Pentatonic scales can be seen as a form of omission. That is, we omit tones from the fuller, seven-tone (or heptatonic) scales to which they're native.
This omission of tones serves a key purpose that often goes unmentioned - to help us forge different melodic/phrasing pathways through a scale and over related chords.
While the standard major and minor pentatonic scales were, for most of us, initially a tool of convenience - the easily memorised patterns and their versatility over numerous chord progressions - their wider interval jumps, created by effectively omitting two scale tones, gives them a particular sound.
We can do the same thing with other scales, connecting them to their related chord qualities and straddling that line between an arpeggio and a fuller scale - a kind of hybrid expression that directly touches on all the important chord/colour tones. A little linear, a little vertical.
In the lesson below, we look at 22 of the most usable pentatonic variants, with different pattern breakdowns and chord tracks to try them out. Hope you enjoy it!