Mandolin pentatonic scales

Sins of the Pentatonic

We're known for being hard on the Pentatonic Scale, and that assumption might be a tad unjust. The five simple notes aren't what we object too; after all, contained within the set is the harmonic center of root and third, along with the benign pitches of two and six, and of course, neutral chord member number five. There's some great harmonic "training" in these scales.

That said, we liken their abuse to the father of a four-year old who fastens training wheels on his son's bike, and leaves them there through High School. There's tremendous potential for use in jazz but if and only if you're willing to 1.) take them out of the key or 2.) use them to express upper chord harmonic extensions. We went over this in a previous tip, Jazzed Pentatonic, and to review as an example, if your harmonic background chord is CMaj7(+11), you can use a D Major Pentatonic to convey the B D F# implied in this chord extension.

Another problem is the horizontal abuse of the Pentatonic, the failure to jump around constructively, to weave, bob, and introduce melodic creativity; in other words, you need to avoid sounding like your playing, well... scales! We want to propose an alternative to this potential stagnancy with a terrific drill in yet another installment of our FFcP approach, FFcP Pentatonic Studies.

Depending on your perspective, these are chop builders or chop busters, but they give you a whole new way to intuitively build melodic freshness and inspire. You'll struggle somewhat with the challenge of smooth, continuous line, especially in string crossing (go pinky!), but time spent on these will again be a worthy investment.

These measures as we develop in the entire 48 measure exercise are fertile, both physically stimulating and intellectually inspiring. Don't just play them straight down. Master each individual measure, moving on only when they are infused into your fingers, rich with tone and dare we say "musical."

First 4 measure excerpt:

Notice they move in minor thirds. (Relative minor/major relationship?) Notice the exercise uses all four of the FFcP positions. The succeeding measures, we'll break the monotony of stepwise movements with skips, turns and contrary motion. We start on different scale degrees, and though the intent is to mix you up well, take advantage of Pentatonic simplicity to think observe which scale degree the pattern starts with and where it goes.

You'll cover four of the twelve keys, A C Eb F#. Move the entire exercise up one fret and you've addressed another 1/3 of them Bb Db E G. Go up yet another fret B D F Ab and you've mastered all twelve keys in one octave.

Here's another trick. Play the first measure in each line consecutively (1, 5, 9, 13, etc.). Play the second in the same way (2, 6, 10,14, 18, etc.). You'll really develop some physical flexibility.

Tritone subs? You've probably heard about this before; notice 1st and 3rd of each 4 measure set are a diminished 5th or a tritone away, same with the 2nd and 4th. Here's a chance to use the Pentatonics for either some very outside melodic fodder in the same tonal center, or express the tritone substitution in a dominant function, play chords I, V7, I, V7, etc.

We shouldn't have to remind you, but we don't want you to lose tone. As we mentioned, the string crossing may seem to kill your 3rd and 4th fingers, but these combinations mastered will lend you incredible dexterity later in improvising. You'll be open to a whole new world of finger combinations across the fretboard.

When you really get good, play these in the upper frets, too. Next time you hear a really good professional jazz guitar player, see how many times you hear material discreetly taken from the Pentatonic scale. It may be well-disguised in rapidly shifting tonal centers, but guaranteed, it will be there more than you think!

Enjoy!

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The pentatonic scale is must-know for any mandolin player looking to improve their soloing chops on the instrument. This tab will show you how the G pentatonic scale lays on the mandolin fretboard and give you two licks based on the scale to use fragments of or as endings for fiddle tunes in the key of G.

A couple tips for learning and practicing this:

1. The pentatonic scale is a five note scale pattern. If you’re having trouble learning the entire scale in one go, split it up into sections of five or six notes.
2. Whenever you’re learning a scale practice it starting from different notes in the scale or using different note combinations rather than just playing it ascending and descending. You’ll hear this scale a ton in bluegrass but it’s rare that someone will play it up and down. It’s important to practice variations of the scale. This could be melodic or rhythmic variation and the two licks in the tab may give you some ideas on how to do this on your own.
3. As always, go slow. This will let your fingers better communicate with your mind (and vice versa) so you can commit it to memory faster and start actually using it in your solos.
4. Pay attention to how this scale sounds and try to figure it out on your own in the keys of C, D, and E. This is a great ear training exercise and it’s an amazing way to learn about your fretboard.

Here’s the tab so you can get cracking:

The framework for all music is built from scales. From them, chords are formed, keys are established, licks are plucked. The possible scales, combinations of notes, stretches on relentlessly on. That’s why there’s no end in sight for new music to be composed.

Each culture has their own scales, and these scales give the culture’s tunes their specific accent. Japanese hōgaku music is built from a different scale than Czechoslovakian polka.

