The Three Most Important Scale Patterns
The three most important scale patterns are the minor pentatonic scale, the major pentatonic scale, and the Mixolydian mode of the major scale. They can be used to improvise over the three most basic and commonly used chords: minor chords, major chords, and dominant seventh chords. For example, you could use an A minor pentatonic scale to improvise over an A minor chord. You can use a C major pentatonic scale to improvise over a C major chord. You can use a G Mixolydian mode to improvise over a G7 chord. Whether these three patterns are the most important is arguable. They are the most basic and the do get used the most. These three patterns have produced most of the guitar sounds in rock, pop, blues, and country.
Historically, modes predate scales. In fact, the modes originated in sacred music and are called church modes. The church modes are:
- Ionian;
- Dorian;
- Phrygian;
- Lydian;
- Mixolydian;
- Aeolian and
- Locrian
The Ionian mode was used the majority of the time and, eventually, became known as the major scale.
Today most people learn about scales before modes. We generally think of the Ionian mode as the major scale starting with the first note, or first degree, of the major scale. For example, in the key of A, which is made up of notes from the A major scale, the Ionian mode is A · B · C# · D · E · F# · G#. The Dorian mode starts on the second degree and is B · C# · D · E · F# · G# · A. The Phrygian mode starts on the third scale degree and is C# · D · E · F# · G# · A · B. The Lydian mode starts on the fourth scale degree and is D · E · F# · G# · A · B · C#. The Mixolydian mode starts on the fifth scale degree and is E · F# · G# · A · B · C# · D. This last mode is called E Mixolydian mode and is made up of notes from the A major scale. We will go into more detail about the Mixolydian mode as this lesson proceeds. The next mode is Aeolian and is F# · G# · A · B · C# · D · E. The Aeolian mode corresponds to the relative minor scale. The last mode that we will define is the Locrian mode which is G# · A · B · C# · D · E · F#.
The pentatonic scale has five notes. The piano have has black keys and those black keys make up the F# major pentatonic scale. These same keys also make up the Eb minor pentatonic scale. The greatest thing about the guitar is that if you learn an Eb minor scale pattern, you can move that exact pattern any where on the fret board and transpose it do a differnt key without learning a new pattern. That is not the case for the piano. Once you move off the black keys, those pentatonics get a lot tougher to find on the piano. That's not true for the guitar. Once you lock in a pattern on the guitar, you can use it in any key.
