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I got this idea from a Jimi Hendrix song, Little Wing.
Even today I often hear students (and fellow teachers) talk
about how brilliant Jimi Hendrix was. He often exhibited
a different way of looking at things which is (at least in my
opinion) one of the most important ingredients for true
brilliance. In this case, I am referring to his ability
to see the obvious shapes that link chords and scales
together.
What I've done is link five sets of pentatonic
scales: minor, major and minor flat five (or half diminished) to the corresponding chord. I have included
enough pentatonic scales to cover one major key
entirely. You will play each chord and then it's
corresponding pentatonic scale in one key. I am calling
it a modal study even though the sound is more
rock or blues oriented, not the jazz sound that most people
associate with the word "modal".
Regarding the form for each scale: I do not use the
relative major or minor pentatonic scales in the same study
but use (instead) the scale that would start at the same point
on the guitar. Each pentatonic scale in this study has
two notes per string so the scales will correspond to the
lower or the higher note on the string that has the root note
on it. For example: if the first pentatonic scale starts
with the lower note (of the two) on a certain string then all
three scales (major, minor, diminished) will start at that
point or, if the scale root is at
the higher of the two notes on that string then all three
of the scales studied will start at
that point and so on.
There are five sets of pentatonic scales and so will be five studies. The first will probably be the only
one most of you will ever use but I like to be complete with
my studies so I am going to write all of them out for you. What you will
see on the first study will probably be the most obvious
connection between chords and scales but being thorough never hurt
anyone in particular, it never hurt a musician.
Have fun.- Michael Chodosh
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