This pentatonic lesson transformed my understanding

[LPPlayer86]

This was first published on my free Substack
Ever wondered what the easiest way to learn the pentatonic shapes is? Or how the five pentatonic shapes fit together?

Years ago, I didn’t know all five shapes. I was proficient with the first two, and had half-heartedly played the other three a few times. I hadn’t memorised them all, and I certainly couldn’t join them all together to play from one end of the fretboard to the other.

Until one day, I hired a jazz guitarist to be my teacher.

And he taught me something that blew my mind. The first words out of my mouth were “Why isn’t every player taught this early on?!”

It’s a question I still ask. And having learned his simple lesson, I was immediately able to play all five shapes.

Better yet, I was quickly able to play the appropriate shape wherever I was on the fretboard.

Playing the 10th fret on the B string as my root? No problem.

15th fret on the D string? Again, no problem.

Today, I’m sharing this lesson with you.

The conveyor belt method​

Before we begin, I’ll be using the minor pentatonic shapes in this article. The same principle applies for the major scale, you’ll just need to make the appropriate adjustment for finding the root in each shape.

Now, let’s get started.

Here are the 5 boxes of the minor pentatonic shape, borrowed from countryguitaronline.com:

At first glance, they all look like a random mess of notes with no common pattern.

But let’s look closer.

In every shape, there are two finger patterns:

1. The “wide” pattern, where there is a gap of two frets between the notes (e.g. in the first shape the frets being played on both E strings are 5 and 8, leaving a two-fret gap between)
2. The “narrow” pattern, where there is a gap of one fret between the notes (e.g. in the first box the frets being played on the ADG strings are 5 and 7, leaving a one-fret gap between)

Make sure you look at each of the five boxes to be sure you can see the wide and narrow patterns in each one.

Now, this is where things get interesting.

In each box, the low E and high E strings are playing the same notes, so if you know what’s happening on one of those strings you also know what to play on the other one.

And the same underlying pattern is happening in every box.

That pattern is this: two consecutive strings of Wide, and three consecutive strings of Narrow. It’s an infinite loop that goes like this:

Wide

Wide

Narrow

Narrow

Narrow

Wide

Wide

Narrow

Narrow

Narrow

Wide

Wide

And so on, and so on.

You will never encounter a pentatonic scale box that is, for example, Wide Narrow Wide.

The only time this pattern seems broken is when an E string interrupts it. Such as the first box, which opens with a single Wide before going into the Narrows.

But look closer and you’ll see that the B and top E strings are both Wide, and the low E is just duplicating the top E.

This is why I imagine the six strings as a conveyor belt or a treadmill, continuously looping around.

The same appears to happen in shape 5, which looks like this (image from JustinGuitar):

So that’s:

Narrow

Narrow

Wide

Wide

Narrow

Narrow

But if we again picture a conveyor belt, we can see two Wides in the middle strings, two narrows on the B and E strings, which loops around to the low E and A strings. The two E strings are duplicates so what looks like four narrows is, in fact, three.

Let’s look at the other boxes to see this in action:

Shape 1:​

Wide

Narrow

Narrow

Narrow

Wide

Wide

In this shape, the conveyor belt loops at the second Wide.

Shape 2:​

Narrow

Wide

Wide

Narrow

Narrow

Narrow

In this shape, the conveyor belt loops at the third and final Narrow.

Shape 3:​

Narrow

Narrow

Narrow

Wide

Wide

Narrow

The conveyor belt loops at the first Narrow.

Shape 4:​

Wide

Wide

Narrow

Narrow

Narrow

Wide

Shape 4 is probably the best illustration of the minor pentatonic scale’s inner pattern. The conveyor belt loops at the first Wide.

If this doesn’t make sense straight away, don’t worry. Guitarists are rarely taught this, and instead have to eventually figure it out for themselves. If it hasn’t clicked by reading it the first time, keep looking at each of the five boxes individually and counting the appearance of each Wide and Narrow.

Finding the root note in the pentatonic shapes​

Here’s another fun little “hack” or shortcut for the minor pentatonic scale.

