Intermediate Lesson
One statement I hear from all of my students is that pentatonic is boring. Well it is. “Penta” means 5 and “tonic” means tones. so you get to work with five tones. There is not a lot to do especially if you are working with one pentatonic shape.
The following figure shows the C minor Pentatonic scale and in this lesson you will learn about two conjoining shapes. One called the southern hemisphere is up the neck and the northern hemisphere is down the neck and is an inverted shape.
If you look at the top scale (Blue) it shows one of the most popular pentatonic scale shape in the world. The middle figure (Red) shows the same scale in an inverted shape. You will see the common plane or equator between the scales which connect them. On the third figure you see both of them to gather with the equator in purple.
Using phrasing you can create 2 or 4 bar phrases to create impressive sounding solos. For more information on phrasing you can check out the phrasing lesson.
Minor Pentatonic is useful for blues and ballad solos.
Here are a couple of backing tracks that you can use to practice the scales.