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mmcirvinI am resigned to make only slow progress on the guitar, since the only extended periods of leisure time I get are after Jorie goes to sleep, and often I'm too beat to do anything but go to bed, and need to do so in preparation for Jorie's predawn awakening anyway (admittedly she hasn't been quite so bad lately). And we've all gotten sick about three times since the last time I complained about us all getting sick, and we've had a couple of snowstorms since the last time I complained about all the snowstorms.
But I get in some practice now and then. Anyway, those pentatonic box patterns again. I am pretty good at remembering all the shapes but had the hardest time remembering where the root notes were in each shape. Most of the descriptions I've seen basically say "here they are, you have to memorize them." Which is true, but my brain's logic engine needs something to hang onto to start the process of memorization.
So I figured it out. The key fact is that in the pentatonic scale, there's only one major third, and it's between the major scale's root note and the note two degrees up. So in the pentatonic box patterns the root note is the only one that appears in a pattern like this:
where R is the major root, and 3 is the other note. The exception, as always, involves the gap between the G and B strings. The root is the only note on the G string that can appear in a pattern like this:
As for the minor pentatonic root note, that's just the one before the major root in an ascending pentatonic scale. That relation's easy to remember.
This is good to know when messing around with backing tracks, such as a recorded song you want to play along with. I'm getting better at the game of Find The Key Before The Song Ends. Once I have the root note on any string, I can then use this information to know what box shapes I can use to play in that key.
(In that connection, a trick I sometimes use to get in some practice is to use Jorie's favorite musical DVDs as backing tracks. The Imagination Movers' Stir It Up and TMBG's Here Come The ABCs and 123s work well. An interesting thing I have discovered about Here Come The ABCs is that, in the songs about letters from A through G, John and John seem to have scrupulously avoided choosing the key of the song according to a pun with the musical alphabet. In the most extreme case, "C Is For Conifers" is in F sharp. Also, the Imagination Movers, bless them, are way too fond of the truck driver's gear change, particularly in the emotionally-significant-rite-of-passage songs. But I digress.)
There's more. If you've memorized those boxes but now you want to play a whole diatonic scale, the two extra notes, the fourth and the seventh above the major root, always form a nice little square box around this diagonal thingy:
unless the root is on the G, which I leave as an exercise for the reader. And messing with that got me most of the way to the Violent Femmes' "Blister In The Sun" by accident.
But I get in some practice now and then. Anyway, those pentatonic box patterns again. I am pretty good at remembering all the shapes but had the hardest time remembering where the root notes were in each shape. Most of the descriptions I've seen basically say "here they are, you have to memorize them." Which is true, but my brain's logic engine needs something to hang onto to start the process of memorization.
So I figured it out. The key fact is that in the pentatonic scale, there's only one major third, and it's between the major scale's root note and the note two degrees up. So in the pentatonic box patterns the root note is the only one that appears in a pattern like this:
| | | 3 R | | |
where R is the major root, and 3 is the other note. The exception, as always, involves the gap between the G and B strings. The root is the only note on the G string that can appear in a pattern like this:
| | R 3 | |
As for the minor pentatonic root note, that's just the one before the major root in an ascending pentatonic scale. That relation's easy to remember.
This is good to know when messing around with backing tracks, such as a recorded song you want to play along with. I'm getting better at the game of Find The Key Before The Song Ends. Once I have the root note on any string, I can then use this information to know what box shapes I can use to play in that key.
(In that connection, a trick I sometimes use to get in some practice is to use Jorie's favorite musical DVDs as backing tracks. The Imagination Movers' Stir It Up and TMBG's Here Come The ABCs and 123s work well. An interesting thing I have discovered about Here Come The ABCs is that, in the songs about letters from A through G, John and John seem to have scrupulously avoided choosing the key of the song according to a pun with the musical alphabet. In the most extreme case, "C Is For Conifers" is in F sharp. Also, the Imagination Movers, bless them, are way too fond of the truck driver's gear change, particularly in the emotionally-significant-rite-of-passage songs. But I digress.)
There's more. If you've memorized those boxes but now you want to play a whole diatonic scale, the two extra notes, the fourth and the seventh above the major root, always form a nice little square box around this diagonal thingy:
| | 7 3 R 4 | |
unless the root is on the G, which I leave as an exercise for the reader. And messing with that got me most of the way to the Violent Femmes' "Blister In The Sun" by accident.