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‎docs/Blog/Music/Theory Box/02 - Identifying pentatonic notes.md‎

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# Identifying pentatonic notes
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I haven't looked further into it, but I heard that pentatonics are all about eliminating the half steps out of a scale.
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I was exploring the minor pentatonic and mixolydian scale. Myxolydian is marked by its major third, and minor seventh.
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So rather than playing
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| | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
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| -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
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| D | b7 | | r | |
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| A | 4 | | 5 | |
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| E | r | | | b3 |
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We instead play
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| | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
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| -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
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| D | b7 | | r | | |
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| A | 4 | | 5 | | |
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| E | r | | | | 3 |
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This isn't actually a pentatonic though. Notice here that I was trying to retain the same general shape as the minor pentatonic, but raise the third to make it mixolydian.
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This results in the intervals: 1, 3, 4, 5, b7
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The problem here is the half step between the major third and perfect fourth. In the myxolydian scale we have W-W-H-W-W-H-W as opposed to the minor scale which is W-H-W-W-H-W-W
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(Steps indicate how far to next note)
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
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| Minor Steps | W | | H | W | | W | | H | W | | W | |
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| Aeolian | 1 | | 2 | b3 | | 4 | | 5 | b6 | | b7 | |
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| Min Pent Ints | 1 | | | b3 | | 4 | | 5 | | | b7 | |
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See here that in the minor pentatonic, we eliminate half step jumps. Each jump is >= 2 semitones. Note, we could get rid of the 5th instead of the 6th, and we could also eliminate the 3rd instead of the 2nd. The key here is that we want to preserve tonal identity and we tend to revolve around core triads 1,3,5. So When selecting half steps to eliminate, we want to generally preserve 3rds and 5ths. In this minor pent, the 2nd loses out to the 3rd, and the 6th loses out to the 5th.
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Take the major pent
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
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| Major Steps | W | | W | | H | W | | W | | W | | H |
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| Ionian | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | 4 | | 5 | | 6 | | 7 |
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| Maj Pent Ints | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | | 5 | | 6 | | |
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In this case, 4th loses out to 3, 7 obviously loses out to the root.
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So it should be clear from this, that the pentatonic shape I tried out above isn't very pentatonic at all, specifically because it doesn't eliminate a half step. The half step being between the 3rd and 4th.
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The hard part here is that the shape above definitely feels like it has more identity. If were to actually make a myxolydian pentatonic we'd half to get rid of our halves like so:
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
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| Major Steps | W | | W | | H | W | | W | | H | W | |
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| Ionian | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | 4 | | 5 | | 6 | b7 | |
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| Maj Pent Ints | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | | 5 | | | b7 | |
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In this case, the signature tone of the mixolydian is that of a natural third, and a flat 7 which is why we remove the 6th over the 7th. This would give us a shape like so:
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| | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
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| -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
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| D | | b7 | | r |
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| A | 3 | | | 5 |
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| E | | r | | 2 |
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The problem here is that it doesn't necessarily have that same cool blues type sound that the original non-pentatonic pentatonic scale I originally tried sounds. The 1, 3, 4, 5, b7 definitely sounds cooler in my opinion. The 2nd kind of takes an edge away from it that the 4th provides.

