Minor Pentatonic Substitutions – Inside Sounds
In this section we’ll cover the use of minor pentatonic scales starting from different chord degrees of a minor chord. Doing so will yield some interesting colors and tensions over the given minor chord. In particular we’ll be examining a minor7th chord and it’s relevent upper tensions in the context of the dorian mode.
Our example will use Amin7.
R b3 5 b7 9(2)
A C E G B
The most obvious choice of minor pentatonic scale would be the one built from the root of the Amin7 chord, A minor pentatonic.
A(Root) C(b3) D(11) E(5) G(b7)
From there we move to the 9th(2nd) degree of an Amin7 chord or up a whole step from the root, B minor pentatonic.
B(9) D(11) E(5) F#(6/13) A(Root)
And finally we move to the 5th degree of an Amin7 chord which would be E minor pentatonic.
E(5) G(b7) A(Root) B(9) D(11)
These concepts can be applied to any minor7 chord. To summarize, you can use a minor pentatonic scale starting from the root, 2nd, and 5th degree of a minor seventh chord.
For example if the chord was Gmin7 we can use:
root: G minor pentatonic
2nd: A minor pentatonic
5th: D minor pentatonic.
This technique is a quick and easy way to isolate and emphasize particular sets of tensions of a given chord. I’ve gotten to the point where I look at the pentatonic scales as chords in and of themselves.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you found this micro lesson useful. Stay tuned for more free guitar lessons in the future.