In this guitar lesson we’re going to look at how to play the minor pentatonic scale using a new melodic pattern. Because I’m assuming that you’ve already worked through the material that we covered in the first lesson, let’s jump right in by looking at the scale we’ll be using for this lesson…
The Battlefield
In this lesson we’re going to work on playing a melodic pattern in the first fingering of the C Minor Pentatonic scale, which is made up with following notes…
If you don’t know them already, I really recommend taking the time now to memorise the notes of the scale. Once you’ve done that, then check out the melodic pattern below…
Minor Pentatonic Melodic Pattern Exercise 2:
It would be a good idea to spend the next few minutes playing through the exercise. Do your best to figure out what melodic pattern is being used.
Analysing The Melodic Pattern
As I mentioned in the last lesson, I feel that it’s always a good idea to work out the notes of everything that you learn from TAB. This will help you to improve your fretboard knowledge, as well as making it easier for you to understand the musical meaning of what you’re learning. Keeping that advice in mind, here’s the same melodic pattern with the note names shown above the TAB…
I like to call this melodic pattern ascending threes. This is a term that makes sense to me, and helps me to remember the pattern. But keep in mind that my term isn’t the “right” one. Feel free to call the melodic pattern anything that you want. For Example: One of my students recently referred to this melodic pattern as the two-up, one-down pattern. So if you prefer his way of describing the melodic pattern, then you might want to use his term instead of mine. 🙂
Practising The Melodic Pattern
OK, now it’s time to get to work. Here’s a video demonstrating how to play the melodic pattern. Once you’ve watched the video, grab your guitar and get to work!
A Few Last Words
That’s all for this lesson. I recommend choosing a speed goal for the exercise. (What you choose will depend on your current level of playing). Once you’ve done that, then practice the exercise at least a few times each week until you achieve your speed goal.
Practice hard!
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