[Kevin G String]

I've been watching the likes of Guthrie Trapp and Tom Bukovac on the Tube. They have both shared little gems, Guthrie more so. Although Guthrie is a little careful as to how much he shares as he wants people to subscribe to private lesson and or artist works.

It seems to me that the A minor/ C major pentatonic doesn't work to its full potential over all of the chords in the C major scale. So I looked a little further. I've noticed a few things. From A minor pentatonic, you can only construct two chords; A min and C maj. So to get E min and G maj you need to use E min pentatonic and to get D min and F maj, you need D min pentatonic. Each pair being the relative maj/min of each other and all of the pentatonic scales fit within the key of C major.

I haven't really bothered too much with the pentatonic minor much, I generally only improvise and have used the major scale.

One thing I have really paid attention to is using chord tones. I naively believe that as long as you used the notes of the key you're in you're OK. So I haven't really been using my ears up to now. I haven't really bothered with covers, although I did learn Cavatina to a reasonable standard. Took me years though. I used to play some of the queen solos too.

So, Guthrie really emphasises the importance of chord tones to 'outline' the chords. Makes sense. Having watched some jazzers on the Tube, they 'outline' almost all the time, if I understand correctly.

For a few weeks now, I have been using chord tones/arpeggios/triads along with passing notes from the major scale and pentatonic scales. And I can't believe just how much more melodic my playing sounds. I had wondered for years how Mark Knopfler was able to sound so melodic (although, I heard someone saying what he did but was too lazy to delve into learning the arpeggio and triad positions because I'm lazy). For the first time, I'm hearing the notes and their nature/quality, what a revelation.

Looking back I should never have pursued music, I don't really have a natural aptitude for it. It's only recently that I've been able to feel time and better understand pocket. Getting closer and closer to playing music. I bought my first serious guitar in 1990. I feel I need to get a grip of this.

I'll hopefully get to the point, if there really is one.

Another thing that made me think about the pentatonic was that I've heard a few pros saying that they really don't like to hear players noodling with a minor pentatonic over a I IV V progression. Guthrie says, when he hears this, he instantly knows he listening to someone who hasn't worked their stuff out.

How are you chaps/chapesses using the pentatonic scale?

Thanks in advance for you responses.