Minor Pent over Major Chords?

At the risk of going over something that may be incredibly smple...

I had NO idea you could use a minor pent scale ovver a major chord prgression. I found this out by accident when i was trying to solo over an Emaj, Asus2, Bsus2 progression. Gawd it was purely by mistake that i fopund myself playing the minor pent scale and it sounded just as good when i used the E minor pent over this progression. I was wondering if someone could explain the theory behind it. It sounds so incredibly cool and its something i want to explore more in-depth.

Thanks :)

Christopher Schlegel, one of our instructor here at Guitartricks as made a series a tutorials on how to mix minor pentatonic scales over major progression by spicing up the minor pentatonic "box" blues shape with notes from the major scales.

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=9940&s_id=217
http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=10019&s_id=232
http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=10023&s_id=244

Another thing to set your focus on is the suspended chords.
Example: An Asus chord would naturally refer to using the 4th in place of the third note in the A chord and an Asus2 would refer to using the 2nd in place of the third. Either way, the third is not present, so the Asus chord cannot claim a Major or minor existance. If the third is used along with the 2nd, it would be considered an A9 chord ( Major, because of the third).

The very easiest thing to think of in this ballpark is the relative minor - the 6th degree of a major scale. Even easier than that - you can find it a tone and a half (3 frets) down from the minor key you're in...

So, if you're playing a chord progression that's E Major, you can play a C# minor scale over it...

But yeah, sus2 chords lack the all important third as dvenetian says...

Originally Posted by: renThe very easiest thing to think of in this ballpark is the relative minor - the 6th degree of a major scale. Even easier than that - you can find it a tone and a half (3 frets) down from the minor key you're in...

So, if you're playing a chord progression that's E Major, you can play a C# minor scale over it...

But yeah, sus2 chords lack the all important third as dvenetian says...

Ren, I think you hit the nail on the head!!!! Great example. One Question, in your progressions that incorporate using sus chords, do you find the need to resolve them, or is it just me????

It varies. For the most part my use of sus chords isn't really planned, I use them to add colour - so an A chord in a progression might turn into a very quick A / Asus4 / A / Asus2 / A or whatever...

I use the sus2 stand alone sometimes... I like the mysterious nature of the missing third... but for the most part, they get resolved...

I guess the thing that always threw me for a loop with the sus 2, was the sus 4 connection from the dominant.
Example: Asus2= A-B-E and Esus4= E-A-B

I am not a Full Access member, so I don’t know if the links to the tutorials explain about the Blue Notes that are generated when you use the blues scale over a major progression.
You have the E scale [E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#]
And the E blues scale [E-G-A-Bb-B-D]…three notes in this scale create tension over the E chord, they are G, Bb, D. From those three notes Bb is considered the most dissonant, and the true blue note to some theoreticians.

When you use the E minor pentatonic, you are inserting two out of the three notes (G,D)
E minor Pentatonic Scale [E-G-A-B-D]

The use of those two minor scales over a major progression lends to a Blues/Rock kind of sound

Originally Posted by: dvenetian
Example: An Asus chord would naturally refer to using the 4th in place of the third note[/QUOTE]
More properly called sus4 to differentiate it from the sus2, not to mention the extensions and alterations of that type of chords, I.e. 7sus2, 7sus4, maj7sus2, maj7sus4, majsus2sus4, maj13sus4. All I’m saying is we should call it SUS4, rather than just sus.


[QUOTE=dvenetian] If the third is used along with the 2nd, it would be considered an A9 chord ( Major, because of the third).

If you use the third along with the second it would be called A add9.
In order for that chord to be an A9 chord, it should contain the flatted 7th plus the 9th.


I hope I didn't offend anybody, I’m just trying to help ;)

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Originally Posted by: equator
If you use the third along with the second it would be called A add9.
In order for that chord to be an A9 chord, it should contain the flatted 7th plus the 9th.
I hope I didn't offend anybody, I’m just trying to help ;)

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No offense taken, I'm just glad to see the Theory thread getting some exposure. You're correct, we should be thorough in the posts for those not familiar with theory. Sometimes shortcuts can be confusing for someone.
I've always automatically recognized a Suspended chord (unless specified differently) as the 4th interval because it's the sub-dominate to the root, which may not be known by someone learning from these threads.
I will drop shortcuts so that everything is spelled out clearly for all.
P.S. You should consider becoming a full member because there are a lot of great members with knowledge in every genre. Besides, it supports the site and is extremely fair with the membership fee and is well maintained.
Just a thought.

I should have replied a while back but the LAN connection in my room has conked out.

In any case thanks for the replies. This seems to work only with sus chords and doesnt work with major chords. I'm not surprised though, due to the clash between the flat 3 and natural 3 in the scale and chord respectively.

Originally Posted by: bunmiadefisayoI should have replied a while back but the LAN connection in my room has conked out.

In any case thanks for the replies. This seems to work only with sus chords and doesnt work with major chords. I'm not surprised though, due to the clash between the flat 3 and natural 3 in the scale and chord respectively.

You were actually onto something, Because in certain degrees it does work over Major chord progressions.
Example: Let's take a GMaj7 chord= 1-3-5-7 (G-B-D-F#) and you were to build a minor pentatonic scale from the Major 3rd of the G chord, you would have a B minor pentatonic scale because B is the 3rd of G Major.
The B minor pentatonic scale = 1-b3-4-5-b7 (B-D-E-F#-A) and although the root is not present, the 3rd, 5th and 7th are.
You could also use E minor because it is the relative minor of G Major.

You can almost always use the minor pentatonic or blues scale over a Dominant 7th chord.
eg. you can play the A minor pentatonic over an A7chord