The root note always, without exception, appears in the same place in each box:

Under the index finger of the second Wide, and under the ring finger of the middle Narrow.

Shape 4 is the easiest one to see this:

Although we’re all mostly familiar with Shape 1, which has the root note as the first note, that’s just because the root note starts that particular scale. In the broader picture of the overall pentatonic pattern, the root note is on the second Wide.

This holds true in every shape, which you can see by scrolling back up.

So what does this mean for your playing?

Well, when we learn the scale we essentially learn shapes. This helps us to play notes that we know will sound good together, but we don’t necessarily understand much beyond that. As a result, we get stuck in the boxes, with our lead playing and solos sounding repetitive and we’re unable to break free from the rut.

This changes if you know your root note and where it sits in the scale.

Because if you know what your root note is, and you know where it sits in the scale, you can start playing licks and the scale from wherever your hand is. So instead of thinking “I’m playing A minor, I need to be in the 5th fret to play that scale” you can simply find an A anywhere on the fretboard, and decide whether you want to play it as a Wide or Narrow.

For example, there’s an A note on the 10th fret of the B string. You can play that note and decide it’s a Wide, in which case you’re in shape 3. Or, you can play it as a Narrow, so you’d be playing shape 2. Take a look at the following diagram again to see this:

From there, you can start to go deeper into learning the intervals (aka the scale notes) and how they sit in relation to each other, which will take your playing even further.

But that’s a lesson for another day. In the meantime, study this lesson until it really clicks and you’ll find that you can start to play pentatonic shapes from anywhere, without necessarily thinking of the five individual shapes.

 

[cmjohnson]

I learned my patterns from a great professional guitarist who used to play in some band you have probably heard of if you're at least 35 years old, who tried to simplify everything wherever possible.

He broke down the pentatonics to three fingering patterns. 1 2 4 1 3 4 and 1 3 5 . Called each pattern 1, 2, or 3. So a scale would be expressed as something as simple as 221133 or..whatever. Not trying to be accurate to the scale here, just defining the method. It's an alteration of the CAGED method, which everyone should learn.

Personally I dislike the pentatonic scales. They are so overdone. And they're missing notes that add flavor and variety. Blues scale, major and minor scales, are more pleasing to me when used correctly, among others.

 

[LPPlayer86]

I learned my patterns from a great professional guitarist who used to play in some band you have probably heard of if you're at least 35 years old, who tried to simplify everything wherever possible.

He broke down the pentatonics to three fingering patterns. 1 2 4 1 3 4 and 1 3 5 . Called each pattern 1, 2, or 3. So a scale would be expressed as something as simple as 221133 or..whatever. Not trying to be accurate to the scale here, just defining the method. It's an alteration of the CAGED method, which everyone should learn.

Personally I dislike the pentatonic scales. They are so overdone. And they're missing notes that add flavor and variety. Blues scale, major and minor scales, are more pleasing to me when used correctly, among others.

Interesting approach! I also just found this video which is a clearer way of explaining my post.

I agree they’re overdone. But they’re a nice structure for players to then add whichever interval they need for the desired flavour

 

[jcsk8]

Yes, I figured that out by myself back than, but a lot of lessons doesn´t link you into that. It´s much more easy to travel on the shapes thinking that way.

 

[Rds]

That is a nice lesson. I need to practice pentatonic scales more. Also Rick beato has a good video on the pentatonic scale as well. Worth looking at.

 

[D'tar]

Fret Science videos and pdf have helped me tremendously! Worth the time and effort 1000%!!!!

https://youtube.com/@fretscience

 

[LPMarshall Hack]

There is no lesson or teacher that can make me understand soloing.

 

[LPPlayer86]

Fret Science videos and pdf have helped me tremendously! Worth the time and effort 1000%!!!!

https://youtube.com/@fretscience

Funny you say that, someone sent me one of their videos yesterday after reading my post, and I saw FS has a video showing this exact method. They call it rectangles and stacks instead of a conveyor belt but it’s basically the same principle

 

[SoK66]

After you grasp the shapes, learn them on one string and two strings up and down the neck.

 

[pgurlea]

LPplayer86,
Thank you for sharing.