Reflections on Teaching the Minor Pentatonic Scale

The Minor Pentatonic Scale is one of the very first scales that I ever learned as a guitarist. Even in high school, practicing, playing, jamming and exploring the Minor Pentatonic Scale gave me hours of fun. The minor pentatonic scale was a logical and, seemingly, effortless way for me to begin to explore the joy of improvisation within a tonal context. As I got more into jazz, the multiple uses of this single scale was an eye opening experience as to the versatility of this scale. After years of teaching this scale, it seemed like a great idea to develop consistent handouts and a consistent process to to teaching students how to learn and use this scale both for purpose of technical development, and as gateway to joys of improvisation and spontaneous creation both along and with other musicians. While refinement, further development, and continual self assessment will be critical to continuing to the evolution of my approach to the instruction of the minor pentatonic, I think from the video evidence in this portfolio that is quite clear that elements of this approach and process have had and continue to have good results with motivated students who want to learn more about their instrument and improvisation.