Scales evoke emotion. Minor scales are serious and impassioned. Locrian is ambiguous. These provocations are what turn noise to music. It’s why we play mandolin.

Thankfully, scales are like the color wheel. The choices are cosmic, but you can get by fine only knowing a few. In this lesson we’ll discover the red, yellow, green, and blue of scales. These are the scales which, with only the limit of your imagination, and following a few rules, you’ll be able to play along to just about anything.

Note:

We’re going to be focusing on the key of D for these scales. The tabs will be provided for that key. To try them out in other keys, the internet beyond is a fantastic resource.

Pentatonic

Here’s the vanilla ice cream of scales – not to say it’s boring! It’s a magical scale. Just play in time, and with the correct key, and everything you pluck will sound pure and reasonable. It goes with everything.

It’s easy to figure out the notes of the pentatonic scale by examining the circle of fifths. Pick the note that the key is in, for instance C: C, D, E, G, A. G’s pentatonic scale is G, A, B, D, E. Do you see the pattern? You may do this for all the rest of the notes too to find the pentatonic.

Here are the tabs for the D pentatonic:

Play through this, it is the first full pentatonic scale on your mandolin’s neck.

The notes above show all of the D pentatonic notes on the first position of your neck. This means that all these notes are fair game to use in a song that is in the key of D.

Pluck through that a few times. Now, pull up the song in How to Play Melody Between Chords. Try making up some riffs – basically as long as you stay in time and use only the notes in the scale above you’ll sound great!

The pentatonic scale is the most simple of scales. But with creativity you’ll be able to string these notes together in new and inventive ways.

Think about how all of the notes of the pentatonic scale blend so well into any song. What does that mean? The emotion behind the scale is plain. Sure, it’ll sound great almost all of the time. You won’t have to worry about any notes sounding out of place. But in order to take your solos and licks to the next level, you’ll have to let in some dissonance. That’s what we’ll explore in the next scales.

Blues

Blues, what better hamlet to explore the sensitivity of music. This is a fantastic scale to have in your back pocket. It has an additional note that’s not typically found in the standard key of the song. The one additional note is, essentially, the blues of the blues scale.

Here is the blues scale in D:

Not every song is home for the blues scale, in fact most are not. It is a scale to use diplomatically. Applied reasonably, it is sure to pleasantly nudge ears off balance; impassive audience’s attention regained.

Major

The major scale, identical to the Ionian mode, is the Sound of Music scale:

Seven unique notes and an octave for repetition. The notes that don’t also fall into the pentatonic scale give this scale density. It’s only two extra notes than the pentatonic, but that’s 30 precent more. Much more sound to work with.

Here is the D major scale:

Go up and down the scale, slowly.

After you begin to memorize the pattern, try mixing it up as you did with the pentatonic. Notice how the additional notes sound. They won’t be as discordant as the blues scale’s added note, but there is some more tension.

This will be made more noticeable as you use to to play along to music. Turn again to the song in How to Play Melody Between Chords, or the other D major backing track on this page. Play a few riffs using the major scale, then only the notes of the pentatonic. Use the notes of the blues scale, then back to the major. Listen to how they all work, but have their own distinct flavor. This is the flavor that you’re providing the song.

Natural Minor

The natural minor or Aeolian Mode, is the same notes as the major scale, but the emphasis is on the relative minor. Check out this post to figure out a key’s relative minor. If you already know, let’s continue on.

What is meant by emphasis is where a scale resolves; where the tension is eased. For the purposes of the scale, the tension will build from the beginning and resolve with the final note an octave up. However, when you’re improvising with the scale, you’ll find your own ways to build tension and find resolution.

The relative minor for D is B. So, B natural minor is the scale we’ll use.

Do you notice the difference? It’s very interesting how even though both the major scale and natural minor have the same exact notes, the emotions they emit contrast so vastly.

I think of it similar to this optical illusion above. The blocks seem like two shades of grey, right? Well, hold a pen or your finger between where the squares meet. How do the colors look now?

Harmonic Minor

This scale brings about a much more minor feeling than the natural minor does. This is because, compared to the natural minor, the note before the root note is brought up a half step.

With the B harmonic minor scale, this means that the A notes in the natural minor scale become A#s.

Try the notes of the scale over this backing track:

Take care memorizing these scale patterns, and you’ll be able to do so much with your mandolin. When it’s your time to solo, all you’ll need to do is play notes that fit within those scales and you’ll sound great.

Pentatonic is the safest scale. So if you find yourself riffing in some very strange territory with one of the other scales, or you hit some wrong notes completely, move back to the pentatonic and it’ll all seem like the wrong notes were on purpose. That’s what I do and what everyone else does too.

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