Pentaonic substitution maj7 | Online guitar lessons | John Wilmshurst

Lesson - pentatonic substitution | Major 7th chords

In this lesson we’re going to realise the use of the pentatonic scale in a different way.

You will learn to:

1) Identify relevant chord tones using a pentatonic major scale

2) Substitute a standard major pentatonic scale for an alternative minor pentatonic which will highlight different chord tones(when played over a major seventh chord)

To begin, you must have a good knowledge of:

• The major scale
• The pentatonic major scale shape 5 and the pentatonic minor scale shape 1 (both the same shape)
• Arpeggios (7ths)
• How to construct extended diatonic chords (7ths)

To start with, please download this free backing track and this Blank TAB sheet.

Part 1 –

When we play over a standard major chord (triad), we have three notes to choose from as our ‘safe’ notes to land on -

The root note, the third and the fifth.

In the case of A Major, these notes will be:

A C# E

In this major pentatonic position (shape 5) the chord tones sit nicely:

Exercise 1 – Play this scale along with the backing track (Amaj7-C#min7) – you can hear it being done Lick1

We start on the note A and finish on the chord tone C# once we hit the C#min7 chord.

What happens if you land on any other notes? Try it and see!

To make things a little more interesting, we will start our lick with a note other than the root note.

In Lick 2, we will start on the 3rd of A (C#).

Exercise 2 Amaj pentatonic lick – Listen to this lick Lick2 and copy from the TAB below.

Note the chord tones over the C#min7 chord at the end of bar 3 going into bar 4 – it’s a C#min7 arpeggio.

The rests look daunting, but listen to how the notes feel when they’re stopped short, sometimes putting in rests can make a phrase more interesting.

1. Try playing this lick with the backing track you downloaded earlier
2. Write out your own phrases on the free TAB sheet in the style of or similar to what I have played

Exercise 3 – Highlighting maj7 chord tones

We are playing over the sequence Amaj7/C#min7.

‘A major pentatonic’, though perfectly suitable, does not have a 7th in it, just
R,2,3,5,6 (as illustrated in the first diagram).

This means we’re not acknowledging the 7th at all in our major seventh chord – we’re missing a BIG chord tone here!

For a good way to get around this, we can move from Amaj pentatonic to C#m pentatonic.

Move the first shape we have been using, along to the right 7 frets and you will find that you are starting on the 12th fret (which is the second note of C# minor pentatonic).

We have moved up to C#min pentatonic, which when translated into Amaj7 chord tones looks like:

(I’ve highlighted the chord tones of an A Maj7 chord)

We don’t have the note ‘A’ in here anymore, but we do have a 7th now!

Now we’re acknowledging the major 7th over the chord and hav some new sounds to play with.

C#min pentatonic lick – Listen to this lick Lick3 and copy from the TAB below

1. Try playing these licks with the backing track you downloaded earlier
2. Write out your own phrases on the free TAB sheet in the style of or similar to what I have played

SUMMARY:

When playing over major 7th chords, we can ether use:

• the root based pentatonic (Amaj pentatonic over an Amaj7 chord – ‘A’ being the root!)
• or the 3rd based pentatonic which is a minor (‘C#’ being the 3rd – C#minor pentatonic!)

Each highlghts different chord tones and gives you a different feel.

Feedback is always welcome!

JW

www.JohnWilmshurst.com