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Other tonalities $t$*'s;igffi:
Relativemajor/minortricks
Beloware the full neckpatternsfor E, A, and C major
Majorand minorscalescomein pairs.Foreverymajor
pentatonic.Play the "anchor"chords, then all the
scale,thereis a correspondingminorscalethat uses
patternsIn each key,shiftingfrom box to box, up and
the exactsamenotes,but startson a differentroot.We
downthe neck.Don'tforgetsequencingpractice,too!
say thesescalesare related.Everymajorscalehas a
Also,findand playthe diagonalshapes(shownon the
relativeminor,and every minor scale has a relative
previouspage in G) by shiftingthem to the proper
major.Forexample,C majorand A minorare related.
positionsfor each key.
C major

CDEFGABCDEFGABC
E major pentatonic A minor
Box 3 (ext.to low E root) Box 5 Box 2 Box 4

A
In addition,C majorpentatonic
andA minorpentatonic
v

A
A are also relatives.
3 5 7 9 1 2 l 5 t 7 19 21
C majorpentatonic

Box 4 Box 1 Box 3 Box 5 CDEGACDEGAC

nk#inor,p"natonic '!r

Anotherpairof relativesis G majorand E minor.So as

l5 t7 l9 2l
you wouldexpect(andyou mayhavealreadynoticed),
the G major pentatonicboxeson the previouspage
are identicalto thoseshownon page 10 for E minor
pentatonic. Again,onlythe roots(andanchorchords)
A major pentatonic are different.
Box 1 Box 3 Box 5
r_-__---.1
Box 2
One commonway guitaristsuse this relative
major/minorprincipleis to transformminorscalesor
A licks into their major counterpartswithouthavingto
learnany newpatterns. Yousee,if you knowthe minor
5 ' l 9 t 2 15 t] 19 2l
pentatonicscale, you can use the relativeminor
Box 2 Box 4 Box I Box 3 patterns to play the major pentatonicscale. For
example,to play C majorpentatonic, find the relative
minor-A minor pentatonic.Now play A minor
pentatonic overprogressions in C majorandyourlicks
t'7 l9
will givethe soundof C majorpentatonic.
In reality,your licks really are in C major
pentatonic.(They only appear to use A minor
pentatonicbecauseyou are familiarwith seeingthe
C major pentatonic patternsfroma minorperspective.) The bestsituation
Box 4 Box 1 Box 3 Box 5 Box 2
is to learnthe major pentatonicshapesanchoredto
A

v
theircorrectroots-in otherwords,seeingthem truly
A
as majorpentatonics. Nevertheless, this bit of relative
3 5 7 9 12 15 17 19 2l
major/minormaneuveringcan be useful and is
somethingyou shouldbe awareof. Hereis the rule:
Box 5 Box2 Box 4 Box 1

*i
To use minorpatternsin a majorkey,applythe &'
o
three-fretrule: Drop three fretsand use the r
15
atlue.ff .o",pattern.
. 19t
To playG major,for example,dropthreefretsto E and M,#1
pairs:
use E minor.Hereare a few relativemajor/minor Fl'

A minor C major i
For the remainingkeys, simply slide the nearest
patternup or down the neck.(See page 63 for note E minor G major
nameson the neck.) Ff minor A major
B minor D major ^

.1,
two;the minoris the lowerof the two.The three-
#qlr
S*, fret rule worksin reverse,too. Raiseany minor
threefretsand you'llhavethe relativemajor.
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21