What is this called? [Scale related]

[tony44]

I play a 2 chord progression consisting of B Major and A Major and use the Gshape for the B and the Eshape for the A. These chords are right on top of each other on the fretboard. Now, I use the relative minor pentatonic patterns for each of the chords as the chords occur. They, too, are right next to one another on the neck. Now here's my dumb question. When I combine these 2 scale patterns into 1 scale, what is this "new" scale called? Thanks in advance.

[beboy]

E Major Scale (I think).

Are you asking what scale is created by mixing the 2 min Pent scales into 1?
If so, I will say its the E Major Scale.

Here's my thoughts.

The relative minor of AMaj is F#min. (F#-A-=B-C#-E)
The relative minor of BMaj is G#min. (G#-B-C#-D#-F#)

But theoretically they contain the same notes as AMaj Pent and BMaj Pent, respectively.

If we combine the notes we get F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E.

Then I wanted to see what Key you were in. Since you are playing Amaj & Bmaj, which are a whole step apart, it means you are probably in the Key of E (Do you want me to explain how I know this?)

So let's put the tones in order starting on E.
E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#

Voila, those notes spell the E Major Scale. They follow the pattern of
Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step.
In other words the half steps are between the 3&4 tones and the 7&1 tones.

My explanation was brief and I don't mind expanding on it, so please let me know if you have questions.

[tony44]

Thanks BeBoy. Explained the way you did, it does make sense. I guess I was too lazy to figure that out myself. As I'm new to theory, I was wondering if when combining scales in that manner and coming up with a different scale than origonally used, if there was a name for this technique. There's a name for every darn thing else. I thought there might be one here too. Thanks for your time.

[Josh Gibson]

Another route for determining the parent scale is to look at the 2 chords in question - major chords 1 step apart. That only occurs on degrees 4 and 5 of the Major Scale. A and B are the 4 and 5 of E major.

Same answer, different method....same works for minors. If you see 2 minor chords 1 step apart, they are the 2 and 3 of the parent scale.

Sometimes there is more than one answer though - what if you had A major and B minor?

They could act as 1 and 2 in the key of A, or 5 and 6 in the key of D.

Sorry for the thread drift- just wanted to interject that point of view.

[tony44]

Whoa! You are, indeed, the official guitar geek! lol

[Jestme]

Not to add any confusion to the mix but yet another clue is...

Based on the notes of the combined F#m and G#m scales having 4#s... the key of E has 4#s...C,G,D,A... so the scale matches the key of E configuration as well.

Just another way to validate the conclusion.

[Josh Gibson]

Not to add any confusion to the mix but yet another clue is...

Based on the notes of the combined F#m and G#m scales having 4#s... the key of E has 4#s...C,G,D,A... so the scale matches the key of E configuration as well.

Absolutely. Any method that gets the answer is a good method IMO. Viewing info from various angles is very important!

J