I use pentatonic scales in my playing every time I pick up my guitar., and thats no joke. Pent licks have been an integral part of my playing for a number of years now. I picked up a lot of pent licks from George Lynch, who is my main influence. His playing is very blues based and blues uses pents like a baby drinks milk, hense the pentatonic scale is sometimes referred to as the "blues" scale.

The term "pentatonic" means 5 notes. Basically the 7 note major scale is stripped down to 5 notes. The 4th and 7th notes of the major scale are removed to leave 5 notes. There are 5 different pentatonic shapes across the fretboard but rather then illustrating all the shapes, I have transcribed the 2 shape which I most often use. That's no to say that the others are less important, they are and it is valuable to learn all of the 5 positions. I use all 5 positions within my playing. The 2 below are the ones which feature more then then rest in my playing...

The first shape if is the one which pretty much all guitar players know and use. I tend to use this shape in conjunction with the shape below it, which is the shape before the one at the top. I tie these together quite naturally by sliding down to the second position. It is also a very easy position to learn (frets 3, 5, 3, 5, 2, 5, 2, 5, 3, 5, 3, 5). I navigate the fretboard by recognising shapes on the fretboard and so these two work really well in combination for me.

When I was learning pents, I found it very useful to learn the scale in scetions. This is something that I do even now when I am learning a run of notes which spans across the fretboard. You can practice the notes on the Low E and A strings, and then those on the D and G strings, and then the B and high E strings. Then you can practive the transitions, so practice the notes on the A and D strings, then the G and B strings. After you've mastered that then you can slowly play the notes on 3 strings, then 4 strings, etc, until you can play all of the notes on all 6 strings. Remember to go in the opposite direction as well, i.e. back up the neck so that you can play ascending and desending. You'll be using different muscles in your hands to acsend and desend so you need to practice both...

A lot of rock, blues and jazz licks are based around pentatonic scales so learning these is pretty much an essential part of learning any ofthose guitar styles. You'll hear pents being used by most lead players. Evern Yngwie uses them...OK, sometimes! I'll be transcribing some of my favorite pent icks and posting them on this page soon so check back soon...

Like any other scales which you practice, remember to take it slow until you're more proficient, and then up the speed. No point playing sloppy...It's useful to use a metronome as well...

Enjoy! If you have any Qs feel free to mail me...info@jayparmar.com...