Improvising with Pentatonic Scales

The tuning is standard. Perhaps it's tuned up/down in pitch slightly.

is this a different tuning??

Francesco, Bmin is a chord.

B Minor Scale (Aeolian) played in the context of A Major creates the B Dorian Mode.

Correct me if i'm wrong but isn't Bmin the equivalent of the A mixolydian , not dorian.

Hi there, thanks for the free lessons! Perhaps it would be better not to hide your hands with the superimposed tab. If it has to take up half the screen, it would be more useful to see what your hands are doing at the same time as the tab, rather than watching you talk... Otherwise, thanks and keep up the great work!

mate,that's cool. I'm a poor man so i cant afford to donate to your site or buy your stuff. On the up side, being poor sure helps with playin the blues i reckon. :-) I can only say from my heart, thankyou for sharing so much. Your an inspiration and a great teacher. I hope life is treating you well.

Hi Sandy, if it safe to say? Hmmm. Jazz players might use such an approach more than straight ahead blues players, I imagine. It has hard for me to say. It all really comes down to what sounds good. You can use all sorts of tricks, methods, secrets, etc - as long as it sounds good. Another way to look at it - there are many ways to (skin a cat) carry out a task. If the end result is good, then it doesn't matter how you got there.

Very instructive. I seem to hear this sort of thing going on in some of the jazz I've heard in the past. Would it be safe to say that this sort of scale-overlay is commonly used by more advanced Blues & Jazz musicians alike..?

Gromek, you are absolutely correct! The Dorian mode works great over this. Try bending that minor third up a half-step to the major third sometimes. It gives it a nice bluesy feel with that major third in there. I often play both the minor and the major third back and forth - try picking, hammer-ons and pull-offs, slide-ins, trills, etc for that minor/major third. It's all good!

Hi Robert,

as I see it, you just add the maj 9 and the maj 6 to the A minor pentatonic scale thus making it the A dorian scale, which is a complete diatonic scale with 7 different notes in it. Interestingly enough the notes added here are quite compatible with an A7 chord and although you do have to be careful with notes you hold out or end phrases on the one note you really should avoid to stress in an A7 context is the D (fourth to A) which in fact already is in the a pentatonic scale we've been starting from... as a matter of fact, I find you can also use E pentatonic over A7 once you are careful with that D note...

Best
gromek