Hey everyone and welcome to this Creative Scales tutorial!
We are going to get creative with the Pentatonic scale by creating a hybrid of two scales:
A minor Pentatonic and E minor Pentatonic
What we are going to do is make 2 groups of three strings and apply each of those respective scales to each group of strings. So, for the lower 3 strings (which are strings 6, 5 and 4) we are going to play the notes from the A minor Pentatonic Scale. For the following group (which consists of the remaining strings 3, 2 and 1) we are going to play the notes of the E minor Pentatonic Scale.
So, essentially we are mixing the following notes:
A minor Pentatonic: A - C - D - E - G
E Minor Pentatonic: E - G - A - B - D
NOTE: Be sure to remember that the notes for A minor are on the lower three strings only and for E minor the upper three strings only.
Playing the scale in this fashion gives a very subtle and pleasing sound to the ear. Essentially if you examine the notes contained in both scales, you'll notice that upon changing from A to E, the C note is replaced by a B note which gives us the 9th degree from an A minor perspective. Even though this is just a 1 note change, the way we are restricting ourselves by only adding it within the upper range of the guitar works really well.
Lastly, in the video I said that upon changing we have the 9th and 11th degrees. But in fact the 11th degree is already in place from the A minor we have already played. However, because the 3rd degree isn't played on the upper strings the emphasis is placed on the 9th and 11th (which are suspensions when the 3rd isn't present) giving the scale a more subtle 'open' sound
Now, let's head on over to the next video so we can get to grips with the new shapes.