In this blues guitar lesson we’ll be looking at the most popular guitar scale in blues and rock music, the minor pentatonic guitar scale. It is comprised of five notes (“penta” is Latin for five) and can be played in five different forms. While we will not be learning all five forms of the minor pentatonic scale in this blues guitar lesson, we will investigate position 1, the most common.
For you music theorists, the notes of the minor pentatonic scale are root, b3, #4, 5 and b7. For instance, if you were soloing over an e chord using the minor pentatonic the notes would be E, G, A, B and D. Now I know that sounds simple but these five notes and the nearly infinite ways of combining them account for some of the most remarkable blues and rock guitar solos in history.
“Crossroads” is a great example and much of the guitar solos in the Eagles’ “Hotel California” are in the minor pentatonic. As is most of the guitar work ..Read more




