M I N O R P ENTATONIC SCALES

Extended Forms - For Standard and Dropped Tuning

Gary Noonkester
4/19/11

Guitar Scale Studies - Vol. 1

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Minor Pentatonic Scales! 3

My Problem! 3

My Nefarious Plan! 4

The Method! 5

The Method - continued! 6

All info contained herein copyright 2011 - by Gary Noonkester.

Guitar Scale Studies - Vol. 1

 M I N O R P ENTATONIC SCALES
Extended Forms - For Standard and Dropped Tuning

Gary Noonkester
4/19/11

My Problem
I’ve been playing guitar since 1989, but up until a year ago I had never approached learning
the instrument with a serious attitude, and even less so with a systematic method. My nor-
mal approach consisted of learning individual songs and very little focus was devoted to
learning the instrument itself. In the 80‘s I had relied on using Guitar Tab books from a
number of sources to begin learning these songs, but I found that the tabs almost never
agreed with what my ear was telling me ( not that my ear was correct ), so I quit using them.
In the early 90’s, I had taken guitar lessons from an instructor for about a month - learning a
few chord and scale forms, but quickly reverted to my habit of learning the guitar, song by
song.

This method of learning presented some advantages and disadvantages, like:

Advantages -

• A well-developed sense of relative pitch and rhythm

• A basic knowledge of moveable chord and scale forms

• Can learn most songs by ear.

Disadvantages -

• Disconnected knowledge of the guitar, with large gaps or ‘blank spots’.

• I struggle with soloing in a fluid, and confident manner.

• I could play parts of songs accurately, but not in their entirety.

If you watch any of my cover videos on YouTube, or listen to any of my original recordings,
you can hear the advantages and disadvantages clearly (well, at least I can).

Guitar Scale Studies - Vol. 1

My Nefarious Plan
Fast-forward to today - April, 2011. I’ve decided to begin learning the guitar as an instru-
ment- not just a collection of riffs, solos and songs that I like. I want to have the ability to
listen to a song or a solo and have a good idea of what is happening mechanically on the gui-
tar and – more importantly – have the ability to play what I hear, or the ability to know what
to practice in order to make it so.

To that end, I am starting with scale forms. My first choice is the Minor Pentatonic Scale
because of it’s prevalent use in Rock music.

One small problem though - I tend to favor dropped tunings (although I can play in oth-
ers) and most guitar method or scale books neglect to teach scale patterns in a form that are
designed for dropped tunings–nearly all of them are written for standard tuning.

While there is, I believe, a benefit to learning the standard tuning forms and then convert-
ing them to dropped, I think there is also a direct benefit to having a scale chart for both
types of tuning. Herein is why I decided to map out the scale charts you will see on the fol-
lowing pages.

One more minor problem too - Two-note-per-string (2NPS, hereafter) scale patterns
tend to be more difficult to play in a legato style and I also feel that they sound more ‘tradi-
tional’, or ‘cliched’. So, I have opted to develop and learn series of Three-note-per-string
(3NPS, hereafter) extended patterns, which I believe will sound different and be a bit easier
to play (hopefully, time will bear this theory out). If it works well, I’ll apply this to major
pentatonic, major, and minor scales, and so on.

Guitar Scale Studies - Vol. 1

The Method
The method I used to derive these patterns is simple:

1. Combine two adjacent 2NPS pentatonic boxes to created a new 3NPS box in stan-
dard tuning.

' If you combine all of the pentatonic boxes this way, you end up with 5 extended '
' boxes.

a. 2NPS Boxes 1 + Box 2 = 3NPS Box 1

b. 2NPS Boxes 2 + 3 = 3NPS Box 2

c. 2NPS Boxes 3 + 4 = 3NPS Box 3

d. 2NPS Boxes 4 + 5 = 3NPS Box 4

e. 2NPS Boxes 5 + 1 = 3NPS Box 5

Ex:

Guitar Scale Studies - Vol. 1

The Method - continued
The method I used to derive the dropped tuning forms of these patterns is easier:

1. Replace the 6th string pattern of the 2NPS and 3NPS patterns with the pattern from
the 4th string (since in dropped tunings, String 6 and 4 are the same.

' Then, combine the boxes in the same manner we used for standard tuning.

a. 2NPS Boxes 1 + Box 2 = 3NPS Box 1

b. 2NPS Boxes 2 + 3 = 3NPS Box 2

c. 2NPS Boxes 3 + 4 = 3NPS Box 3

d. 2NPS Boxes 4 + 5 = 3NPS Box 4

e. 2NPS Boxes 5 + 1 = 3NPS Box 5

Ex:

On the pages that follow, are the forms I came up with using the method outlined above.

I hope you find them to be both accurate and useful. Enjoy!

- Gary Noonkester

April 19, 2011

Guitar Scale Studies - Vol. 1

 Minor Pentatonic Extended Forms - Standard Tuning = Root

Box 1 + Box 2 = Minor Pentatonic Ext. Box 1 ( Standard )

Box 2 + Box 3 = Minor Pentatonic Ext. Box 2 ( Standard )

Box 3 + Box 4 = Minor Pentatonic Ext. Box 3 ( Standard )

Box 4 + Box 5 = Minor Pentatonic Ext. Box 4 ( Standard )

Box 5 + Box 5 = Minor Pentatonic Ext. Box 5 ( Standard )

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 Minor Pentatonic Extended Forms - Dropped Tuning = Root

Box 1 + Box 2 = Minor Pentatonic Ext. Box 1 ( Dropped )

Box 2 + Box 3 = Minor Pentatonic Ext. Box 2 ( Dropped )

Box 3 + Box 4 = Minor Pentatonic Ext. Box 3 ( Dropped )

Box 4 + Box 5 = Minor Pentatonic Ext. Box 4 ( Dropped )

Box 5 + Box 1 = Minor Pentatonic Ext. Box 5 ( Dropped )

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