Be Gentle Please...

G is the root note and the scale is a G minor pentatonic scale.

Work out what notes you are playing :

Bb-C-D-F-G-Bb-C-D-F-G-Bb-C

Starting this pattern of notes with the G, you get

G-Bb-C-D-F-G

which is the same sequence of notes you get in the G minor pentatonic in position 1 (and in any position, since the scale doesn't change, the only thing which changes is which note you start on).

That doesn't, however, resolve your question about the key - but a scale alone cannot provide you with a determined key - for example, the C major scale, and the A minor scale both share the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C, and will share the same set of 'possible chords' which can be derived from this set of notes. But, the key of C is not identical to the key of A minor, despite the fact that the foundations from which these keys are built is seemingly identical.

Noteboat or Kingpatzer or someone will probs post more on this later.

Suffice it to say that the pentatonic sequence you have outlined will work over the same chords as the G minor pentatonic scale you have (presumably) already learned in the 1st pattern.

And please don't worry about this bit of the forum being intimidating......that's something pretty much all of us feel, at least from time to time. There's tons to learn and most of it will seem very confusing at first, but stick with it and things will slowly start falling into place.

hope this helps

Thanks Scrybe, that's definetely helpful...I figure the only way I can learn is to jump right in and ask (even if I'm still over my head on some things). That's the one downside for me for teaching myself, while I'm working with some really good books, every now and then something just confuses me and I can't turn to an instructor and ask "what's this", oh well, that's what's so great about this forum.

if it helps, I found the best way (for me) to get my head around scales was to either play them on a keyboard, or draw/print one octave of a keyboard and map them on there. what's important in scale (i.e. what makes it, say, a C major scale, rather than, say, an Eb minor scale) is the intervals between notes.

So, all 'major scales' (i.e C major, D major, etc ,etc) will have the following sequence of notes - T-T-S-T-T-T-S-. In C major, this gives you C-D-E-F-G-A-B. The intervals (i.e. number of notes) in between each pair of tones (i.e. C-d, D-E, E-F, and so on), and between the root note and each following tone (i.e. C-d, C-e, C-f, C-g and so on) is what distinguishes it as a C major scale.If you can start to think this way now, it'll save you heaps of confusion when you learn about transposing melodies or chord sequences, and it'll help you understand what makes e.g. major scales and minor scales sound different.

This pattern can be called either G pentatonic minor as Scrybe said or Bb pentatonic major which has the same notes, but starting from a different root note:

G pent minor: G__Bb_C_D__F_G

Bb pent major: Bb_C_D__F_G__Bb

More generally, the pentatonic minor is 1__b3_4_5__b7_8 and the pentatonic major is 1_2_3__5_6__8.

The same notes, A and E, are dropped from the full 7-note major and minor scales to form the pentatonics (penta = 5). Eliminating the notes that are a semitone (half step) away from other notes reduces the chance of a dissonant clash and makes the pentatonic scales easier to use for soloing.

Here's a table of all the major keys and their relative minors:
Major Relative Key I ii iii IV V vi vii°
Key Minor Signature 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
----------------------------------------------------------------
C major A minor C D E F G A B
G major E minor # G A B C D E F#
D major B minor ## D E F# G A B C#
A major F# minor ### A B C# D E F# G#
E major C# minor #### E F# G# A B C# D#
B major G# minor ##### B C# D# E F# G# A#
F# major D# minor ###### F# G# A# B C# D# E#
F major D minor b F G A Bb C D E
Bb major G minor bb Bb C D Eb F G A
Eb major C minor bbb Eb F G Ab Bb C D
Ab major F minor bbbb Ab Bb C Db Eb F G
Db major Bb minor bbbbb Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C
Gb major Eb minor bbbbbb Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F
----------------------------------------------------------------

The pentatonic scales drop the 4 and 7.