Pentatonic scale improvisation techniques

Improvisation in Manenberg

In Manenberg, all you need in the right hand to improvise is the pentatonic scale in F. This scale will do the job nicely across all of the chords.

Understanding the F Major Pentatonic Scale

Let's look at that scale in a bit more detail. You may remember when we did major pentatonics before, we divided them up into five, four-note groups. Here are the groups for the F major pentatonic:

• Thumb on F: Remember, there's no B flat in the scale.
• Thumb on G: There's no B flat either.
• Thumb on A
• Thumb on C
• Thumb on D

Systematically explore those five different finger positions.

Tips for Exploration

• Don't get stuck always with your thumb on the root.
• Make an effort to single out one of those positions.
• Sing the notes: If you like, sing them before playing them or sing the notes and then try to find them on the keyboard.
• You can do all of this with either the bass line.

You may run out of ideas afterwards; if so, move to another shape. Or you could play them with chords in the left hand, which I started to do towards the end of my solo.

Chords and Pentatonic Loop

Here are some possible chords. Let's do an ordinary F major pentatonic on top of that particular set of inversions.

I'm going to play this pentatonic loop which starts on the root and goes up to the third. This creates a two-bar loop in 4/4. Since this is in 2/4, it actually becomes four bars.

Finger Positioning

Check out that pink finger position at the top of the scale. We place the thumb underneath:

• Thumb on F
• Thumb on C

Everything else will fall into place. You don't need the thumb on F again as long as you're not going higher than A.

Improvisation Practice

We'll try that with the chords and then eventually try improvising.

• Try varying the rhythms, but try to stick to the four-bar pattern.

That's not the only set of inversions you can use. Here's another set. Notice I'm putting the blue third in quite a lot: it's an important color with the pentatonic scale.