How The 5 Positions Should Really Be Explained To Guitarists

Five major pentatonic positions, five minor pentatonic positions, 12 major keys, 12 minor keys. It's no wonder so many guitarists just stick to one or two shapes. Because if I'm doing the math

shapes. Because if I'm doing the math right, that's 120 scales you need to learn. But what if I told you we can

learn. But what if I told you we can make it so much simpler than that? In

this video, I'm going to show you the best way to learn the five pentatonic positions so they actually stick. And as

always, if you want all the fretboard diagrams for any and all of my YouTube lessons, you can download them over on my Patreon. So first things first, we

my Patreon. So first things first, we need to know what a pentatonic scale actually is. And it's incredibly simple.

actually is. And it's incredibly simple.

It's just a major or minor scale with the two semmitone intervals removed. So

if we look at this C major scale, we get rid of note four here and note seven here. That way there are no more

seven here. That way there are no more semmitone intervals. And now we have our

semmitone intervals. And now we have our C major pentatonic scale.

This ultimately takes our seven note major or minor scale and drops it down to five. And penta means five. When we

to five. And penta means five. When we

play one of the typical vertical pentatonic shapes, we're just repeating these specific five notes about two and a half times.

Now, the five positions aren't actually five different scales. They are just five different hand positions of the same scale. For example, next to that

same scale. For example, next to that position one pentatonic scale we just played, we have position two, sharing one side of the shape with that first

position. And even though I've moved up

position. And even though I've moved up the fretboard and the shape itself is different, I'm still just playing the exact same scale. I'm starting and

ending on a different note within that five note scale, but it's still the same five notes.

And I would then continue to move my hand up another position and would have a new shape for position three, then four, then five, until I climbed an

entire octave, 12 frets up, to arrive back at position one. Okay, so far so good. We just memorize all five shapes

good. We just memorize all five shapes and we're good to go, right? Well, there

are a few pretty significant problems we run into here. As I mentioned at the top of the video, we technically have five major pentatonic positions and five minor pentatonic positions. Then there

are 12 major keys and 12 minor keys. How

are we supposed to remember all of that without spending literal years memorizing shapes and positions? Well,

with a little bit of theory and a little bit of fretboard mapping, we can make this super simple. But first, this video is sponsored by Raycon. If you're

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let's get back to the lesson. The first

thing we need to do is learn about relative scales. Now, without getting

relative scales. Now, without getting too bogged down in a bunch of theory, all you need to know is that every major scale has a relative minor scale that contains the same notes. And this is the

same for the pentatonic scale as well.

Every major pentatonic scale has a relative minor pentatonic scale with all the same notes. And the way we figure this all out is just with our position one shape. I go to my low E string and

one shape. I go to my low E string and whichever note my pinky lands on here is the name of the relative major. Then

whichever note my pointer finger lands on is the name of the relative minor. So

in this case, this is a C for C major and this is an A for A minor. Meaning C

major pentatonic and A minor pentatonic contain all the same notes because they are relative scales. This also means that I can use this same shape to play

in the keys of both C major and A minor.

Now the naming of the positions typically changes based on whether you're talking about major or minor.

Normally, since this shape here starts on the note with the minor name, it would be position number one of the minor pentatonic. And then position two

minor pentatonic. And then position two here, well, since it starts on the note with the major name, it would be position number one of the major

pentatonic, meaning the positions would all get shifted around. And then that means position number one here would become position number five of the major

pentatonic. And honestly, I find this to

pentatonic. And honestly, I find this to be just annoying and confusing. So, what

I do is just stay consistent. This here

is always position one of the C major or A minor pentatonic. And then this here is always position two of the C major or A minor pentatonic and so on. So, that

eliminates one of our problems. Our next simplification involves creating a visual symbol to represent each position. We do this through the caged

position. We do this through the caged system. Just like there are five

system. Just like there are five positions, caged contains five letters.

And each one of these letters represents a common chord shape I'm sure you're familiar with. So let's connect cage to

familiar with. So let's connect cage to the pentatonic scale positions. We start

by choosing our key. And we've been in the key of C major or A minor, so we'll stick with that. We take the chord that matches our major key, C major, and we

create C major chords across the fretboard using C, A, G, E, and D shapes. So, conveniently, we can do a C

shapes. So, conveniently, we can do a C major using a C shape right in the open position. Starting with that, next up is

position. Starting with that, next up is an A shape. So, C major chord using an A shape.

