The A Minor Pentatonic

Benedict, you’ll need to be a bit more specific for us to assist. What did you try, what did you expect, what did you get?

1 Like

Sorry, I tried typing as I was watching the lesson and left out a part of what I was trying to say. I’m playing on an acoustic guitar and was trying the string bending, but it didn’t seem to work out. Maybe it’s just not meant for an acoustic? BTW, my name is “Benedict” :joy:

1 Like

Hey brozzerb,

String bending is a lot harder on acoustic guitar, for sure. Probably best to learn on an electric. If all you have is the acoustic, you can try to substitute slides in place of the bends. Doesn’t sound the same, but it does add some character.

1 Like

Do you mean slides like Bonnie Raitt does? And does Justin teach that? :thinking:

1 Like

@brozzerb
Firstly, my apologies for getting your name all wrong. Sometimes I can find no explanation for the weird things that go on between my mind and fingers, leading to some daft typing.

As John said, learning to bend on an acoustic guitar is going to be quite challenging due to the tension and weight of the strings. But not impossible.

The slide he was referring to was not playing slide guitar as I think Bonnie Raitt does, but sliding a single note down or up the fret board to another note. Pick a note on one fret and just slide it up two frets and you’ll hear how the note rises in pitch. He suggested it as essentially bending is just raising a note in pitch, typically a semi-tone or a tone ie up to the note either a fret or two frets up.

And if you’re interested in bending then take a look at Justin’s lesson Bending Technique In Blues | JustinGuitar.com

1 Like

Thanks, David, and no worries about the name! Benedict’s not that common a name. I’ll try the sliding thingy when I get on my guitar next time.

2 Likes

But is the name of one of my favourite actors :flushed:

1 Like

Yes, that is exactly what I meant. Thanks DavidP

2 Likes

@brozzerb

Benedict, string bending on an acoustic when you have no experience bending puts you on a hiding to nothing.
It will hurt and not sound good.
Your best bet is to use alternative techniques.
Slides will work though be aware that this will take you out of the scale pattern (because the bending being taught here means bending to a higher note beyond the scale pattern too.
See the pic for where you can do that.

Hope that helps.
Cheers :smiley:
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher

2 Likes

Thanks, Richard. Will give it a try. However, I am down with covid since yesterday. One would think that being on quarantine for 10 days would give me incentive to practice, but for the moment I’m just not feeling up to it. Maybe later… :sneezing_face: :mask: :face_with_thermometer:

1 Like

Hi Justin
I just want to check this.
For the A minor pentatonic scale
Is it played as follows
5-8
5-7
5-7
5-7
5-8
5-8

1 Like

Welcome to the Community, Martin.

That is correct

1 Like

Hello @Mjor85 and welcome to the community.
If you look at the Learn More information under the video player you will see a diagram with the pattern.
I have taken it and rotated it also showing two versions here:

Note the layout.
You have written it as:

Convention has it written the other way around, with the thicker strings at the bottom:

E string: 5-8
B string: 5-8
G string: 5-7
D string: 5-7
A string: 5-7
E string: 5-8

I hope that helps.
Cheers :smiley:
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Moderator, Guide & Approved Teacher

1 Like

@Richard_close2u
Mmm interesting. If convention has it written starting with the high e string why do we play it starting with the low E string?

1 Like

Gordon, you play from bottom to top which is equivalent to low notes to high.
And back again of course.
:slight_smile:

1 Like

Hi
Thank you for the welcome.
Justin includes a backing tack to play the A minor pentatonic first position scale with is this played at 60bpm
He also talks about playing the top note in this scale once meaning when we reach the end of the scale to go back up we 5-8 from the B string which is not how I was taught how to play this.
I am new to string bending is the information you included to accompany Justin’s string bending course?
Many thanks.

1 Like

Martin

You play the 8th fret on the e string as the highest note on the scale once on the way up and then play the 5th fret on the e string next on the way down. You do not jump to the B string as you have said.

String bending techniques are taught in Grade 5 Blues Lead 1 which is part of the Intermediate course.

https://www.justinguitar.com/classes/intermediate-guitar-course-grade-five

https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/bending-technique-in-blues-bl-403

:sunglasses:

2 Likes

Thanks

1 Like

11 posts were split to a new topic: I already know the blues scale, do I need to learn the minor pentatonic scale?

Are you sure that with string bendind my strings aint gonna break?
Because I already replaced the E string ( the thin one) twice and I am afraid that if I try string bending I will get to do another trip at my guitar shop =))

1 Like