Hybrid Scales – How to Combine the Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales Together

Video Cliffs:

0:00 – Intro

3:47 – Approaching a i – iv – v progression from a minor perspective

5:21 – Musical demonstration of using the minor pentatonic/minor blues scale over a i – iv – v

6:05 – Approaching a I – IV – V progression from a major perspective

7:25 – Musical demonstration of using the major pentatonic/major blues scale over a I – IV – V

10:36 – Combining the major and minor pentatonic scales together

16:52 – Musical demonstration of “combining” the major and minor together

Scale Combining through “Hybrid Scales”

In this lesson here, we take a look at another way to combine scales that differs from the type of scale combining you see in this lesson here. In the previous lesson, I showed how you can essentially “combine” the following scales together in order to solo over the same chord progression:

I also showed how those 3 scales can be applied to any key whether it’s a major key or a minor key, since “the major scale” and “the minor scale” are essentially the same thing, just viewed from 2 different perspectives. This is explained in the relative major/minor concept.

Well, this lesson is different.

In this lesson, we are looking at the major pentatonic scale and the minor pentatonic scale IN PARALLEL to one another.

2 scales are relative to one another if they share the same notes

2 scales are parallel with each other if they share the same root

Previously we have looked at RELATIVE scale combining. For example C major and A minor are relative to one another since they both share the same set of notes:

C major: C D E F G A B

A minor: A B C D E F G

In this lesson we are looking at PARALLEL scale combining. For example A major and A minor are parallel to one another since they both share the same root note, or tonic note, which is ‘A’.

Soloing Over a 1 – 4 – 5 Progression

A 1 – 4 – 5 progression can be viewed from both the major perspective and the minor perspective. Let’s look at the keys of A major and A minor:

A major

I – A

IV – D

V – E

A minor

i – Am

vi – Dm

v – Em

If the rhythm section was playing a 1 – 4 – 5 progression in A, and the bassist and keyboardist were emphasizing the major 3rds of each chord. This would result in a “major sounding” 1 – 4 – 5 progression. You, as the the lead guitarist, may want to keep that “major sound” going on by playing the A major pentatonic scale:

Or the A major blues scale:

Alternatively, ff the rhythm section was playing a 1 – 4 – 5 progression in A, and the bassist and keyboardist were emphasizing the minor 3rds of each chord. This would result in a “minor sounding” 1 – 4 – 5 progression. You, as the the lead guitarist, may want to keep that “minor sound” going on by playing the A minor pentatonic scale:

Or the A minor blues scale:

Combining the Major Pentatonic and Minor Pentatonic Together

At any point in your improvisation, you can always try jumping back and forth between the major and the minor pentatonic/blues scales.

Another way to do this is by taking a look at the underlying chords within the 1 – 4 – 5 progression, and simply outlining chord shapes, but also using hammer/pulls and slides from the major 3rd to the minor 3rd of each chord.

The only thing that differentiates a major chord and a minor chord is the 3rd. Therefore, incorporating both the major 3rd and minor 3rd of each chord within the 1 – 4 – 5 progression will allow you to essentially “combine” the major and the minor tonalities together.

Let’s say that you are jamming in the A minor pentatonic scale over a 1 – 4 – 5 progression.

At any point in your playing, when the ‘A’ is occurring, you can emphasize the 3rds by hammering/pulling/sliding/bending that half-step between the minor 3rd and major 3rd of the A chord. Here are fretboard diagrams for both variations of ‘A’:

A major chord:

A minor chord:

You see that the 2 chords only differ by one single note. Well, this is the one note that you will be emphasizing as the A is occurring in the rhythm section.

This same thing can be applied over the ‘D’ chord and the ‘E’ chord.

Remember, the overall KEY is A, so if you were purely thinking SCALES, then you would be working in an overall scalar framework of either A major or A minor.

However, when it comes to combining the major and minor in parallel, as we are doing here in this lesson, you would focus on the 3rd of the underlying chord, as that particular chord is occurring.

So let’s say that you were still jamming over this 1 – 4 – 5 progression in A, and now the ‘D’ chord is being played in the rhythm section…

You, as the lead guitarist, are still using the A minor pentatonic scale as your scalar framework, but you want to create this hybrid tonality, so you decide to do some hammers/pulls/bends/slides from the minor 3rd of the D chord to the major 3rd of the D chord. Viewing the fretboard diagrams, we have:

D major chord:

D minor chord:

Note where the 3rd is for each chord.

And the same thing would occur for the ‘E’ within this progression as well. You, as the lead guitarist, are jamming over this 1 – 4 – 5 progression, using the A minor pentatonic scale as your scalar framework (or maybe you are using A major pentatonic…it’s up to you). When the rhythm section plays the ‘E’, then you play around with the major/minor 3rds of the E chord:

E major chord:

E minor chord:

So with all that, you basically have a TON of different options to choose from when you are playing over a 1 – 4 – 5 progression.

Major pentatonic scale

Major blues scale

Minor pentatonic scale

Minor blues scale

Emphasizing the minor/major 3rd of each chord within the progression

Try it on other chord progressions too. Experiment away!

As always, have fun!