Minor Pentatonic Scale Pt. 1
First let's break down the first half of the minor pentatonic scale.
We'll start with our index finger in the 5th fret of the low E-string. Then we're going to play the 8th fret of the same string with our pinky. Next we're going to jump to the A-string and play the 5th fret with our index finger, followed by the 7th fret, played with our ring finger.
Next up we'll do exactly the same on the D-string. Let's leave it at that for right now and practice first going up the scale, and then down the scale.
As always the goal is to try to keep your fingers from flailing all over the place. So just take it slowly and try to keep them in place as much as possible.
Finally let's try and alternate between a downstroke in our picking hand and an upstroke. We'll do that for every string.
Once we've reached the top, we'll pick the highest note again and come back down with the same picking pattern.
Even though we haven't covered the letter names of any notes yet you may be able to hear that we've landed on a higher octave of the same note we started on. That means we only have 5 notes in this scale. That's why it's called pentatonic, the prefix 'penta-' meaning five.
After that the notes repeat in a higher octave, which you'll learn in the next lesson.