Namaste Guitar Heroes,

When my teacher showed me how to mix these together I had a whole new understanding of the blues and creativity. It was the first time I bent the rules and it sounded good! The blues will use the 12 bar blues as the chord progression. If you don’t know what the 12 bar blues is yet then join the 8 Fold Path Trial Course.

The pentatonic scale is comprised of five notes. In A minor/ C major you have A, C, D, E, G. When you start them out on a specific fret you will still follow that order of notes. So if I started on G, then the next note would be A, C, D, E, and then Back to G. That’s why we have this shape.

When you start it from the A you get this shape. This shape is our first pattern and establishes the minor key. You can move this to a different note like A# so then you would play A# C#, D#, F, G# using the same shape.

For every minor shape there is also the major shape. In A minor we have C major. C, D, E, G, A. Same notes just different starting point. If you take the shape below and move it to a different fret you will have a new major key.

So the trick for playing and mixing the minor and major modes in this video is to start with the major shapes and then start the minor shape from the same note. So start the major shape from the 6th fret and the minor shape from the sixth fret.

It’s one level to be able to mix them. I try to challenge myself by playing in the major key during the first four measures of the 12 bar Blues. The First four measures are called the “Head” and play the root note of the key. When the fourth or the fifth are being played in the 12 bar, I am going to play minor.

Once you learn the scales in A minor and E minor you will start to see how the conveyor belt system works. The shapes maintain their symmetry and relationship to each other, they just start from different frets.

If you want to know how to play those scales and dozens of others check out the No Bars Held Course.

If you’ve been struggling to play something original on the guitar and want to be a creator, let’s talk about songwriting guitar lessons during a consultation.

Guitar players, my best guitar prayers go out to you! Let’s make more music than excuses this week!

Namaste.

Mixing Major and Minor Scales During a Solo