Joe Pinnavaia: Waking Up The Pentatonics

In continuing with my series on Pentatonics we will know look at a few basic ways that you can start using this scale immediately. So let's dig in!

First make sure you review the C Major chord scale (Ex. 1) and make sure you are familiar with as many chord forms and the functions of those chords as possible.

The Pentatonic Scale is comprised of 5 notes with this interval structure: Root, Minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Minor 7th and then the Octave. This structure exists within the major scale on the Minor chords of the Major Chord Scale (Ex. 2) Therefore we can start a Pentatonic scale on the ii, iii and vi steps of a Major Scale and on the i, iv and v in Natural Minor Scale.

So for C Major we can use D Minor, E Minor and A Minor Pentatonic Scales not only over those minor chords but over ALL chords from the C Major Key. So in essence these Pentatonic scales are merely embedded into the C Major scale. more