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How Far Can One Pentatonic Idea Take You?
One simple scale, endless guitar lick ideas
I’ve wanted to create more guitar teaching videos for a while, but I couldn’t decide what kind of content would be useful to players across a broad range of ability levels.
Then I thought: why not take everything right back to basics with the A minor pentatonic scale?
It’s one of the first scales most guitarists learn. If you’re relatively new to improvisation, it’s an excellent place to start—but those same five notes can also produce incredibly sophisticated music.
Are seven notes really better than five?
When I was younger, I knew my pentatonic scales. I then learnt the modes and began to think that I didn’t need five-note scales anymore.
After all, seven notes must be better than five—and the pentatonic notes are already contained within those seven-note scales.
It took me a while to realise that having more notes available doesn’t automatically create better music.
Often, it’s the space between the notes that gives a phrase its shape. The notes you leave out can be just as important as the ones you play.
Why pentatonic scales are so useful
A seventh-chord arpeggio contains four notes, while a complete major or minor scale contains seven. A pentatonic scale sits neatly between the two.
Its five notes give you more melodic freedom than a basic arpeggio while remaining focused enough to produce strong, clearly defined phrases.
Pentatonic scales also don’t have to be played as one pattern over an entire chord progression. You can choose different pentatonic scales for individual chords, allowing you to follow the changes and bring out particular notes and colours.
They may be among the first scales we learn, but they certainly aren’t only for beginners.
The pentatonic experiment
For this project, I’m beginning with one basic sequence through the A minor pentatonic scale and modifying it in as many ways as I can.
Some of the possibilities include:
- Changing the direction or rhythm
- Sustaining or removing particular notes
- Rearranging the note order
- Dividing the phrase into different-sized groups
- Adding slides, bends or legato
- Shifting the accents
- Playing the idea backwards
- Moving the phrase into different areas of the fretboard
Each variation begins with the same musical DNA, but a small change can produce a lick that feels and sounds completely different.
The purpose isn’t simply to build a collection of unrelated guitar licks. It’s to demonstrate how one small idea can be developed into something personal.
Learning other people’s licks is useful, but the real breakthrough comes when you understand how an idea works and begin changing it for yourself.
Follow the Pentatonic Licks series
I’m sharing each new variation as a short video with scrolling TAB, so you can see and hear exactly what is happening.
You can follow the complete series in my Pentatonic Guitar Licks playlist.
I’ll continue adding new licks as the experiment develops, allowing us to discover just how far one simple A minor pentatonic idea can take us.
Download the free TAB and practice material
If you would like to learn the licks yourself, join my free Pentatonic Lick Library.
The library includes:
Downloadable TAB
Guitar Pro files
Variable-speed practice audio
New licks as they are released
Let’s see how much music we can find inside five very familiar notes.
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