Pentatonics, any good sources?

[filipmo]

I recently went back to playing my guitar, I'm loving it. I've started looking up pentatonics as I'd love to improvise to some background music, but I can't find any good places with all the information neatly served, is it just me?? what's your experience been like in looking for this?? What did you use and what do you recommend? Keep on rockin

 

[veinbuster]

It never crossed my mind to search for source material.
If you know the major scale, just play it without the 4th and 7th note. That will give you the basic shape of the pentatonic scale. Shift which note you start/end on to get get a different tonal feel (mode).

EDIT: If you don’t know the major scale, here is the basic pentatonic progression.
Pick a start
Up 2 frets
Up 2 frets
Up 3 frets
Up 2 frets
Up 3 frets is an octave, so that’s it. Repeat from there until you run out of guitar.

 

[RickP]

David Wallimann at GuitarPlayback.com has a lot of good info, including good backing tracks for practicing the material. I think Tim Pierce also recently put out one on pentatonic use.

There’s a ton of info on the net or YouTube, although there’s a lot of slop out there too. As teachers, Dave and Tim are two favorites of mine, and I don’t think you can go wrong with them. Search either name on YouTube and you’ll have all the info you need, along with some free practicing points.

 

[bodia]

To tag on with Rick, here's a David Wallimann course at Truefire. There are many more Pentatonic courses available at Truefire.

https://truefire.com/guitar-lessons/dna-pentatonics/c1230

 

[Wakester]

I use Hal Leonards Guitar Chords and Scales. Its a $6.99 bargain in Amazon or local music store. Even less if you can find it at a used book store.