Major Pentatonic Guitar Licks Lesson

Learn the secret shortcut to playing the Major Pentatonic! Lesson covers the theory of repurposing the relative minor pentatonic; it then teaches how the 5 Pentatonic Box positions relates to the main 5 chord shapes which is a great introduction to the CAGED system of navigating the fretboard. The lesson concludes with an example solo for you to learn which shows a practical application of the theory being taught. This includes 8 great sounding Major Pentatonic licks. There is tab and a backing track to accompany the lesson.

The lesson is not aimed at the absolute beginner: it assumes you already know the 5 main chords: C, A, G, E, D and you know the minor pentatonic and it's box positions. If you don't know this already, then please check out the previous video in this series.

This is the second in a series of videos exploring the Pentatonic scale. This video is aimed at taking you from a beginner towards an intermediate player by getting you to be comfortable repurposing the minor pentatonic scale in order to play over a major chord progression. The next in the series will look at playing mixing the Major and Minor pentatonic scales together in blues. After that we then move into far more advanced uses of the pentatonic scale.

For the example solo, I was thinking Em pentatonic and using plenty of double stops wherever I could find them, as I always think these sound great over the underlying major chord progression. Here's some notes about the individual licks:
Lick 1 - Em Pentatonic Box Position 5. Start with a double stop and end on the G note (b3 of Em pentatonic) as that's our underlying root note.

Lick 2 - Em Pentatonic Box Position 1 at 12th fret. This is a classic blues lick that I ripped off Clapton. Again focusing around that G note.

Lick 3 - Em Pentatonic Box Position 2. Repeating bending double stop.

Lick 4 - Em Pentatonic Box Position 2.

Lick 5 - Em Pentatonic Box Position 2. Classic repeating rock lick.

Lick 6 - Em Pentatonic Box Position 2 into Box Position 1. This is a descending double stop licks that starts in box position 2 and ends in box position 1.

Lick 7 - Em Pentatonic Box Position 1 into Box Position 2. Cliched blues/rock pentatonic lick. Starts in Box 1 and moves into Box 2

Lick 8 - Em Pentatonic Box Position 1. Nice little bendy pentatonic lick to end the example, which finishes on the G root note.

The important links:

The example solo is over a G Major backing track which is available here:

The previous lesson in the 'Pentatonic like a Pro!' series is here:
It describes how to learn the Minor Pentatonic scale over the whole neck and gives an example solo to learn.

Marc Guitar’s Facebook page:

Marc Guitar's Patreon page:
Patreon supporters get access to additional lessons, as well as mp3 backing tracks and all the tabs.

Marc’s band - Northbound:
Spotify: "Northbound Acoustic Blues Band"

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[danzstrat]

Marc, if you could do a playlist called Examples and re-do this video over and over and over with the lecture and small solos. We are stupid dumb people that need many examples, and you really get through to me. I love your style of teaching. It won't get old, so please think about it. Just one per week....  That's all I ask.

[robertpollock]

Another great lesson thanks Marc cant wait for next lesson....

[PeterKertesz]

Thank you for sharing Marc, great lesson again, easy to understand!

[graemero]

Thanks Marc, excellent lesson, loads of wee lightbulb moments for me. Probably watch this a good few times.

[linheitzig]

Very informative lesson Marc. Thanks for what you do. By the way, beautiful guitar.

[pschlosb]

This is a fantastic solo! I can play but it doesn't sound quite so good LOL. But if I keep practicing it dozens and dozens and maybe hundreds of times eventually it's going to sound like that! Lol

[jaredklements]

@14:10 It would help if you explained why those notes were played, which box position was chosen and why over which chord rather than just mechanically explaining how to play the lick.

[achannel]

You should run a backing track while demonstrating. So that one can distinguish the different of Major and the relative minor. Cheers.

[billwilliams]

MARC GUITAR
Can you list which ROCK guitar solos used major pentatonic scales and make a video showing the rock guitar solos examples using major pentatonic scales?

[robertloggins]

You move down THREE frets to move from major to minor. You keep incorrectly saying four. When you go from fret 8 (C) to fret 5 (a) that is moving down THREE and not four

[paytyt]

Been watching u for years from japan... when you showed the first pentatonics, you wasnt hitting the first fret when they were on the chart... im not being an ass, i just have no clue... i bet youve explained this in a different video... let me check those out