[Harp-L] ? When to use Blues Scale or Major Pentatonic ?



Jim,

If one knows the blues scale, the minor pentatonic scale and the major pentatonic scale, it is possible to improvise and solo over a very wide variety of material. There was actually a time when i divided the musical world up into tunes on which i could play the minor pentatonic scale/blues scale and tunes on which i could play the major pentatonic scale. Now, this wasn't always musically correct in that i was not always playing the "right" notes, but, as a practical matter, it certainly kept me from playing very many "bad" notes, which, at that time, was my overriding goal. One can get a whole lot of mileage out of just these three scales.

The oversimplified test i would use to determine if i would use the major pentatonic scale is whether the melody (and chords) had a major seventh or a dominant (flat) seventh. If the tune had major 7, I'd play major pentatonic. You really don't need a well developed ear to hear the difference. It's pretty easy to tell the difference if you listen to popular music very much. A "country" sound is major 7. A more bluesy sound is flat 7.

Now, one has to be careful with R&B, because many R&B tunes use major pentatonic, even though they don't have a "country" feel. For example, "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "You Really Got a Hold On Me" are major pentatonic, and there are quite a few others, but on many other R&B tunes, like, for example, "Mustang Sally" one would use the minor pentatonic scale. Playing R&B is different from playing blues, so one cannot force feed blues scale licks over R&B material and always get away with it.

IMHO, pentatonic scales are very cool and extremely useful.

FWIW.

JP



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