How To Play The 5 Pentatonic Scale Patterns

Hey, guys. Claude Johnson here with guitarcontrol.com. I’m pumped to be here with you. We’re going to do another pentatonic scale pattern video and I know you’ve probably have seen this a million times, or maybe you haven’t, but it’s always good to review the fundamentals. So I’ll go over the five patterns and then I’ll show you just a couple of new things to focus on. Let’s go in the key of A, starting here on the low E string 5th fret and I’m going to call-out the names of the frets with the patterns. Usually when they’re three notes apart you’re going to go 1st fret, pinkie and then when it’s two frets apart you’ll go 1st fret, ring finger, but not always, as you’ll see. The first pattern: 5, 8; 5, 7; 5, 7; 5, 7; 5, 8; 5, 8. The next pattern, here’s the middle finger, pinkie: 8, 10; 7, 10; 7, 10; 7, 9; 8, 10; 8, 10. The next pattern is going to go 10, 12; 10, 12; 10, 12; 9, 12; 10, 13; 10, 12. The next pattern is going to go 12, 15; 12, 15; 12, 14; 12, 14; 13, 15; 12, 15. The last pattern, we can go up here or we can go back here; same thing, just an octave difference. So I’ll play it down here: 3, 5; 3, 5; 2, 5; 2, 5; 3, 5; 3, 5. You can either play this one like this, ring finger/pinkie, or first finger/ring finger. You already know all that, maybe. So here are just a couple things to focus on. Let’s just isolate the top couple strings. I’m going across the neck, starting at the bottom. Here’s a little box: 3rd fret, 5th fret, and then the root position. The next position, here’s a nice little box, 8th, 10th. Next box is this one. These are just subsets of all the boxes I showed you at the beginning of the video, but we’re just focusing on the top strings. That last lick I jumped out of the pentatonic, but that’s okay. The next position… And there’s a nice little sweep arpeggio here, A. And then finally we’re back to up here. Check the link in the video description for the tabs and if you want a lot more tips on mastering the pentatonic scale all over the neck and using it expressively, check-out guitarcontrol.com/secrets. I think you’re really going to like what you see, or you can click the link in the video description to get the tabs. The choice is yours, my friend. Have an awesome day and I’ll talk to you next time. Take care.