Full transcript of “Pentatonic Scales Explained so they ACTUALLY Make Sense!”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 All of the patterns are all playing the same notes — the same A, C, D, E, G notes. Let's start with the truth that a lot of players seem to miss: the pentatonic scale is just five notes. That's it. Not twenty, not fifty patterns — just five notes. But here's the problem: a lot of them get lost in the shapes, patterns, and fingerings, and they never really get to see the scale for what it is. By the end of this lesson, you're going to be able to use the scale to solo anywhere on your fretboard. Let's take the A minor pentatonic as an example. The five notes are A, C, D, E, and G. Generally, when guitar players first learn the scale, they learn this whole pattern right here that covers all six strings. But it's those five notes just the same. Anytime you're playing the
0:48 A minor pentatonic scale, you're only playing within those five notes — that's it, full stop. Now, here's where things get interesting. Guitarists have actually mapped out the pentatonic scale in multiple positions and multiple octaves across the fretboard. One of the systems that really helps spell this out is what's known as the CAGED system. CAGED represents five chord shapes or forms — C chord, A chord, G chord, E chord, D chord — and each of those shapes (C, A, G, E, D) are actually movable. The shapes are movable, right? So we can actually adapt them to different positions in the order of the word CAGED. That's where it gets its name. It essentially lays out all five of those notes in those new positions. Let me show
1:33 you. We're going to stick to the key of A minor, or C as its relative major, and start with the C pattern. It goes like this — it's called the C pattern because it fulfills a C chord shape. Next up, we have the A pattern, which fulfills an A chord shape. Then next up, we just covered this one — this is the G pattern because it fulfills a G chord shape. Then we have the E pattern because it follows an E chord shape, and it goes like this. And then we keep it going. We've got the D pattern right over here,
2:19 which fulfills the D chord shape right here. And that's it — that's CAGED. C-A-G-E-D. All of the patterns are playing the same notes — the same A, C, D, E, G notes. Once we get here to the 12th fret, we can just keep it moving and start over in the new octave with the C pattern, then the A pattern, G pattern, and so on. At that point, I just run out of frets. That's more than enough ground — that's pretty much your entire fretboard, but it's still the same five notes. Whether you're playing in the key of A minor or C major (they’re relatives of each other), the notes are the same,
3:09 they’re in key. What shifts is the tonal center and kind of the sound — is it going to sound minor (a little sad and serious) or major (a little more bright and happy)? That depends on the context of what you're doing. But just playing through that covers both of those keys — the key of C or the key of A minor. So, if you've ever seen all those CAGED patterns or pentatonic positions and thought they were different scales — uh-uh, they're not. It's the same scale played multiple times in multiple places. You can think of it like typing the same word in different fonts — the word's the same, so the meaning is the same, but the fonts make it look a little different every time. By the way, if you're getting value out of this lesson, do me a favor — hit that like button and consider subscribing to our channel if you haven't already.
3:56 Okay, now you understand that the pentatonic scale is just five notes, and that the CAGED system is just different ways of seeing those five notes. But the real magic is learning how to connect the dots when you're soloing. That's not just mechanically walking up and down the scale — that’s exercising, not being musical. We want to be musical with these scales. After all, they are tools for making music. So I'm going to put on a simple loop. It's a C chord that walks down to an A minor chord and back. Real simple, just to show you how everything we’re going to be playing — all five of those notes occurring in multiple places — is going to be in key. They’ll work over the C chord and the A minor chord because they are relatives of each other. You're going to hear that tonal center shift. Here we go — turning that loop on, starting with a C chord, then you'll hear it walk
4:46 down to an A minor chord. Okay. Then once the loop starts over, I'm going to begin playing. I'll start in the C pattern and just walk my way up. Sound shifted there — went to minor, now back to major. When you hear me play over the C chord, it’s going to sound brighter, happier, and major. Then when it changes to the A minor chord, you’ll hear that more serious, somber tone. Let’s keep it moving.
5:38 It’s really cool how this same scale shifts in how it sounds and the vibe it gives you just from the chords that you're playing it over. I'm just walking back. Alright, so to walk through what just happened there — I started off in each
6:26 pattern and just kept it casual. I wasn’t trying to be flashy or fancy. I was trying to be musical. What I was doing wasn’t walking up and down the scale in a mechanical way — I’d just pick a note, start there (maybe a root note), anticipating the change in tonal center going from that happy major sound to that more emotional minor sound. Even though you could play the same notes, you'll notice the shift. Certain notes will pop out more than others depending on the chord you’re playing. This is where experimentation is the best way to go. So that’s what I was doing — walking up a little on one pattern, moving my way up to another, just casually strolling through. Let’s talk about how to actually do that. If you learn a pattern — let’s say you’re in the C pattern — and you
7:12 want to move from the C pattern to the A pattern next door, you start here, play a little riff, then ask, “Okay, how do I move on to the A pattern?” Check this out — where I landed right here is right within the A pattern. That note is right within it. So now that I’m here, I can just slide into another note that’s in that pattern, then do some more walking up the pattern. Let’s say this is my stopping point, and I want to move from here to the G pattern. Notice how right now I’m within the G pattern because these are all connected — like puzzle pieces.
8:02 Between the A pattern and the G pattern, they’re connected by one fret — all six strings on one fret. John Mayer calls it the “pentatonic equator.” It’s really useful to remember, especially if you want to go between the A and the G pattern. From there, move into the next pattern and slide to the next note. I recommend looking where you want to land before you move into it — you don’t want to just go for it because you may not stick the landing. Take a beat to look where you want to land in that next pattern, then do it. The same thing applies if you want to skip patterns. Let’s say I want to go from here all the way to the D pattern, skipping the E pattern. I do the same thing — play that note,
8:52 visualize where I want to land, then slide up. You don’t have to slide, but you’ve got to make that move. Let’s say I want to move from here back down to the C pattern — a huge jump. Same rule applies. I want to move from here to, say, the second fret on the G string. Look over there, then boom — that’s a nice sound too. It could actually prove useful when I’m soloing. When you’re moving between CAGED patterns, it doesn’t have to be: play the whole thing all the way up and then move on to the next one. That’s only for when you’re exercising them and trying to memorize them under your fingers. If you’ve taken my lessons before, you may have seen that I advocate for — when you learn a new pattern, especially a big six-string pattern like each of these CAGED patterns — to really get to know them musically, break them up into chunks.
9:42 Two-string blocks at a time within each pattern — get comfortable and familiar, creating musical ideas to break the habit of mechanically walking up and down the scale. This is how you move from being a box player to an actual soloist. Now, if you’re starting to see how freeing this stuff can be, wait till you take that next step. Once you understand the pentatonic scale is just five notes, you can take those same five notes and adapt them to any key, literally anywhere on the neck. That’s exactly what we break down in this lesson right here — how to instantly solo in any key. It’s a game-changer if you’ve ever felt stuck, confused, or lost playing the same old licks. It builds directly on everything you’ve learned here in this video.
10:28 Here’s what to do — click here to claim your free copy, or if you’re watching this on TV, scan that QR code or check the link in the description box for this video. Go through it, and you’ll see how that system gives you complete freedom to solo anywhere on the fretboard in any key without second-guessing. Once you get that down, the fretboard stops feeling like a puzzle and starts feeling like home.
