Minor Pentatonic Scale - Additional Notes
The minor pentatonic scale contains the notes I, bIII, IV, V, bVII of the major scale. For example:
As additional notes, the II and bVI can be added, giving an A minor "pure" scale* with the notes:
Pattern One - Additional Notes (A Natural minor Scale)
This minor scale contains the same notes as the C major scale, except that it starts and finishes on A (A is the root note).
To create a very distinctive "minor sound", the 7th note (in this case G# ) can also be added. This will give the following notes in pattern one.
Pattern One - Key of A
*See Appendix 1 for a more detailed explanation of minor scales.
Here is the entire fretboard with the A minor pentatonic scales and additional notes. Remember to transpose them to other keys.
Here is a 2 bar riff in the key of A minor, using the additional note G#. In the first bar, two notes are played together by barring the second and third strings with the first finger.
The following lick makes use of all of the extra notes which can be added to the minor scale pattern, with the 7th note (G# ) replacing the b7 (G). When this combination of notes is used, the harmonic minor scale is created. For more information on different types of minor scales, see Progressive Scales and Modes for Guitar.
