The Basic “Rock” Scale A scale is particular arrangement of notes that span an octave, In our current system of music theory, there are two types of scales that have priority status: major and minor. ‘They are essentially opposites. Major sounds bright, happy, triumphant and uplifting. Minor sounds mournful, heavy and dark, or sometimes intense and dramatic—the evil designs of the predator stalking his next victim, (You've all seen the movies.) No one knows why we tend to associate opposite emotions with these scales, but we do. The “minor pentatonic” scale is a special type of minor scale that has only five notes per octave instead of the usual seven tones. (“Penta” means five, and “tonic” refers to tones, or notes.) Itisused at least to some extent by virtually every rock and metal player—from Chuck Berry to Kirk Hammet. Since the minor pentatonic scale below is based on an “A” note, itis called an “A minor pentatonic” scale. The A’s are known as the root of the scale and are shown as squares in the fretboard diagram. A Minor Pentatonic, Ist Octave a ‘The next octave of the “A” minor pentatonic scale uses the same notes, just one octave higher. On the guitar, however, the pattern looks different. As you play, make sure that you keep all the strings that you don’t want to sound muted. A Minor Pentatonie, 2nd Octave 12