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So you’ve mastered chords and are ready to learn some lead guitar, your first stop is probably pentatonic guitar scales. They work for rock, blues and even jazz, plus there are only 5 different shapes to remember for any key you can think of.

In this article I’m going to explain the first shape of the pentatonic scale, and give you an example for A minor. After reading this you should go grab your own guitar and give this pentatonic guitar scale a try.

What is a Pentatonic Guitar Scale?

The Penta in the name pentatonic Stands for 5 notes. You play more then 5 different frets during the scale, but they are just repetitions of the basic 5 notes. Compared to other scales that contain 7 or more notes, the pentatonic scale is the easiest for beginners to master & memorize.

The A Minor Pentatonic Guitar Scale

To get started with the A minor Pentatonic scale I’ll first give you an illustration of how it looks on the guitar neck. Assume the diagram below is starting at the 4th fret of the guitar, so the 2nd fret in from the left is actually the 5th fret on your guitar neck.

The first diagram illustrates the notes played in the A minor pentatonic scale. Notice how there are 12 notes to be played, how ever there are only 5 different notes: A, C, D G and E.

e|——|–1—|——|——|—4–|——

B|——|–1—|——|——|—4–|——

G|——|–1—|——|—3–|——|——

D|——|–1—|——|—3–|——|——

A|——|–1—|——|—3–|——|——

E|——|–1—|——|——|—4–|——

Below is a diagram explaining what fingers you should use to play this shape of the A minor pentatonic scale. Keep in mind that we’re assuming the image is starting at the 4th fret, so for the first note you’d be placing for first finger on the 5th fret of the low E string.

e|——|–A—|——|——|—C–|——

B|——|–E—|——|——|—G–|——

G|——|–C—|——|—D–|——|——

D|——|–G—|——|—A–|——|——

A|——|–D—|——|—E–|——|——

E|——|–A—|——|——|—C–|——

Portability of the Pentatonic Guitar Scale

The great thing about pentatonic guitar scales is the shapes which form the scale (such as the diagram listed above) can be used all over the neck. This example is in the key of A minor, what if you wanted to play it in the Key of G?

No problem, slide the exact same shape back and have your first note start on the 3rd fret of the low E string, that note is a G..  By following the exact same pattern but moving everything back two frets you’ll be playing the G major pentatonic scale.

There are 5 different shapes you can play for each key of the pentatonic scales, this is the first. Of course, it’s a great one to start with because the root note of the scale is the first note played.

I suggest you go grab you’re guitar and give this scale a go on your own, playing it forwards and backwards. When learning scales with either online guitar lessons, a book or even private lessons learning the material is similar, but practice is what makes it perfect.

If this stuff is a little over your head, don’t worry, maybe consider getting a beginner guitar dvd. Using dvd video lessons is becoming a very popular method of teaching yourself to play the guitar on your own time & terms.

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As the first method that beginner guitar players use to learn songs guitar tabs are an important skill to understand. Most guitar dvd or similar guitar training product tabs are usually introduced early on since they’re such a vital role to your learning. If this is your first intro to guitar tab don’t worry I’ll go easy on you, and if you’re using a guitar lesson course at home rest assured you will have some lessons on reading tab.

In this article you’ll learn how to create tabs, how to read them and how to play guitar tabs. After you read this guitar tab lesson you should be able to read most basic tabs and underStand how to play them. Starting out take your time learning tabs, it’s a good idea to master a song or piece from a tab slow first then add speed, accuracy is what makes a great guitar player.

Let’s Begin

How Guitar Tabs are Made

A guitar tab is like looking at your guitar neck if the guitar was in the case. A guitar tab has 6 lines, one for each string on your guitar. The top line of guitar tab corresponds to the first string on your guitar or the high E. The bottom string on a guitar tab corresponds to the sixth string or your low E string.

Here’s a quick example

1st ——–
2nd ——–
3rd ——–
4th ——–
5th ——–
6th ——–

How to Read Guitar Tablature

The second part of reading guitar tabs is knowing which note or fret to play on each string. The nice thing about tab is you don’t need to know note names, it’s all about playing particular frets on particular strings.

Here’s another example

1st -2——
2nd ——–
3rd ——–
4th —–6–
5th ——–
6th ——-3

The number on each string line corresponds to the fret you are supposed to use when playing that string at that point in the song. In the above example you’re to play the second fret on the first string, then the sixth fret on the fourth string followed by the third fret on the sixth string.

A full song tabbed will look just like the above example with lines and numbers. Some songs will be all single notes on one or two strings while others will have full tabbed chords to play. Below is an example of a tabbed C chord.

1st ———
2nd –1—–
3rd —2—-
4th ——–
5th —3—-
6th —x—-

Above it the right fingering for a C major chord. Notice the x on the 6th string, this is something we haven’t looked at before the X means you do not play this string. So if you see an x on a particular string don’t strum or pluck that string.

With this information you should be able to go out and find some tabs of your favorite songs. There are some more advanced symbols you might run into in tabs, don’t worry you’ll learn them as your progress.

Quality guitar lessons on dvd will be of assistance to teach you more advanced tab reading skills. It’s important to not stop learning, tab is just one skill you should strive to master on the guitar. You will become a better guitar player and better musician if you push to learn how to also read music and understand theory as well as reading tabs.

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