Then, we can keep going. We can do a C major chord using a G shape.

Then a C major chord using an E shape.

All of them connected to each other. And

then finally we get to a D shape again.

A C major chord using a D shape. Now

and we could actually keep going because once we get through C, A, G, E, and D, we get back to C. So now this one's a little bit awkward, but it's about visualization here. We get back to C.

visualization here. We get back to C.

And then if we wanted to, we could just keep going up the fretboard. We'd have a next. And then we just keep on going.

next. And then we just keep on going.

Living on top of each of these shapes is one of our pentatonic positions for the key of C major or A minor. If we go back

to our position one, you can see that this sits right on top of the G shape.

Then our position two, well, that one sits right on top of the E shape. So

let's look at our other three pentatonic positions then. So G, E. Well, next up

positions then. So G, E. Well, next up we would have D. So a D-shaped C major chord. And on top of that we would have

chord. And on top of that we would have our position three pentatonic scale for C major or A minor looking like this.

Again, that's sitting right on top of another C major chord. This time

using the D shape. Now, we'd continued.

We'd get to the C shape. And we could play this in more than one spot, right?

Because we have our C shape up here past the 12th fret. Or we can play it in open position. So, we'll play it up here for

position. So, we'll play it up here for now. So, we have

now. So, we have that C shape, and this one would sit on top of position four.

Beautiful.

And then we're kind of running out of frets here as we move up. So I'm

actually going to go back down here again. We could play that position four

again. We could play that position four in open position. It would look the exact same over that C major chord using the C shape. But we can do position five right here. Again, it's the same because

right here. Again, it's the same because it's all just a circle. And that's going to sit on top of an Ashaped C major chord. So there's our A shape and our

chord. So there's our A shape and our pentatonic looks like this. This is

position five.

And then what comes after a G. We would

just start the whole cycle over again.

Right? We've reached the beginning. And

now rather than trying to remember which pattern of notes goes where, you have a landmark that represents each position.

Now, the great thing about everything you've just learned is how easy it is to do this in all the remaining keys. So,

let's do the key of D major. I like to go back to my OG position, position one, or the G position whenever I'm locating a key. That way, I can use that trick on

a key. That way, I can use that trick on the low E string to make sure things are placed correctly. So D major, meaning we

placed correctly. So D major, meaning we line our pinky up with a D note on the low E string, and then all of our positions just fall into place. Each one

of our caged chords now, instead of representing a C major chord in the key of C major, well, now we're in D major, meaning that these are all representative of D major chords to fit

in with this new key. So now our G position here, well this shape is technically a D major chord, right?

And now our E position, the shape is the exact same. There's nothing different

exact same. There's nothing different about it at all. It's just now representing a D major chord, right? So

that's position two, our E position. And

then we could keep going up. We get our D position next. And if we were to go back here, that would make sense, right?

because it's just a D major chord to represent D. And that would fit

represent D. And that would fit perfectly over our position three. Just

like that. And then our position four, we're again going back to the beginning because the fretboard just circles back around. It doesn't matter if you do it

around. It doesn't matter if you do it here or all the way up here. It's all

the same. Well, now we've got a D major using a C major chord.

And our scale shape just fits right on top of that for our position four. And

then we do the same thing. Obviously, we

continue up after that. What do we have?

C. Well, we have A. So, now we have an Ashaped D major chord. And on top of that, we have our position five.

And then we get back to a position one or our G position. And this would all be the same for literally any key. Let's do

a minor key this time. Csharp minor. So,

we need to find a C sharp minor note on the low E string. And since it's minor, we use our pointer finger this time instead of our pinky. And that gives us

C sharp minor or our relative major, which is wherever our pinky lands. So, E

major. And all of our five positions just fall into place along with all those five caged chords. This time all these chords are different ways to play

E major to match up with the key. So

what we have is something that stays consistent no matter what key you want to play in major or minor. And your five positions are easy to recognize thanks

to those landmarks. We've just shifted things up and wrapped back around so everything fits this new key. It's that

simple. Now, I know it's still a lot all at once. So again, printable versions of

at once. So again, printable versions of all these fretboard diagrams from this lesson will be available to download over on my Patreon, or you can become a YouTube channel member to get them there if you prefer. From here, I'd really

recommend checking out this lesson on why great players are so obsessed with the pentatonic scale. You'll see a link to that up in the middle of your screen.

Big big thank you to Raycon for sponsoring today's video. Be sure to go to that link in the description to get 20% off your open earbuds. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.