Added: 4 years ago
From: johnhguitar
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  • I played guitar for YEARS and always just played minor pentatonic scales. I stumbled onto this video and was blown away that I never knew this! Awesome video man, you are a great teacher!

  • It is easy, but all you guys should always make sure to understand the theory behind it...it literally opens a new world of musical understanding.

  • 0:13 i thought he was gonna say ``play that same SHIT`` haha

  • Really cool lesson! thanks!!

  • Does this work in all 5 positions?

  • Only talking about one scale that's in five positions. Of course it will work in all five.

  • @flanndogg90 Find the key by ear of any song in major, then count up six notes of that scale and that's the relative Minor. C,D,E,F,G, NEXT= relative minor Am 12 notes only in western music. Start with key (tonic)note say E would be 1,F would be 2 FSharp 3. G 4 and so on. Then you use numbers 1,3,5,6,8,10,12 for your scale. Which now become 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 6minor pentatonic can always be played over 1. Easy!!

  • Learn one of these positions then play it over an A minor chord. Then try it over a C major chord. Hear anything interesting about that comparison? Get back to me with a result. Have someone strum the chords while you do it or prerecord with Garage Band or any playback recorder. Thanks

  • That guitar sounds like fucking shit mon!

  • That´s the best explanation of the diference between major and minor pentatonics scales!

    Excellent!

  • as the lightbulb gets brighter for me it always goes back to the most important thing.. the tonal center it the key to everything..it's a mode, it's a scale...it's aliiiiiiive!!!

  • Mr. Heussenstamm, not only do you, your videos, your responses to comments, and your guitar playing kick ass, but by being willing to share your knowledge of the guitar on youtube you have inspired the creative minds of over a million people! Congrats man!

  • You Australian? A million thanks for the comments. Hal Leonard has published my first book, 'Guitar Workout', and there's a video coming out called 'Licks Goldmine'. I'm trying do get to the third huge project called 'Lessons Goldmine' but it may take longer than anyone anticipated.

    Again many thanks!

  • Paid for GuitarJamz video lessons, but Marty fails to make the point about the Major / Minor patterns being the same.Glad I found your video to explain this.

  • Thank you for your straight forward videos with simple explanations!

  • Personal opinion and not bad intentions:I think that you should explain how you turn the A minor into an A major...I mean if u just play the scale beginning from the second fret it will sound like F# pentatonic minor.However if u play the this shape in the key of F# minor holding A as your tone center it will sound like A major pentatonic....

  • Comment removed

  • Is that fret buzz I hear on the beautiful Stratocaster?

  • OK wise guy. Ever worked in a music store before? There are people that come in and make every guitar in the store buzz and then complain about the quality of the guitar even if it's a $10,000 Martin! I guess I'm one of those people on this video? Nothing against the guitar right?

  • @johnhguitar why so serious?

  • @KalakalProduction You got pwned, can tell by the way you tried to act cool with a non-related catch phrase which makes absolutely no meaning in this context.

  • Thanx, man!

    Very didactic!

  • I like the way you teach John, very straightforward. Lets face it, basic musical scales is very easy to understand, people need to just realise all it is, is patterns starting and ending on a different note. Different key? Same pattern, but starting on that note! Once i made this connection, about 2 weeks after i started fooling around with scales, was like my skills went up 500%. Chords, chord progressions, modes - EVERYTHING - just by realising how straightforward basic music is! LEARN THEORY!

  • what do you mean by similarity??

    both scales are the sames, but shapes are different in the root only.

  • Why is there both major and minor if they're the same scales just moved on the fret board?

  • @robban97swe they arent the same scales, one is major and one is minor, they actually contain some of the same notes but a couple are changed out to give it a major or minor feel. Both examples shown in the video are in the key of A. If you want to talk about relatives, A and F# are relatives so F#minor has the same notes as Amajor, except you would resolve your licks on A if you wanted the Amajor feel. lot of theory behind this stuff that i still dont know, but same concept works with modes.

