Adding Major 3rd to Minor Pentatonic

[Sparky]

What is a good way of adding the major 3rd to the minor pentatonic scale?

I did see the video on bending the b3 to major 3. Very nice application, I like it. Otherwise should it be used like the b5? Or is it a note to hang on? I do see it working well over I7 chord.


Thank you

[MadTaco]

Howdy,

Generally speaking, you're right - it's best to use that 3rd in passing if you're soloing over a minor progression, but it will work fantastically well if a 7th chord comes up (1, 3, 5, b7) since it's going to open up that chord tone for you, and then the 3rd will sound awfully sweet :)

There's several notes that you can throw into minor pentatonic to make things a bit more interesting. A great example is throwing in notes that are in the natural minor scale (1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7)-

6th string root -

e|-|-R-|---|-O-|-O-|---|
B|-|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
G|-|-O-|---|-O-|---|---|
D|-|-O-|---|-R-|---|-O-|
A|-|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|---|
E|-|-R-|---|-O-|-O-|---|

5th string root -

e|-|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
B|-|---|-O-|---|-O-|---|
G|-|-O-|---|-R-|---|-O-|
D|-|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|---|
A|-|-R-|---|-O-|-O-|---|

The only difference between natural minor and the minor pentatonic is the addition of the 2nd and b6th. Try tossing those around in the minor pentatonic to make things a bit more interesting...especially adding the 9th on the high E (props to David for that tip in one of his videos) to make it sound a bit more exotic and catch the listener's interest.

Hope this helps.

Edit: I should also mention that the b5 that you mentioned in your post is definitely used in passing, like you said. You can also add the b5 into the natural minor scale, but be careful - you're then riding a fine line between the balance of consonance and dissonance in your scale - practice, practice, practice, and improvise over some nice backing tracks to get for what works when, where, and how. Good luck.

MadTaco

[Sparky]

Thank you MadTaco,

Some things are just starting to click, and some answers like that is what I need. Things are very exciting when one little thing clicks. Now I take that answer you give me and take a look at the 5 'boxes' for a minute. What a way to bend your way out of the box, and move on. Take a look at a couple spots. The b3 on the 1st string, in the 1st 'box' and the b3 in the 3rd 'box' second string. What a great note to bend! You cant hardly go wrong bending there. You can take a 1/2 step bend or you can take a full bend, not to stop there, you can take and bend a step and a half. So no matter what you bend there, if you mess up you will still sound like the note belongs.

If my thinking is right, then my vision of the what I see on the fretboard has grown!

thank you

[MadTaco]

Thank you MadTaco,

Some things are just starting to click, and some answers like that is what I need. Things are very exciting when one little thing clicks. Now I take that answer you give me and take a look at the 5 'boxes' for a minute. What a way to bend your way out of the box, and move on. Take a look at a couple spots. The b3 on the 1st string, in the 1st 'box' and the b3 in the 3rd 'box' second string. What a great note to bend! You cant hardly go wrong bending there. You can take a 1/2 step bend or you can take a full bend, not to stop there, you can take and bend a step and a half. So no matter what you bend there, if you mess up you will still sound like the note belongs.

If my thinking is right, then my vision of the what I see on the fretboard has grown!

thank you

Nice observation man, sounds like you're going to be a bending machine in no time :cool: Keep expanding and the whole fretboard will be yours in no time. The hard part is getting brave enough to break out of the box, but hey, you'll ALWAYS learn something new. Take Edison's outlook on it...you just might have found something that didn't work, or if you did - even better. Rock on cat :cool:

MadTaco