It happened again the other day. I was reading an article on how to play guitar like Eric Clapton. The sentence read "Start with a Pentatonic Scale and then add this note and this note and this note" and I'm thinkin' to myself "Well it ain't a Pentatonic Scale anymore then, is it?"
I'm not quite sure where all these myths about the Pentatonic Scale got started but it's all pretty silly. Yes ... there are many Rock and Blues Guitar riffs that are based on Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales, but the notion that these are the primary or ONLY scales you need in order to SOLO is ridiculous.
Anybody who knows anything knows that MUSIC IS A LANGUAGE with 12 notes in it's alphabet. Pentatonic simply means "5 notes". People who play pentatonically are only using 5 of the 12 notes. Why would you think that's a good idea? Why would you want to ignore those other 7 notes?
Some folks would say "Those 5 are the easy notes to use. I have trouble integrating the other 7 notes" ... and that may indeed be true ... but maybe that means you just need to work a little harder to learn how to use those other 7 notes ... that is if you're serious about becoming a REAL guitar player.
Diatonic Scales (like "Do - Re - Mi - etc) utilize 7 of the 12 notes and historically represent the true benchmark of Western Music theory. Scales and Modes like the Natural Minor, Mixolydian, Dorian and Lydian are absolutely essential to smart soloing and melodic composition. More modern and sophisticated music (like Jazz) is more CHROMATIC ... that is it utilizes all 12 notes. This level of playing requires a deeper knowledge of music theory and better trained ears, but the rewards are very real.
This doesn't mean that I'm advocating blowing off a whole bunch of stupid notes ... over-playing ... showing off. I'm just suggesting that you have more options available to you then you may realize. Why would you ever want to paint a picture with 5 colors if you could use 12? How could you ever write a short story using only 10 of the letters in the English alphabet? That's very much like what Pentatonic guitar playing is like.
Free your mind from all this Pentatonic hype and begin to see the bigger picture. We're here to help you anyway we can. Check out our awesome guitar lesson, music theory and ear training home study program at www.absolutelyunderstandguitar.com . You can also email or call me toll free anytime if you have questions.
All the best, Scotty West
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