  • @robban97swe, thats one thing you have with diatonic scales too. taking for example the emajor scale (E, Fsharp, Gsharp, A, B, Csharp, Dsharp). if you take the Fsharp as a new rootnote (rootnotes are notes that the others depend on) and play the exact same notes, you have a Fsharp dorian scale. the same goes for all other modes (phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, locrian, in that order). so, emajor (or ionian) for example has the same notes as Csharp minor (or aelian).

  • @Ghruul Thanks, it was really help full, when I decided to learn music theory I thought it was pretty easy, it's harder then advanced math I think^^ Might couse I don't understand all english, but you were really helpfull. I appricate your time;)

  • @robban97swe, no problem^^ i kinda noticed that as i was using the same notes all the time in different scales and after asking my guitar teacher i knew why^^ alltogether, if you understand it once, theres not too much behind the music theory ;)

  • is it the same scale for every key or just A

  • Thank God!  Every key!

  • @johnhguitar You know, that's quite rude. What if the person asking knew absolutely nothing about guitar/music theory? I'm just saying.

  • She says you are a stowaway.... and you're never gonna settle down

    Sinking as a Stone -The Wipers

    I got that song in my head yeah.

  • wow thanks..

  • wait so can you do that all over the fretboard? or is it only in the key of A?

  • @thejbskater lets put it this way... if you start on he third fret then you're in G. lol

  • all i have to say is that you rock. thanks for all the lessons - you've really helped me improve my guitar.

  • on a Gdominant7 a play these two pentatonics as you said...if you mingle those two ones with a Eminor pentatonic the effect that you get is interesting....it's interesting the way how you can really use any notes on any chord as long as you're aware (more or less) of what you're doing and how to go back to a more common sound.

  • this is no secret

    it works with harmonic minor and locrian6 pretty in the same way

  • I noticed this also!

  • wow nice lesson really useful hehe thanks

  • he should probably be using a pick or picking with all fingers

  • Great Lesson! 5 Stars!!

  • Cool! Great Lessons!

  • gr8 lesson 5*

  • Comment removed

  • Actually C Major and A Minor are Parallel so the A Minor pentatonic should be played starting on the 8th fret where the C Major is.

  • Awsome lesson! Short, quick and to the point. You're a great teacher, man. Thanks!

  • Agh THANK YOU!

  • This was the most efficient and quick way to learn the minor & connected Major scales.

    All lessons should be this direct and helpful!

    Thank you,

    Dm

  • The only things that differ between these two scales is the three fret difference and u CAN NOT use the same licks as you would use over a minor pentatonic scale. Major and Minor are different for a reason. It wouldn't sound good to most if u used the same licks as u would for the minor pentatonic over the major pentatonic, and vice a versa.

  • But  the idea can be close right? You have to get the feel of how to resolve those ideas in the minor or major key. Maybe this is another study that needs to be documented in a book? You take a major riff and change it just a little bit to make it sound good as a minor riff. Thanks for the comment.

  • Ya just helping some people out :) good point man.

  • @firegeek22 theres a lot of theory he just covered in this lesson that he couldn't go over simply cause it requires other music theory knowledge like circle of 5ths, relative minors, major modes..etc lol all he was getting at was showing you the similarities between the major and minor shapes of a certain scale

  • lol when he says "shape" its sounds like "shit"

  • and when he says "pentatonic" it sounds like "adfbhjnvkmsd"

  • LOL

  • @covergeist lol for some reason i couldnt stop laughing after i read your comment

  • see this is what I don't understand, you're not playing the relative major pentatonic of A minor pent which would be C major pent. Instead you're playing the A major pent... it's not a mode of the A minor it doesnt have the same notes... so how come is it considered the relative major of A minor pentatonic??!

  • If you guys want to stay in the same position, try this scale shape:

    5-7

    4-7

    4-7

    4-6

    5-7

    5-7

  • OH MY GOD. GREAT TEACHING!

    i really appreciate. Keep making more videos!

