Scale family
D major pentatonic
Five notes: D E F♯ A B. Use the boxes below to find this scale in different parts of the neck.
- Notes
- D E F♯ A B
- 1 2 3 5 6
- Same notes as
- B minor pentatonic Its relative
- Add the ♭3
- D major blues The blue note, F
- Root, D
- Notes of the box
- Notes of the chord you're on
- Blue note
Jam along
The 12-bar blues in D
Play along with a repeating twelve-bar blues. The neck highlights the notes in your box that belong to the current chord.
The blue note
Add the blue note
Put F between E and F♯ and the major pentatonic becomes the D major blues scale. Try sliding through it into a neighbouring note.
Pentatonic
- D
- E
- F♯
- A
- B
Major blues
- D
- E
- F
- F♯
- A
- B
Hear both
Exercises
Five drills, with a click
Start in box 1 and play along with the metronome. Follow the highlighted notes on the neck above.
- Box 1, up and downEvery note once, low to high and back. Say the note names.70 bpmLevel 1
- Connect box 1 to box 2Up box 1, slide to box 2, back down. The shared notes are the bridge.70 bpmLevel 1
- Groups of threeThree notes at a time, one step up each time, through box 1.80 bpmLevel 2
- Hit the chord's notesOver the 12-bar, land on the lit notes as each chord changes.90 bpmLevel 2
- Call and responseHear a two-bar phrase, then answer it in the gap.80 bpmLevel 2