Ancient Greeks held pentathletes in high esteem as physical specimens, competitors and warriors. The five events in a pentathlon — long jumping, javelin throwing, discus throwing, short foot racing and wrestling — were all considered essential skills in war and battles. Athletes capable of competing in all five events were the rock stars of their day.
Today, guitarists train for a different type of pentathlon. A pentathlon that takes place every time they pick up their instrument. Five notes in one corner, the player’s musicality in the other. The challenge? Making great music, in any style, with just a five-note pentatonic scale.
How many different ways to apply or spice up the pentatonic scale do you know? If you only need one hand to count them up, then put your toga on and step into the ring immediately with Rob Garland’s The Guitarist's Pentathlon.
“I'm very excited to help you break out of your pentatonic rut by showing you 25 very creative and musical ways to apply the scale over different genres of music. I’ll show you how to breath new life into your playing. And since you already know the pentatonic scale, you’ll be able to put these new applications to work immediately.”
Rob reveals 15 Pentathlon applications for the five-note minor pentatonic scale in the first section of the course: Over Minor Chords, Over Dominant Chords, Half Step Below: Over Major, From The iii: Over Minor, From The vi: Over Minor, From The ii-iii-vi: Over Minor, From The ii-iii-vi: Over Major, From The ii-iii-vi: Over Dom, Over A Blues Overview, Outside Sound: Over Minor, Outside Sound: Over A Blues, Over a Jazz ii-V-I, A Fifth Above: Jazz ii-V-I, Viewing As Relative Major, and Add Chromatics to Relative Major.
In the second section of the course, Rob presents 10 ways to customize the pentatonic scale, one note at a time, and then by combining those additional tones to achieve dramatically distinct sonic qualities: Add The b5th, The Blues Box, Add The Major 3rd Over Dominant, Add The Major 3rd Over A Blues, Replace b7th With a 6th Over Dominant, Replace b7th With 6th Over A Blues, Combine The b7th And 6th, Combine The 6th And 9th, The Major 3rd, b5th, 6th & 9th, and Extreme Customization.
Each of the 25 applications is presented in three parts; an overview explains the nuances of the application, then a performance example illustrates the application in a musical context, and then Rob breaks down the performance in detail. All of the key examples are tabbed and notated, plus you’ll get all for the practice rhythm tracks to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar and tighten up that toga — the pentathlon begins now!
What you'll learn
Navigate the b5 across the entire fretboard
Create tension and resolution in blues licks
Use chromatic notes to customize pentatonic playing
Understand when to use major vs minor 3rd over chord changes
Understand the tritone interval and its tense quality
Hi I'm Rob Garland and welcome to The Guitarist's Pentathlon. I'm very excited to help you break out of a pentatonic rut by showing you new ways to utilize the scale, playing it over different genres of music and breathing new life into your playing. The best part of this is that you probably already know the pentatonic scale so you can immediately begin learning applications for the scale as demonstrated throughout the first section of the course. In the second section I'll show you how to customize the scale changing one note at a time which will cause fresh hip sounds to fly from your fingertips! Each of the 25 applications has an overview, performance and breakdown section with standard notation/TAB, PDF charts and jam tracks. Grab your guitar and I'll meet you at the starting line, the pentathlon begins now!
2The Minor Pentatonic Scale
To begin let's make sure you're familiar with the pentatonic scale. It is a 5 note scale derived from the natural minor scale, omitting the 2nd and 6th degrees and is often associated with blues and rock. By learning five shapes the scale can be played all over the neck in two-octave patterns offering a lot of creative sonic options to improvise with. And make sure you know the scale in all five shapes, not just in the root position and shape 2- Yes I'm talking to you! It's also important to play the scale in different keys. Play through the five shapes with me in the key of G, refer to the PDF if you need help with the fingering, but try to memorize the shapes. As a practice tip, choose a key then run through the corresponding five shapes for that key. Do this with different keys every time you pick up your guitar and you'll have the shapes down in no time, the pentatonic scale will be your new best friend.
3Over Minor Chords
The first application of the scale I'd like to show you is playing it against minor chords, in this example Gm pentatonic against a Gm7 chord. By using this scale you'll be bringing out the notes of the chord, which means whatever you play will sound good! In the performance video I demonstrate an idea I call "Pentatonic Fragments" where I play a lick in different octaves using fragments of three pentatonic shapes.
4Over Minor Chords
Here against a Gm7 chord I play the same lick out of the Gm pentatonic scale in shape 5, the root shape and shape 2. This is my "Pentatonic Fragments" concept where by repeating a lick or a similar idea to the one you just played, by leaving space and moving between the low and high octaves the solo takes on a more conversational sound which is an altogether more enjoyable experience for that guy in the audience!
5Over Minor Chords
The lick sounds melodic against the chord because the scale contains the same notes as the chord. A Gm7 chord contains the notes G-Bb-D-F, the Gm pentatonic scale contains the notes G-Bb-C-D-F so it's hard to hit a bad note! The lick I repeated in three different positions through three pentatonic shapes, but you should experiment playing variations of your own licks. Try to create the sound of two dueling guitars by jumping between the low and high registers in the different pentatonic shapes. You can even wear a hat but it's not necessary.
6Over Dominant Chords
In this application I'm playing the Cm pentatonic scale against a C7 chord which brings out a bluesy quality because the major 3rd of the chord rubs up against the minor 3rd of the scale, creating some nice tension. I also talk about building a theme with your solo, which helps bring an audience along with you for the ride, even if there isn't one.
7Over Dominant Chords
Here I play licks from the Cm pentatonic scale against a C7 chord vamp. Notice how I build a theme by leaving space and respond to what I previously played. In this example I'm playing the Cm pentatonic scale in the root position but make sure you experiment playing licks from all five pentatonic shapes against the C7 chord. Yeah I know I'm a nag.
I found this course to be an interesting and fresh addition to my knowledge and use of the minor pentatonic scale and its application to various music genres. The course includes modifications to the scale, for example, replacing b7 with the 6th, which results in a different sound over a dominant blues. There are books which have similar offerings like "Mastering Pentatonics" (Fundamental Changes) which has a chapter by Rob Garland, but I enjoyed seeing these ideas in a TrueFire course.
A
Addahia
Verified buyer
12/18/24
Cool training method
Its a very good course if you need guidance on the pentatonics and some references to practice and shape your improve. Straight to the point, with very good ideas and sugestions and with some awesome backing tracks
B
Bluesman55
Verified buyer
02/20/21
Great workout
This is a course you really need to progress as a player.
E
esnider
Verified buyer
01/24/21
Good
I
ibanezjs20
Verified buyer
12/06/20
In this course you can find a new way to play the pentatonic scale. If you are looking for a new sound this is the course,