  • Hey man can you send in a message to me those 2 scales. major and minor. and how I start them. Acen/Decen please.. thanks bro.

  • The other pentatonic scale lessons go over them, and they are on the website under Guitar Lessons -> Course 1.

    -jc

  • If they're technically the same scales (same shapes), then what makes them sound distinct? It's like playing a song w/ a capo with all the notes raised by the same # of frets: It will sound the same as if there was no capo, just higher notes. Sorry, my music theory knowledge is limited.

  • They have the same shapes but they're not the same scales. When played against a chord, like an A7, the A minor and A major scales have different notes.

    It's probably best you start at the beginning of the pentatonic scale lessons.

    -jc

  • its the note that you start the scale on- its called modes- if you start the a minor on c you have c major- a is the relative minor of c- the scale that he playede as the a major pentatonic is actually the f minor as he stated as he began the scale on f but the idea is correct- there are 5 diff modes for pentatonic scale similar to 7 dif modes for major scale-

  • @ziderazzi

    they sound different because theyre different notes. its not like its exactly 1 octave apart

  • Christ, it isn't that hard to figure out. Start with a minor pentatonic, which is a 1-m3-4-5-m7-(1). Play the same notes in order, but start and end at the minor 3rd instead instead of the 1. From now on, call this note "1". That makes the remaining notes a 2, a 3, a 5, a 6, and back to 1, or 1-2-3-5-6. All of those notes are part of the MAJOR scale. If that's not enough, the scale contains a root, a major 3rd, and a perfect 5th, or by definition, MAJOR. Which is why it's a MAJOR pent.

  • I agree. it isn't that hard to figure out. Some people aren't meant to play music.

  • Good work. Just tell that to the Allman Brothers..........

  • hahaha!

  • Thanks very much, very helpful :-)

    5*

  • Question John.

    Is the reason why you're getting such a clean sound because you're muting the strings that you're not playing with your palm and index finger?

  • Yes. I'm being very careful to keep the one string I want to be the only sound you hear. You have to mute strings with your thumb and other spare fingers. Watch closely and look at the technique.

  • I'm trying to get this technique down (muting strings) and like alot of other things at the beggining it's hard as hell.

    Thank you.

  • I was asked to join a band called 'The Innocent Bystanders' when I was living in Australia. I took the place of a now famous guitarist, Johnny Diesel. His guitar parts were really hard to learn. He was half my age but had these string muting techniques down. It was years later that I finally developed it through lots of performances and recordings. Don't quit.

  • I won't quit now. I'm too far into it. Besides I've invested a little bit of money into this newfound hobby. Thanks

  • I don't see you muting the bottom strings with your right hand. Yet I don't hear them ringing.

  • How do you slide with your hand ?

    Example : You start at the beginning of the neck and ends at the end of the neck? Is this with different scales ?

  • I always tell people to move or slide your hand to the next position instead of trying to make an unnecessary  stretch. It's good to be flexible but you can move your hand quickly to get into different positions.. Try it. Practice it and don't give up if that's what you want to be able to do....Good Luck....

  • Thank you very much John. I'm new to scales and your lessons on the subject are helping me a ton. Thanks again.

  • where do you bend with the major scale?

    and what notes of the minor are best used with the major. good lesson, but I need to understand the bends and the best notes to run together in a chord progression.

  • You can bend any note in any scale to another note that's in the key you're in whether it's a 1/2 step, whole step, minor third, or however far you can bend it.....Up, down, up down up, down up down, there's lots of ways to bend notes.....

  • Helpful vid (y)

    ty

  • lol i stumbled upon this little tool on my own a while ago and thought I had invented it..i didn't know it was widely used ...oops

  • the shape of the scale does not change when changing key so if you play the scale in one spot and move it its still the same scale in a differnt key

  • Same for major and minor scales..

