PENTATONIC APPLICATIONS
Any five note scale can be called a pentatonic scale, but the one that gets the most use seems to be the minor seventh. It’s easy to find on the E9 since it’s root note is on the 10th string and engaging the B pedal and playing the notes from string 10 to string 5 gives us the scale from root to octave. So far, so good, but what if we apply it a little differently?
In the example we start with the Dm7 scale where you would expect it, at the third fret, but then we use the same scale up a minor third for the G7 which gives us several altered tension notes of the G7 chord family and prepares us for the calming resolution of the CMaj7 chord at the 8th fret. Then we switch over to the Gm7 pentatonic with the B pedal at the same fret and repeat the sequence.
This chord sequence is fairly common in jazz and this example gives one clear way to cover chord changes like this without having to move all over the neck.
Listen to the example and experiment with applying this concept to your own music.
