JAM TRACKS
Pentatonic Superimpositions
IF THERE WAS A WAY to use your existing Pentatonic scales and licks to play over a variety of new chords – and sound more exotic while you’re at it – it would sound too good to be true, wouldn’t it? Well, actually it is true… In short, it is possible to play most of your favourite ideas over alternative chords. The only‘catch’, if there is one, is that you’ll need to understand how the notes in the scale relate to the underlying chord. As you’ll see, this isn’t all that complex – we’re using chords associated with the C Major scale (C/A Minor/D Minor) to illustrate these ideas, but they can be transposed to any key. We’ve thrown in a few different shapes of the pentatonic for variety, but the concept remains unchanged.
Example 1
THIS A MINOR Pentatonic is superimposed over a C Major chord. You will find the same licks and lines that fit over A minor will fit over C Major the ‘relative major’. We start with A, to reflect the root note of the chord, but you’ll see the root of the scale itself (A) is referred to at the end, before heading back to C.
Example 2
THE C MAJOR CHORD contains C, E and G (root, 3rd, 5th), so playing the Minor Pentatonic scale beginning with the 3rd (E) means we still have a useable scale for extra options. Start with standard E Minor blues licks, then notice how certain notes imply a more complex harmony than a basic C chords.
Example 3
THE UNDERLYING CHORD is A Minor, with a root/3rd/5th of A, C and E. By using E Minor Pentatonic, we’re ‘playing off the 5th’, resulting in a Pentatonic soun
