Quote:
Originally Posted by jase  Right, so as an example basically i can safley play a Gm pent Scale over a G chord progression?. |
OK, let's back up. Since the title of this thread is
Roots. Budda expanded on what
root notes are. The root note is like the anchor. Like in the thread I think you started in noodling around the fretboard to find the "right" sound. There's the key signature, which should give you the "anchor" or sound that everything ends on, or resolves to. Something in the key of G Major normally will end on the G, the root, or tonic note of the G Major scale.
Chords have a root also. Starting on the bottom note of the chord (the root), you stack chords up in 3rds (see thread I linked on how to build chords). OK, that's 2 variations of roots.
Because a scale starts on the same name root, doesn't mean that scale is necessarily a good fit over a specific key. Staying in the key of G: a very common chord progression would be G, C, D- all major chords, and all containing notes from the G Major scale. (This is also known as a I, IV, V, I progression; play it. Sound familiar? It's been used in about a billion popular tunes). G, C, and D is a common G Major progression.
Would a G
Minor pentatonic scale fit well over a G Major progression? The short answer is no. Why? A G minor pentatonic scale is made up of these notes: G,
A#, C, D, E. What's wrong with this picture? Now this has to do with knowing scales. Despite the G Major and G Minor scales having the same
root, they are constructed differently. I don't want to turn this into a quadratic equation, so the simple answer is, no, a G minor pent scale will not sound very well over a G Major progression, anymore than a C Minor pent over a C Major progression.
The A# in the G Minor pent is what throws it out of whack. There's only one sharp in G major, and that's F#. The G
Major pentatonic, may be a better fit because the G Major pent consists of these notes: G,A,B,D,E. So you're thinking, what pentatonic shape does this form? If you know all the shapes of the pentatonic box, you may arrive at a familiar shape. You didn't ask, so I wont tell you. But I'll give you a hint. Play shape one starting on the 12th fret. The first note is E. Now, you may be thinking you're in E minor because the "root" is now E, right? Yes, and no. The
root, getting back to the thread title
does not always have to be on the 6th string. What's important here is, you're playing the G Maj pent starting on a different note, and the shape should be familiar to you.
I know you may be confused by now. If you have a headache, google "how to construct a pentatonic scale." Being that you know the pentatonic scale, this is really important. When you begin to understand this, you'll understand why the E minor penatonic scale fits over a G Major progression. But that's for another time. Just some food for though.
(if I screwed this up, anyone, feel free to facepalm me)