Shifting Pentatonic Scale Boxes Up/Down a Fourth/Fifth on Fretboard

[Scott Jackson]

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!

[DianeB]

@Scott Jackson  Hi, Scott, and welcome to the forum. Your question is somewhat above my pay grade, but not that of instructor Desi Serna. His recent podcast on pentatonics may be helpful to you.

[ShadowBoxer86]

Well...play it and see how it sounds.  It sure sounds ok when I solo that way.  In the key of C you have C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and Bdim.  So for the chords Am, Dm and Em I just play a few notes from the Am pentatonic, then slide down to the Dm pentatonic for a few and then the Em pentatonic for a few notes.  I don't know if that's "right" but it has helped me with trying to think of something to do in a basic solo.  Hmm Sounds like that would be a good Fretboard Workout Series for Steve.

[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!

[Triple-o]

Thanks for posting, very informative. 

The major scales, like  C for example has three major pentatonic beginnings C F and G and three minor pentatonic beginnings A D and E.  ( l lV V )

When someone is playing  a 12 bar blues over a l lV V chord progression  using the relative minor scale  in the key of C and using the 5 pentatonic patterns, they would  use this knowledge quite a bit.

When playing the Am pentatonic and using the subdominat F (lV) it really doesn’t need to be resolved. It would also make a good passing tone. It could also be a leading tone going from Am  to Dm  e F g.....D
 

Something along the same line, when you are playing a minor pentatonic and you go down 3 frets you are in the 5th position of the parallel major pentatonic scale. Which also can be used  to change things up while playing the minor pentatonic scale.

Reminds  me of the saying “there are no wrong notes just wrong choices.

https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0112209

https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0074448

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn7as_o3pIA

Edited December 22, 2020 by Triple-o