Pentatonic Guitar Scales

Pentatonic guitar scales are the backbone of blues music, which is in turn the backbone of rock and roll, hip hop, and many other musical forms. Technically, a pentatonic scale is simply a scale that has five different notes between the root note and the root note one octave up. (The root note is included in the five.) Pentatonic scales are found all over the world in all types of music.

While a literal reference to a pentatonic scale can refer to any scale with five notes, there are some generally accepted rules and traditions governing which scales are considered to be pentatonic scales. There are several ways to generate and play the major pentatonic scales, but for learning to play the guitar, you only need to know what they are and how to play them. DPR Technology's Guitar Scales program will teach them to you.

Guitar Scales will also teach you how to play the various minor pentatonic scales (as well as the standard major scales, the minor scales, and others). Again, you do not need to necessarily understand how minor scales are derived from the major scales, only what they are and how to play them. As you get familiar with them and their sounds, you will probably figure it out for yourself.

Another thing you will probably figure out while playing the various pentatonic scales is that many of the most famous guitar riffs in history are based directly on them. A well-kept secret is that guitar playing is not as hard as everyone assumes it is. Learning to play just has a steep enough learning curve that many players simply stop trying. We want you to keep playing, so we try to make it easy for you.