Quote:
Originally Posted by wasted_dreams
Hello,
I had a look around the forum but couldn't find anything about this.
I'm beginning to look at Pentatonic Scales but I am really confused by the chord diagrams and don't understand what I am supposed to do with my fingers.
Below are examples that are similar to the ones used in the magazine I am learning from:
Does anyone know where I could maybe get a beginners lesson which explained all of this. As the magazine, and lessons I can find on the internet don't seem to explain what the diagram is trying to show me.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I can see that the numbers are the fingers to use, and the red dots are the root (but i'm not 100% sure what this means). |
Practicing these pentatonic scales will sound cool, by themselves. And they can be used in a lot of different playing situations.
But I think it would be good for you to get that these formations come from chords. I don't know where you are in your learning, but there's some information in that diagram that might help. I've modified it and it's posted below:
Notice that I've painted some of the dots in the top picture red. Now check out that the only difference between the position of the red dot from the top formation to the bottom one is the position of the red dot on the third string from the right (this represents the high e string).
Notes come from chords. These red dots indicate the E barre chord formation. If the red dots at the top of each formation was the third fret, then these would be G chords. The top one would be a Gm and the bottom one would be a G major. The 'R' dots in this case indicate the root note of the formation. So these would be G notes if the top of the formation was located at the third fret.
I know this doesn't help you learn how to play the pentatonic. I figure you'll find something on YouTube that will help. But my whole point is that you might want to realize that all notes come from chords, so look at what notes you're playing and realize that it comes from a chord formation. And I also want to say that learning chords first, or at least at the same time, will take you far.
There's plenty of information about that here at GfB&B whenever you want to dive in.
All the best today,
Steve