  • yo dude im just a kid havnt even played for a year im doing some jazz thing live and i hav to improve on a mixalodian scale in g c and d i have to switch in chord changes could u help ?

  • If you're playing in G7 use the C major diatonic scale. It's the same notes as G mixolydian. G A B C D E F G the F note being the b7 of G. That flat 7th (F) gives it that mixolydian sound instead of a regular G major scale with an F#. You need to know how many of the chords of your tune are in the key of G (7). It makes it easier to play changes if the chords are already part of the same key. This is hard to talk about without having our guitars to demonstrate. Go get a private lesson ASAP

  • yeah it anoys me cuz of the flattend 7th degree and over top im horible with major scales so i meen im great with penetonic the sharp notes just get to me idk y so im gunna get my guitar teacher to help me tommorow thanks man who new i would know this much at 13 lol

  • Whatever.....Can anyone help this guy????

  • A minor pentatonic scale, share the same notes as a C Major pentatonic scale, but the one shown in that video, is a A major pentatonic scale, that share the same notes as a Gb minor pentatonic!

    great video!

  • F# is better

    F# = Gb

    cause u dont repeat the note name. like,

    A B C# D E F# G# A

  • No Man the guy is right!!!

  • this opens my eyes, holy balls thanks dude

  • The reason for this is Relative Majors and Minors.

    E major's relative minor is C# minor. G major's relative minor is E minor, etc etc.

    C goes to A

    A goes to F#

    B goes to G#

    etc.

    Every major scale has a relative minor, and both scales have the same notes.

    That's the theory behind it.

    =D

  • How many years it took to learn how to grab guitar? Great discovery, really continue posting these videos and people will be asking: "Where is the correct position to get best result for playing." "Why does my playing suck?"

  • gracias por la ayuda ! saludos

  • I´m from Argentina,

    C major scale is same as A minor scale?

    please respond in my chanel

  • A minor and C major are relative keys. The same notes with a different root note either A or C. The A minor scale made of those same C Major notes is called A Aeolian Minor or the natural A minor scale....John

  • totally correct!!!  great job...

  • hola loco, como va? es correcto lo q decis!

    saludos! byeee

  • That IS interesting!

    After years of playing guitar, I'm just FINALLY starting to learn scales. :P These lessons are really helpful, thanks!

  • OMG thank you!!!

  • Yep ;) The neck is the same, that's kind of it. And yes, all 5 positions/patterns will work IF you're playing in the right key.

  • basically find the same starting note on the A string and 2 frets up and one string down so for example C minor pentatonic and A minor pentatonic for C major pent

  • Yeah, The shapes are the same but the root note is different. ie If you're playing in the key of A all the shapes of the F sharp minor pentatonic will give you the A major pentatonic but the root note will be A rather than F sharp.

  • Yeah, except that's moving the A minor down

    a step and a half. Other than that, it's good.

  • A whole step = 2 frets.

  • huh

    so ur saying that the minor and major pent scales are the same shape

    except the major is played 3 steps lower

    wtf

    wont that jsut make it an f sharp minor pent?

  • The F sharp minor pentatonic played over the Key of A will give you the A major pentatonic.

  • you do the same thing with the whole a minor scale. move it down 3 frets to get the a major. i think there are 5 shapes/patterns to remember... i hope i havnt commented the most obvious thing ever lol

  • helpful, although I am curious as to why the guitar sounds like a Koto.

  • nice video, full of details. it helped me a lot.

  • i've found the strat to be fine. if anything you have to fight it a little bit, i think thats good to build strength in the left hand. my pacifica makes it easier i admit.

  • my first was a dean vendetta. Really good guitar, but with lots of fret buzz.

  • thank u

  • Your Squier just needed to be properly set up.

  • tru same with my starter the action on starters is higher

  • I got an Epiphone SG as my first guitar. Its a good guitar for someone just starting to play.

  • That SG is delicious.

  • Great info packed into 1:30

    Thanks for posting...

