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Do I understand minor pentatonic scales?

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(@harryr3)
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Joined: 8 years ago
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Hi: Trying to make sure I understand the minor pentatonics. There are 5 shapes, each with a letter name that can be played on any fret. With barre chords you can play them on any fret with the proper named shape (A,E and a few others). The root note, or lowest note you are playing determines the name of the barre chord. So you can have an E shaped barre chord on the 5th fret and it will be in the chord, key of A. Correct?

And so you can play an A shaped minor pentatonic scale on the 3rd fret and it will be in the key of G? Play it on the 4th fret and it will be an A shaped minor pentatonic in the key of A flat?

Thanks

harryr3


   
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(@alangreen)
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Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

Hi: Trying to make sure I understand the minor pentatonics. There are 5 shapes, each with a letter name that can be played on any fret.

Yes, there are five shapes (patterns). Yes, they are all movable to any position on the neck.
With barre chords you can play them on any fret with the proper named shape (A,E and a few others).

Yes, G, C and D are the other basic shapes
The root note, or lowest note you are playing determines the name of the barre chord. So you can have an E shaped barre chord on the 5th fret and it will be in the chord, key of A. Correct?

The root note determines the basic name of the chord. It is not always the lowest note - if you play an A or a C shape then you need to be careful to play only 5 strings because the root note is on the 5th string; if you play all 6 then the lowest note is not the root note. This also works for minor and dominant chords of the same name (Am, A7, Am7 and so on).
And so you can play an A shaped minor pentatonic scale on the 3rd fret and it will be in the key of G? Play it on the 4th fret and it will be an A shaped minor pentatonic in the key of A flat?

Correct, but you'll probably find it easier to talk about them as the G minor pentatonic and the A-flat minor pentatonic to avoid confusion.

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