke some Ganjah and the mind goes into that kinda relaxed focus, where you really hear, see and soak up everything, this guy causes that effect without the smoke!! Think I found my guru! The dude below my comment nailed it Bob Ross of Guitar!!
One love.
One Love indeed! Thanks for the views and comment Grafton! Glad you’re here!
Awesome shirt fellow tanker... Nice lesson too!
I
Insightful and informative as always! Would love a breakdown of John mayer's soloing approach. He seems to mix the major and minor quite effortlessly. I also got the idea of superimposition of major/minor shapes at one spot as opposed to shifting positions from one of his Instagram live sessions.
Great suggestion, I'll more than likely do a follow up to this one. Thanks!
Great teacher🥰
Thank you! 😃
You seem to read my mind in what I want to learn.
It's all about the timing :)
I just watched this lesson and literally yelled 'Holy shit!' Lol. I've been trying to figure this out for a year and in 15 minutes it clicked.
Happy to help! Sometimes it just takes a slightly different perspective.
Chris...thanks for continuing my journey to master sonic control and release on the guitar! Question: The A major scale used in this exercise is shape 2 for C Minor Pentatonic scale. Not relative but related?
Ian, you are SO welcome!
But it turns out that A major and C minor don't play well together at all. The major 3rd of A turns is C#.
The A major pentatonic scale I use here is actually "shape 2" for F# minor pentatonic. A maj and F# minor are relative.
I hope that helps. But if not, let me know and I'll try to clear it up!
9:43 you totally played the melodic center of If You Could Read My Mind. :) point well made.
Oh yeah! Guess Mr Lightfoot used the major pentatonic for that...😁
It's another case of "give a man a fish feed him for a day teach him to fish feed him for life" great approach 👍
Yup! It's the best way to retain information and build on it...to find it yourself.
Any chance of a lesson on using g major and g minor to improvise over a country JamTrack switching between open positions and the other scale positions I seem to get confused blending the open position with the next position at the third fret when improvise in g major cheers love your content
I'd suggest tracking which notes sound good to you and making sure you can see them in both positions as a start.
It really is all about what you want to hear more than where you put your hands.
Track the root of each chord, target that note when the chords change, and challenge yourself to do it in both positions :)
Chris, when mixing the scales are you using the notes they share in common as an area of being able to pivot to the major or minor scale? Great lesson.
Yes indeed! Glad you enjoyed this Christopher.
@@curiousguitarist does this make sense? A7 the 1 in a basic blues pattern. I’ve been thinking minor pentatonic but dropping out the flat 3 at times and adding in the 3 from the major scale and keeping the flat 7 in order to target the cord tones.
@@christopherguarnieri7439 that’s perfect! Now you’re really mixing things up. You’ll start to choose either of those when you “want to hear” that specific sound.
Big step.
Good morning Chris, It's difficult to find this subject on TH-cam. Steve Stine is the only other instructor who demonstrates this, (Major/minor Pentatonic swap and blend). As you stated, both scale don't play well as one scale, but can the be blended together to make licks, phrases, and statements, or are they always best separated? Also are their other great leads that show this? leads to dissect/breakdown and study? thanks. ps What are the common notes?
The only common tones are the Root and 5th.
Let me think on famous leads that use this, but Eddie Van Halen used this quite a bit. You can hear him using that shifted method on the first two guitar fills on "You Really Got Me" off of "Van Halen"...the first one is minor, and the second one is major (although he does add some chromatic notes to the second phrase, but you can hear it there pretty clearly.
if you look at V7 as a I chord ( major)
Play Whole Half Diminished over it , in this way you have the notes of major and minor pentatonic blues
Whole half diminished is one of the coolest constructs I’ve ever seen, along with the symmetrical structures. It blows my mind.
I bought Dicky Betts solo album, "Let's all get together" and was surprised how much he uses diminished scales in Southern rock blues style .
some use it more than others , but it think it is the origin of " Blue notes" in pentatonic.
as I'm sure you know it is case specific and sometime s chord progressions get different treatments with pentatonics they are tricky because you can say minor pent #1 works for Dorian, yet you can say pentatonics #3 works for Dorian, yet they both have different blue notes so that is where personal choice comes in !
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GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thaNK YOU !!!!!!!!! Chris!!!!!!!!!!!!! light 💡💡!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You're welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad you're here!
😊 Lucille!
I got double the mileage from this one. With all these "light bulb moments" I am gonna need sunglasses.
Ha! This was a fun one to do, glad you're getting some lights turned on from it, Pops!
Sunshine was the first solo that I tried to learn. Like a mouse with a mouth full of elephant, I bit off more than I could chew.
Is that an Ibanez bass? I have the 5 string version, looks almost exactly the same.
Thanks for the knowledges!
That solo is a masterpiece to be sure!
The bass is a Tobias...one of their super cheap models...but it sounds and plays great for what I need it to do.
@@curiousguitarist Ah, okay. It really looks Ibanez-y.
On the root skip over that 3rd, or bend it appropriately? On the 4 or 5 do as you wish? That keeps rising from the back of my mind.
On the minor pentatonic scale, bend that root for sure. 4 and 5 do as you wish...not a lot of tension there as they are "perfect" intervals and are happy just being.
For the major pentatonic scale there isn't a 4 at all, and the highest tension points are 2 and 6. The 3 and 5 are very very settled sounding so the next level of tension for this scale is the major 3...pretty relaxed :)
Hope that helps!
I am finding these lessons invaluable. Thank you! Can you do a couple examples slower and close up? It would help us marginal players.
Im so glad you're enjoying these!
I do TAB all of them out, so there's that angle. www.patreon.com/chrissherland to access those.
I have slowed down a lot since this video was published, so hopefully the newer lessons have a better pace.
Thanks for being here!
I know your an awesome composer too;) ❤💯
I'll share some of my songs eventually, for now it's just Etudes here on the channel :)
Lol may i ask one more time what ome settings youre using here? Thank you!
Sorry if I missed this one! I’m assuming you’re asking about tone settings.
Just dialed in the axe through the Yamaha THR10, I’m not sure I recall the exact tone settings but I fiddle with the knobs till it sounds good.
No other FX or anything. Is that what you’re asking about?
@@curiousguitarist Yes i was just looking for amp settings(i dont have any pedals). To my ears it sounds mainly clean with some reverb or delay.
And you didnt miss this i asked you about settings in another video. I dont wanna be "that guy" lol. Thanks for your time
@@eagles_s right right.
Ok, so yes, there's a little delay and reverb in there...very slight gain setting on the "crunch" setting on the amp. No chorus or anything else.
I am analytical to ruin, I enjoyed this because my brains first response is that note is not in this scale I dont care if it sounds good. LOL I m working on it. Another question is why does the pentatonic scale exist? I have all those notes why limit it. Do you have a video that discusses this? Thanks
Not yet mark but I will! In reality the pentatonic scale(s) exist because they dodge the diatonic alterations. Look for my vid here on why pentatonic scales are so useful.
Good to have you here Mark!
Does anyone know what the black strap is near his elbow ???
I do!
Right now I’m suffering from a bit of “tennis elbow” on my left arm. It’s slowly getting better, so the strap will be goon soon I hope!
@@curiousguitarist oh right I did think that to begin with bit wasn't sure. Do you know if they work with carpal tunnel syndrome???
@@My.Guitar.Journey I don’t know, but I can ask my PT about that.
@@curiousguitarist ok cool
so major scale pattern 2 over minor pattern 1?
If "pattern 1" means the root is on the low E string, then I see these as both being pattern one, superimposed over one another.