  • look at that SG in the background...i want it

  • cool dude. watch my pentatonic improvisation if you can !

  • what vision instantly comes into peoples heads of a guitar? when they think about one? a fender strat! what guitar is used in icons,magazines,silouetts? a fender strat.

  • well most people first guitar is a strat

  • thx...

  • The Strat is not the most iconic guitar......It's probably a tie between Strat and Les Paul Standard. And dotaas, tabs suck. You suck at guitar if you learn from tabs. Half of them are wrong anyway, but you're just hitting notes. You probably don't know how to pull-off. Just get some lessons. And yeah, timing and scales are the most important part about playing guitar.

  • so B major scale is same as G sharp minor scale???

  • correct.

    -jc

  • thank you you are very helpfull

  • hey man an easy way i do it is this... say the song is in the key of C something like GCD chords are played.

    find the C note on the Low E (8th fret) go three steps down (5th) that means C's relative minor is A... it works with all of them B which is the 7th fret 3 down is G#m pent.

    i hope that helps

  • you muppet! what the fuck are you talking about! the sg is a great guitar but the fender is certainly a better guitar. the fender is the most iconic guitar in rock history its the mainstay os many rock guitarists! the fenders sound is so unique. so it goes to show that you no nothing about guitars and guitar history so go back to school you muppet.

  • so fast!i cant catch up!

  • why play an ugly fender when there is an awesome gibson beside you

  • do not disrespect the strat =P

    i like SGs too, but les pauls and strats are just sexy

  • wow dude...Judging the guitar by it's looks...Pick up a strat and play it...For certain things, that thing'll beat the sounds of a Gibson SG anyday. I mean I have an SG and I love it and all, it's an amazing bit of music, but the strat can just play better sometimes. maybe if a strat also had Humbucker pickups like the SG, it would be easily comparable.

  • what's the use of pentatonic scale?training our fingers?

  • you play guitar dotaass?

  • yes..but i learn from tabs!that's why i dunnoe anything about scale

  • alright, see the pentatonic scale is like the major scale. It gives you a basic understanding of where notes are on the guitar. If you learn an entire set of pentatonic or major scales, you can basically find new keys of that set. The scale can just be moved up a step or half step to get a new key. Scales are also good for finger training, yes, but they are really helpful for soloing too.

  • does anybody knows the 2 notes scale?????????

  • the guy has stubby fingers

  • Do you happen to know the Scales A, G, D, and C? By any chance do you know the notes for these scales? If you do that would be great. Thanks for your time. By the way you're amazing at guitar.

  • come on man if your playing minor move 3 semi tones down to its relative major them the same but the other way round if your starting on a major there a done your lesson. every one knows this

  • I didn't until a watched this. Not everyone is as good as you.

  • duh man just tell them the theory and the'll get it

  • which is basically the same ... ! :)

  • mitch, different strokes for different folks...be cool........hog~~

  • thanks this is a big help

  • this is awesome! :P

  • Cool! Thanks.

  • he looks like Will Ferrel

  • Buddy...Each fret is a half step...So going down 3 frets is 1 and a half steps...because the interval pattern for the major scale is whole-whole-half-whole-whole-w­hole-half.

  • Mitch0135. everybody knows that he is just making it simple by explaining it more in detail. so shut the fuck up. what are you trying to prove.

  • and play that same shhhhh...ape

  • thanks again , you explain very well

  • Darn.Now I know the easy way!!

  • now!!!

    this is a true lesson

    people just put their

    lesson vids up and dont actually give a lesson

    more plz

  • I've been looking for something that explains the blues scales at this level. Thanks for taking the time.

  • I think i've been do things wrong, i've been going 3 frets down in the wrong direction.

    I would play the box shape A minor pentatonic at the 5th fret and move the same shape down to the C note at the 8th fret. As A minor is relative to C major.  Oops.

  • thanks for the lesson.

  • thanks john!

  • this is great!

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