You Only Need TWO Scales | Guitar Tricks

The Pentatonic Scale is legendary. It’s used extensively by both beginners and world renowned guitar gods. It’s easy to learn, easy to memorize and easy to use. It sounds great and it’s very versatile. But with all that said, as a five note scale (“penta” meaning five), it’s missing two of the notes of whatever key we’re in (there are 7 notes in a key), and those two missing notes can sound so great! For me, it’s often that I HEAR those other notes in my head, but I can’t find them in the pentatonic scale and in my pentatonic repertoire of licks. If you too feel like there are some key tones that you can’t seem to find in the pentatonic scale, then that’s the best reason to learn the diatonic scale as your next step.

The minor pentatonic scale contains the following intervals, relative to the tonic of the scale: 1, b3, 4, 5, b7. For instance, in A minor pentatonic, these are the notes A(1), C(b3), D(4), E(5), G(b7). The diatonic natural minor scale, or the “Aeolian” mode, which is one of the diatonic modes, contains the following intervals, relative to the tonic of the scale: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7. For instance, the notes of the A natural minor scale are A(1), B(2) C(b3), D(4), E(5),F(b6), G(b7). As you can see we’ve added a 2nd, and a minor 6th to the pentatonic scale, or in the case of A minor, we added a B, and an F, to give us the diatonic minor scale.

Now over a one chord jam (A minor), you’ll immediately notice the different flavor that we have here. We’ve added two half steps, between the B and C (2 and b3) and the E and F (5 and b6). That’s more of a a diatonic thing - there are no half steps in pentatonic. Pentatonic only has whole steps and minor thirds between each note. The diatonic scale only has half steps and whole steps between each note. These half steps add tension and a different color.

But where these two extra notes become less “colorful” and more “fundamental” is when we consider other chords in the key of A minor. For instance. If I play the chord D minor, after I play A minor, that’s what we call a i - iv chord progression. In the key of A minor, Am is the i chord, and Dm is the iv chord. Now, on that D minor chord, the minor third of that chord is an F! That minor third is FUNDAMENTAL to the sound of that chord, which means, that if you land on an F note over the iv chord, it’s going to have a strong sound that is almost like playing the chord progression in your solo. By landing on different fundamental chord tones, one can almost hear a chord progression in your playing even if you were playing by yourself with no chords! In the pentatonic scale, you don’t have access to that note F, which is so strong over the iv chord, D minor.

I hope you can now see and hear how the pentatonic scale is fundamentally lacking over very basic chord progressions in terms of really locking in with the different chords. Now, I’m not saying that you have to be consciously aware of the function of each one of these notes and which note is a chord tone over which chord. However, if you have the sound and the shapes of the diatonic scale in your head, you will naturally gravitate to the fundamental tones over each chord when you hear that chord or anticipate its arrival. Each chord has a gravity that will pull your improvisation or composition towards certain notes provided you are listening and you have those notes under your fingers!

0:00 - Intro
1:53 - Minor Key
4:26 - Pentatonic vs Diatonic
7:56 - Major Key
10:23 - Pentatonic vs Diatonic
12:47 - Outro

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[nicolsd]

Started studying music theory and practicing guitar a few weeks ago. It's all falling into place as i watch more videos, reaffirming or correcting my assumptions. Thanks for making this video

[akumair]

First of all It's a great video and it's really helping me prevent quitting learning guitar but i just want to ask you like can you do more acoustic guitar tutorials I'll be very grateful if you do so!

[MassiveHappyClapper]

When improvising lead lines do you generally touch on and highlight the root note of the chord changes, or do you use the other notes within each chord at the changes to keep it sounding musical?