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Minor pentatonic for rock and blues....why?

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(@rgalvez)
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Joined: 17 years ago
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Topic starter  

Before I dig in my whole guitar library I want to ask this question to you fellas, because I haven't found the answer yet: why is the minor pentatonic the one most used in rock and blues..and not the major pentatonic?? I'm confused specially because the chords progressions in the 12 bar blues are not necesary minor chords.

Thanks folks.


   
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(@fretsource)
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The minor pentatonic contains a flat 3rd and flat 7th - both of which give that distinctive 'blues' sound over major chords.


   
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(@ricochet)
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Joined: 21 years ago
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The answer is, "Why not?" It just sounds good.

Major pentatonic sounds good, too. Listen to the country stations. You'll hear it a lot there.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."


   
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(@rgalvez)
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Topic starter  

The minor pentatonic contains a flat 3rd and flat 7th - both of which give that distinctive 'blues' sound over major chords.

Cool ! Thank you! So it's like a chromatic approaching to the major scale I guess.


   
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(@rgalvez)
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Topic starter  

The answer is, "Why not?" It just sounds good.

Major pentatonic sounds good, too. Listen to the country stations. You'll hear it a lot there.
Thanks Ricochet. What I didn't get is why the minor penta is the most used, compared to the major one, since the patterns are similar, but the fingering different. Now everything has more sense. :)


   
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(@ricochet)
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Fact is, you can switch back and forth between them in the same song when you get tired of one, as long as the backing chords are major. They both work. The feel is different. But you can mix and match.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."


   
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(@dneck)
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In blues, with all of the chods being dom7, it makes it so you can't really define it with one 7 note scale. The I7 has a major 3rd, and uses the major 3rd of the scale. Then check out what happend on the IV7. That b7 of the IV7 chord is outside of a normal major scale, actually it is the b3 of the key. It sounds bad to use a major scale over the IV7 chord because of the clash.

or
The answer is, "Why not?" It just sounds good.

Major pentatonic sounds good, too. Listen to the country stations. You'll hear it a lot there.

"And above all, respond to all questions regarding a given song's tonal orientation in the following manner: Hell, it don't matter just kick it off!"
-Chris Thile


   
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(@voidious)
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Here's a question I've been sitting on a while, and since it seems a little on topic here...

When people talk about soloing using the pentatonic scales, do they literally mean only those 5 scale notes? I practice soloing / improvising a bit and I do know the pentatonic scales. If I'm soloing over a minor key chord progression, I definitely feel like the minor pentatonic points are stronger / more consonant, but some of the best sounds also come when I carefully dip into the other 2 scale notes (not in the pentatonic minor, but in the minor scale).

I mean I know I can do whatever the heck I want ;), but I'm wondering if using those other 2 notes like that is implied when someone talks about soloing using pentatonic scales? Or if it is literally just using 5 notes (and octaves of them)?

-- Voidious


   
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(@ricochet)
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Oh yeah, they often do mean using just those 5 notes.

But there are all kinds of other possibilities.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."


   
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(@rgalvez)
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Topic starter  

Thank you for the input Dnek...I neded this clarification , esp. from an harmonic point of view.
Cheers!


   
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(@ignar-hillstrom)
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For what it's worth, people like BB King heavily rely on mixing both major and minor pentatonic scales.
When people talk about soloing using the pentatonic scales, do they literally mean only those 5 scale notes?

Most do. Ignore them.


   
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(@steve-0)
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Most do. Ignore them.

Haha, very blunt but true. Great advice.

Steve-0


   
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