From the course: Ukulele Lessons: Fundamentals
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The minor pentatonic scale
From the course: Ukulele Lessons: Fundamentals
The minor pentatonic scale
- The minor pentatonic scale is the most common scale used for improvising over the 12-bar blues. It can be derived from a major scale by removing the second and sixth degrees and by flatting the third and the seventh degrees of the scale. For example, an A major scale is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and one or eight again. So what we'll do now is play the one (plucks string), not play the two, flat the third, from C sharp to a C, fourth, D, fifth, E. And we're going to not play the sixth, and flat the seventh, which is a G. And play the one, or the eight. The octave higher, which is A. Okay, that's the A minor pentatonic scale. Let's play example 60 together. Ready, and A, C, D, E, flat seven G, and back to A again. You might be wondering how a minor pentatonic scale can work over major chords and dominant chords in the 12-bar blues. Well, the flat third and flat seventh notes clash in a bluesy way with the major chords. And those are called blue notes, and it sounds…
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