so wondering whats  the easy ways to remeber an entire scale by that i mean the penatonic minor scale lets say in the key of A. i could map it out and try to remember every  fretted note but thats seems like the hardest way is there any techniques that you guys  use to help move past the the basic fifth  fret box postion. 

If theres any post you could direct me too it would  help  also.

Hello wiggs, you post great questions. I hope my answer is what you're looking for....in the case of the A 'pentatonic' (from the latin meaning '5' tones) minor scale, if you've memorized the expanded pattern at the 5th fret as i suspect you have, simply 'move' that pattern up two frets to the 7th fret and you have the B pentatonic minor scale. Move up one more fret to the 8th fret and you have the C pentatonic minor scale.

This info is straight out of my head plus i looked at our own 'scales section' and plugged in the keys and clicked on the expanded pattern and it was the same for the above three keys as selected. If i'm wrong on some of it i hope someone will correct this or add to it if i've left important stuff out.

Cheers,

GuitarZen

ok but  wouldnt that be changing the key  of the scale what if i wanted  to stay in key of A. I understand the shape of the scale in its "Main" postion but theres other area's that you can play the scale in Right? I Guess i what im looking for is an easy way "if any" to move around the neck while staying in the same key.


By the way Zen always appreciative for your help

Ok, yes that would only be changing the key...i think the simplest way to play A pentatonic minor scales all over the neck would be to remember  where the scale root notes are and then you could expand the pattern from each root.  I gave it a try and if i hit a wrong note i could tell right away, i guess because the scale notes are imbedded now.

Another thing would be to learn how to find all the 'A' notes without knowing where they are using the 'octaves' locating method, but to be honest, your prolly going to find that knowing all the notes on the neck is going to become 'the way' you do things on the guitar neck. Knowing the location of the scale root notes would be a shortcut though. And hey, thanks for the compliment wiggs !

Cheers,

GuitarZen

there aren't any short cuts to learning the fret board, however there are some tricks that may help a bit and this website shows all of them:

http://www.guitar-tutorial.net/diatonic.html

there is a diagonal method of playing scales (particularly the pentatonic) up the neck.

excuse my crude example, but in key of a minor/c major it would look something like this:


fret   E  A  D  G  B  E
0
1
2
3
4
5     x
6
7
8     x
9
10    x  x  x
11
12    x  x  x  x
13                   x
14           x  x
15                   x  x
16
17                   x  x
18

now this is starting on a at the fifth fret, but if you notice the pattern starting at the c note on the 8th fret of the e string repeats moving up two strings and two frets and then two strings and three frets. i have highlighted the octaves of c in blue for convinience. notice that the pattern that follows each c note is the same. so you basically have on five note pattern to remember and you can play that off of any c note and it will be in the key of a minor/ c major.

you can apply this to any major/minor pent scale

this is a very brief explanation and hopefully it made sense.

if it didnt make sense, let me know and i will do my best to clarify

Took a few reads through but makes perfect sense and very easy way to approach the pent scale metal....thanks and wiggs should be very pleased....gonna work with your scale a lot move it around....will map the notes too..

Cheers,

GuitarZen

not a problem. this form of diaganal thinking is a very easy way to give yourself a fresh look at the pent scales. you can even use it to link the boxes together for a massive amount of notes. and to cover the entire fretboard. think of it like this:

to keep the a minor/c major key:

fret  E  A  D  G  B  E

  1   
  2
  3
  4
  5   X  X  X  X  X  X
  6
  7       X  X  X  X
  8   X                  X
  9
10   X  X  X
11
12   X  X  X  X
13                   X
14           X  X
15                   X  X
16   
17   X  X  X  X  X  X
18
19       X  X  X
20
21   X              X  X
22   
         
so this example goes through four octaves linking two octaves of the minor "box" most of us guitarist learn from the beginning. for convinience of viewing, i have highlighted the boxes in red and the "diaganal" pattern of the pentatonic scale that links them together in blue.

if you cover everthing below the 8th fret you should see the familiar box we all know.
also, if you cover everything above the 17th fret you should see the same box.
the blue notes are just a way of linking the two boxes and expanding fretboard knowledge requiring no theory and very little memorization.


This also can be applied to any pentatonic scale.

this was one of the first basic concepts for lead work that i first learned that has helped me immensely. and even when one gets into more complicated and or theory based leads, if something happens to go wrong it is helpful to be able to fall back to something permanently ingrained in your mind.

Took a few reads through again metalriffzach, but i got it ! Thanks again, great lesson and yet another approach to the pent scales.

Cheers,

GuitarZen

Slight return...hello Metalrifzach, well i read through your posts again and i noticed something i hadn't before. In your first post you're basically describing what i mentioned in my post...'locating root notes by the octave method'...so once i noticed that a bit ago, it opened up the lesson a little more for me so thanks again.

Also, in your second post you go on to show the familiar boxes in red and the diagonal connecting in blue...i thought i had that but din't...now i understand the use of the colors...a question though and this will seem obvious to you and many others i'm sure but do i presume correctly that you would or could play all the blue notes as a box and would memorize the fret/string positions for them accordingly? Last but not least, would i also play the notes starting at the 17th including the two blue notes on the 17th fret? I think so but i ask because at fret 5 B string you show an E note and at the 7th fret B string you show an E note then a G# note at the B string, 21st fret.  Slightly different scale notes and the 'box patterns' aren't exactly the same.

I think in my haste to want to understand this, i didn't notice all the details and since i've studied this over and over i don't want the take away to be wrong so could you help me out here since i know i must be missing something.

Thanks !

GuitarZen