‎docs/Blog/Music/Theory Box/03 - 1-4-5 Progressions with Minor Pentatonics.md‎

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# 1-4-5 Progression with Minor Pentatonics
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## You can leverage the same shapes all across this progression
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Now that I've talked about patterns and shapes related to so many pentatonics, let's ignore all that and get to why minor penatonics are so commonly used and why certain chord progressions are so commonly used.
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One of the most common chord progressions is the ole 1-4-5 or I, IV, V progression. What's so convenient about this progression? Well, in the minor key, The 1, 4, and 5 are all minor chords! 3, 6, and 7 are major. That's so nice for us because while the major and minor pentatonic scales have the same shapes, they have different ordering, so 1, 4, 5 allows us to shred the exact same shapes without even thinking. It's dead simple.
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Here are 3 charts showing a brain dead progression in the key of E minor. We don't even have to know what notes are in the key really, we just need to be aware of the shapes and intervals. This is nice because we can memorize all the note names and what comes in a given key, but for people like me, I don't have an intuitive numeric ordering of the note names, so I can't just tell you off the top of my head what the 4th would be in the key of E. It's just not there for me yet.
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What I do know though, is that the 4th and the 5 are located nicely above the root note. It's very easy to remember positions relative to your root, and if you know your intervals, that's all you really need to know. Keep in mind the trick to identify where your notes are. You don't have to remember entire pentatonic shapes relative to your root note. All you need to know is that for a minor pent, you have a 3 stack of whole steps above your root. And then a 2 stack of whole and a half steps on and below your root. This will always work and the pattern repeats infinitely on the neck.
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Chord I -> Shred this pentatonic position 1 or any of the position variants over it
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| | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
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| -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
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| e | r | | | b3 |
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| b | 5 | | | b7 |
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| g | b3 | | 4 | |
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| D | b7 | | r | |
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| A | 4 | | 5 | |
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| E | r | | | b3 |
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Chord IV -> Treat the fourth as the root now. You can shred position 3 or 4 from fret 12 or you can go somewhere else.
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| | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
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| -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
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| e | 5 | | | b7 |
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| b | | b3 | | 4 |
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| g | b7 | | r | |
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| D | 4 | | 5 | |
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| A | r | | | b3 |
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| E | 5 | | | b7 |
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Chord V -> Treat the fifth as the root now. You can use position 3 or 4 from the 14 fret or go somewhere else. You can use the same shape as the previous, just moved up to fret 14 because the root hangs out on the A and g strings.
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| | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
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| -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
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| e | 5 | | | b7 |
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| b | | b3 | | 4 |
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| g | b7 | | r | |
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| D | 4 | | 5 | |
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| A | r | | | b3 |
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| E | 5 | | | b7 |
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---
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## Summary
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The very common 1-4-5 chord progression is so useful because it allows use to keep the same finger shapes, tricks, and mental model across an entire chord progression while also allowing us to get out of a single scale sound. Many guitarists get boxed into playing a pentatonic scale over the root only while the chords advance. This allows you to at least follow the chords, so you can get some different sounds and have some interesting transitions while still retaining the same shapes, at least until you get comfortable with the positions of the major scale, and whatever other modes you might be interested in playing.

‎docs/Blog/Music/Theory Box/Progressions Over Pentatonics.md‎

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One way to get out of the rut of playing the same 5 notes over and over is to learn and map out where other pentatonics reside in relation to a chord progression
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Assume we're in Bm. Just image a really dumb chord progression like i-III-iv (check this is right). One thing you can do is play your position 1 of Bm pentatonic on fret 7 of your E string, then move to the 12th fret on your E to play E major pentatonic, and then finally move to the 14th fret to play Dm pentatonic.
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Assume we're in Bm. Just imagine a really dumb chord progression like i-III-iv (check this is right). One thing you can do is play your position 1 of Bm pentatonic on fret 7 of your E string, then move to the 12th fret on your E to play E major pentatonic, and then finally move to the 14th fret to play Dm pentatonic.
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Some cool patterns here is that the E major takes the form of position 5 relative to your position 1 of B minor. So you can generally play pentatonics in such a way that over a chord progression, the next position up from position one is your third? And then you can play position 1 to get your fourth 7 frets away.
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‎docs/Blog/Music/Theory Box/Where I need to improve.md‎

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##### Beginner
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- Chord Positions / Hand Positioning
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- Arpeggiation
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- Chord Progressions
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- Rhythm (Strumming, Muting, Percussion)
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- Picking synchronization with right hand
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- Left Hand Accuracy
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- Right Hand Speed
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- String Skipping Accuracy
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- Metronome
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- Licks
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- Bends
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- String Crossing
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- [] Chord Positions / Hand Positioning
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- [] Arpeggiation
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- [] Chord Progressions
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- [] Rhythm (Strumming, Muting, Percussion)
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- [] Picking synchronization with right hand
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- [] Left Hand Accuracy
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- [] Right Hand Speed
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- [] String Skipping Accuracy
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- [] Metronome
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- [] Licks
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- [] Bends
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- [] String Crossing
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##### Intermediate
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- I think this is mostly where I should be
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- [] I think this is mostly where I should be
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### Questions
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- When string skipping, should I up pick or down pick? Insane tone from down pickers, but generally faster licks with up picking?
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- How do I eliminate bounce when traveling across strings while also avoiding raking
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- Pick slanting
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- Left and Right hand muting best practices
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- Good lessons for practicing moving the hand instead of anchoring the wrist
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- Left and Right hand synchronization practices
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- How to get comfortable with starting a lick with an up pick
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- Let's say a lick has a legato feel but transitions strings mid run, how do I tackle that?
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- Middle finger can't help but curl, what do?
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-
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- [] When string skipping, should I up pick or down pick? Insane tone from down pickers, but generally faster licks with up picking?
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- [] How do I eliminate bounce when traveling across strings while also avoiding raking
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- [] Pick slanting
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- [] Left and Right hand muting best practices
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- [] Good lessons for practicing moving the hand instead of anchoring the wrist
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- [x] Left and Right hand synchronization practices Answer: Fallujah songs help a lot
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- [] How to get comfortable with starting a lick with an up pick
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- [x] Let's say a lick has a legato feel but transitions strings mid run, how do I tackle that? Answer: Alternate picking
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- [x] Middle finger can't help but curl, what do? Answer: Most guitarists play with 3 at a time. Use MR, MP, PR.

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