ADVANCED

AND FINALLY...

PENTATONIC PAIRS IN USE

n this month’s lesson, I want to take a different look at the pentatonic scale and break it down in a way that might help you better understand some of the common phrases and exercises associated with this scale. Using this breakdown, we’ll go through some beautiful melodic phrases and patterns that will definitely help to expand your vocabulary. So grab your bass, and let’s begin!

We’ll focus on the G minor pentatonic scale and the B flat major pentatonic scale for this lesson. Why? Well, because they’re the same scale. Bb is the relative major of G minor. Here’s a very simple way to think about this. Whenever you play a minor pentatonic scale, the relative major scale is found on the second of that minor pentatonic.

The second note of the G minor pentatonic scale is Bb. Playing the major pentatonic scale from that second note will give you the relative major.

Rich Brown guides us to Advanced level every month. Read on as he takes us to the very top of bass theory!

Jennie Vee of Palaye Royale on the octave

EXERCISE ONE

EXERCISE TWO

EXERCISE THREE

I’ve talked a bit about this in a previous lesson, so I won’t go into too much detail here: Let’s get into the breakdown. Have a look at Exercise 1.

EXERCISE 1

These examples show a different breakdown of the major and minor pentatonic scales. Think about this as a way of dividing each scale in half: In the case of G minor pentatonic, you can think of the 4th fret as a dividing line. This line gives us four notes below the dividing line (G, C, F, and B flat on the 3rd fret) and four above the dividing line (B flat on the 6th fret, and D, G, and C on the 5th fret).

For the next step, we can look at each of these four-note groupings and break them down into three separate note pairs, as illustrated in the next exercise.

EXERCISE 2

Each grouping contains a top pair, then a middle pair and a bottom pair. To avoid any confusion, the bottom pair of each grouping will contain the lowest notes. Now that the pairs have been established, we can put them to work.

EXERCISES 3 & 4

We can now easily surmize that each pentatonic scale contains six different note pairs in total, and if we look at Exercises 3 and 4, we can play these pairs in order, starting from each degree of the scale. This pattern might already sound

EXERCISE FOUR

EXERCISE FIVE

EXERCISE SIX

familiar to you, but I think there’s something about breaking this exercise down into pairs that makes the pattern more memorable.

EXERCISE 5

The other advantage of thinking in terms of these ‘pentatonic pairs’ is that we can change the direction of these pairs to create different melodic patterns. For example, in Exercises 3 and 4, we played each pair ascending to create the resulting melodic pattern. In Exercise 5, each pair is played descending, but for this exercise and the exercises that follow, I will combine the two scales to create a larger exercise or melodic phrase. The objective is to become accustomed to playing these two shapes together as one ‘macro-scale’.

Getting this larger shape into the muscle memory will allow you to see more of the fretboard as you improvise. Again, I’ve talked about this in previous lessons. Ultimately, understanding all the options available to you is essential to your creativity.

As each pair is played from high to low, you can hear a change in the characteristic tonality of the scale. To my ears, this is a beautiful melodic pattern and one I can easily integrate into my solos, bass-lines and fills. We’ll discuss how to apply ideas effectively in a future lesson. For now, let’s get back to our pentatonic pairs.

You can see how thinking of the minor and major pentatonic scales in this way allows you to see them differently. For example, you might use the pairs to come up with different sequences to explore the

Listen to Flea’s bass parts: You’ll hear plenty of pentatonics in there.

EXERCISE SEVEN

EXERCISE EIGHT

harmony and also the melodicism of the scales in ways you might not have thought of otherwise.

EXERCISES 6 & 7

Another great example of this idea is illustrated in Exercises 6 and 7. In these two exercises, we’re alternating the pairs. In Exercise 6, we’re using a sequence that has us playing the first pair ascending and the second pair descending. In Exercise 7, we reverse that sequence, playing the first pair descending and the second pair ascending.

For our final exercise, I’ll take what we’ve learned and give you a cool little bass-line to keep the music flowing. Don’t let the 16th notes intimidate you: Take this line at your own pace and tempo. A slower tempo might sound even better with this line. EXERCISES 8 Exercise 8 is based on alternating pentatonic pairs. The first four bars have an ascending-descending pattern on the G minor pentatonic scale over a Gmin harmony, while the last four bars have a descending-ascending pattern on the Bb major pentatonic scale. However, the pattern is still played over a G minor harmony.

Do take note of how the Bb pentatonic pattern sounds over the Gmin harmony. In doing so, you’ll become more accustomed to using this area of the fretboard when playing over Gmin, thus expanding your range and giving you more options when playing.

Once these exercises become familiar to you and you can feel them being integrated into your muscle memory, I suggest you try playing these exercises in all keys. Practicing this way will give you a better sense of how these two

scales—the minor It won’t be long before your fingers instinctively pentatonic and its relative major—will reach for those ideas you’ve been working so sound and feel when hard to understand and integrate played together. These fretboard connections can make all the difference when improvising. Sometimes, seeing what is available to you as an alternative doesn’t connect musically. In other words, if I tell you Bb is the relative major of G minor, it might make sense to you theoretically—but making music out of those connections in real time might prove challenging. These exercises allow you to make those connections. Not only are you able to see and hear how the connections are made, but it won’t be long before your fingers instinctively reach for those ideas you’ve been working so hard to understand and integrate. That’s when you’re really making music in your own way. That’s when you begin to find your voice on the instrument. Enjoy, my friends. Make music. Have fun.