The minor pentatonic scale

The A minor pentatonic contains A, C, D, E and G. Its formula is 1 – b3 – 4 – 5 – b7: the root, the minor third, the fourth, the fifth and the minor seventh. It leaves out the two most "delicate" notes of the minor scale (the second and the sixth), which makes it hard to sound wrong.

Put your index finger on the 5th fret. On each string you play two notes: frets 5 and 8 on the low E string, 5 and 7 on the A, D and G strings, then 5 and 8 on the B and high E strings.

The index finger always plays the 5th fret, the ring finger the 7th and the little finger the 8th. The note on the 5th fret of the low E string is A, the root: you find it again on the 7th fret of the D string and on the 5th fret of the high E string.

The A minor pentatonic is played on white keys only: A, C, D, E, G. And the E flat minor pentatonic is played on black keys only (Eb, Gb, Ab, Bb, Db): a very easy way to improvise on the keyboard from day one.

Play the scale slowly up and down with a metronome until your fingers know it. Then play it over a backing in A minor or a blues in A (A7, D7, E7): start with short phrases of three or four notes, and end them on an A.

The vocabulary of rock and blues comes from here: string bends on the 7th fret of the G string and the 8th fret of the B string, slides between two notes, repeating one motif.

The five notes of the A minor pentatonic are exactly those of the C major pentatonic: the same position works for a song in C major, with C as the note of rest.

Add a single note, E flat (the diminished fifth), and you get the A blues scale: that passing note gives the typical blues color.

The position does not change: only the starting fret does. Put your index finger on the root on the low E string: 3rd fret for G, 7th fret for B, 8th fret for C, 12th fret (or open) for E.