A beginner's observation

[byrdsfan]

Ok i stopped playing 25 years ago and i started again but just now taking lessons:

So today we were going over adding a hex tone (the fourth, right?) to the pentatonic scale. He said did you notice anything about these?
I said, "Well the major and minor formations are the same for different notes."
He said, "Not if you add the hex tone."
I said, "They are if you go from minor pentatonic 1 to major 2 and so forth."
He looked at it and said, "Well look at that. I've been teaching for 30 years and never noticed that."

 

[_j_]

What's a hex tone?

 

[RyanHelms]

Not sure what you mean. As far as minor 1 and major 2 for the same note (root?) do you mean positions? Are you refering to the 4th being the same for major and minor? No, that's too obvious, can you clarify that, since if a teacher of 30 years hadn't ever noticed, it's a safe bet some other players havn't as well. Dontcha love teaching the teacher?

 

[byrdsfan]

Ok this is how i understand it:
The hextone is the fourth.
There are five positions for pentatonics for majors and minors, each sharing the root. Some of these are more commonly used for different notes than others
No. 1 position for G would be the G on the E string, B on A, D on A. The hex for the that is, major, the C on the A string and minor, the A on the E.
No. 2 would be the G on the D string.
No. 3 would be the G on the A (in this one the major third is the B on the E (probably seldomly played like this in G, more commonly D).
No. 4. G on the A but the B is on the D string.
No. 5 is G on the E string but going down from there so you'd have play open E and D. This formation is more likely played in A.

Ok his observation to me was, without the hextones, formation 1 in G major is like No. 2 in E minor. Major 2 in F is like minor 3 in D and so forth. No. 1 in major is like 2 in minor, purely in the formation. so instead of 10 formations, you only need 5. For example, if you are playing a C major to A minor, it's the same notes, just different roots.

With the hextones added, this is no longer true.

However i noted that, with the hextones, minor 1 is like major 2, minor 2 is like major 3, etc.
He was astounded!
sorry i couldnt make this any simpler, I would have scanned in the hand drawn formations but there might be copyright issues!