Week 5: getting past one plain pentatonic shape
Week five of a 32-week guitar practice path: aiming at the 3rd of each chord, or filling the pentatonic in with the 2nd and the ♭6.
- Week
- 5 of 32
- Days
- 7
- Played as
- blues or rock
Five notes in one box is forgiving, and after four weeks it starts to be limiting. Both tracks address that here, by different routes.
Blues goes outward to the chords: land on the major 3rd of whichever chord is sounding, which is the note that makes a change audible to a listener. Rock goes inward to the scale: put back the 2nd and the ♭6 that minor pentatonic leaves out, giving the full natural minor and a darker palette. One is about the harmony underneath, the other about the colour on top.
Blues treatment
Target tones: aim each phrase at the chord's 3rd (C♯ over A7, F♯ over D7, G♯ over E7)
This is the week the blues stops being one scale over three chords and starts being three chords you are actually playing over. The device is simple and the payoff is large: land on the major 3rd of whichever chord is sounding.
That note is what separates each chord from the others and from the key's minor pentatonic, so hitting it exactly as the chord lands is the loudest way to tell a listener you heard the change. C♯ over the A7, F♯ over the D7, G♯ over the E7. None of those three live in minor pentatonic, which is the point — this is where the major and minor blend comes from, and why blues players slide between the ♭3 and the 3 constantly.
The daily session · ~25 min
- Warm upHands + sing the 3rd4 min
- The major/minor blendAdd the major 3rd4 min
- Aim at the 3rdsOne per chord6 min
- Land the 3rd over the formPlay the changes6 min
- Jam, 12-bar blues in APut it together5 min
Check yourself
- Name the 3rd of each of the three chords without working it out on the neck.
- Play the whole form hitting only the 3rd of each chord as it lands. Nothing else. It should sound sparse.
- Now play normally and land on the 3rd at the change to the IV. Can you hear the difference against last week?
Reference
Rock treatment
Add natural minor (Aeolian): the 2 and the ♭6 fill in the pentatonic
Minor pentatonic leaves out two notes of the natural minor scale — the 2nd and the ♭6 — precisely because they are the two most likely to clash. Putting them back is the whole of this week, and the trade is a wider palette in exchange for having to aim.
The ♭6 is the one that carries the character. It is the note that makes a minor line sound genuinely dark rather than merely minor, and it is why so much rock and metal lead sits in Aeolian rather than Dorian. Treat both new notes as colour and passing tones; the five you already trust remain the ones that resolve.
The daily session · ~25 min
- Warm upHands + colour the box4 min
- A natural minor, Box 1Add the 2 and ♭64 min
- Use the colour notesMatch note to chord6 min
- Colour over the vampReach for the ♭66 min
- Jam, minor rock vampPut it together5 min
Check yourself
- Play A natural minor through box 1 and name which two notes are the additions.
- Land on the ♭6 deliberately over the vamp. Does it sound dark or wrong?
- Play a phrase with the colour notes and the same phrase without. Can you hear what they add?
Reference
How the week runs
Whichever accent you pick, the material stays the same for all 7 days and the tempo and intent move. Day one takes it slowly, day two chases clean notes, day three brings it to target tempo and into the jam, day four pushes past comfortable, and day five drops back to tempo to record and listen. Days six and seven are yours.
You can switch accent any day without losing your place — it is the same week either way, so week 5 means the same thing in both.