Scott Jackson

Hi DianeB; I listened to Desi Serna’s podcast and found it very informative. Thanks! Hi ShawdowBoxer86; Moving these pentatonic boxes up a fourth/fifth sounds good to me too. I got the idea from Sean Daniel’s YouTube video for learning Little Wing, which is in the Key of Em with box 1 in the first position. He said it was ok to also use box 1 at the 5th position which would be Am pentatonic, while still remaining in the Key of Em. I thought that was a mistake on his part, but it sounded fine to me. Then I looked at the Am pentatonic individual notes and realized that they were still contained in the Key of Em! That’s what made me check to see that moving the pentatonic scales up/down a fourth/fifth still keeps the notes in the original key signature. Anyway, then I figured this may be something that everyone else already knows but me. I’m just curious if this is common knowledge for guitarists and if so, how it is used in guitar music. Thanks!

I’ve recently been made aware that if the 5 pentatonic scale box forms in any given key are moved up or down the fretboard by either a fourth or a fifth, then the resulting pentatonic scales in the relocated positions will have contain notes that are still in the original key signature. For example, in the Key of C/Am, the Am pentatonic scale contains the notes A,C,D,E,G. 1. If the Pentatonic Box 1 is moved up the fretboard by a fourth, then the scale becomes Dm pentatonic with the notes D,F,G,A,C. All of these notes are still in the original Key of C/Am. 2. If the Pentatonic Box 1 is moved up the fretboard by a fifth, then the scale becomes Em pentatonic with the notes E,G,A,B,D. All of these notes are still in the original Key of C/Am. Is this information useful for guitarists to know? I’m an intermediate player with lots to learn!