The Pentatonic Scale

If you want to start to improvise you have to use the Pentatonic scale. It is and was commonly used by a lot of
guitarplayers like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and ofcourse Jimi Hendrix.
The Pentatonic scale consists of 5 notes. For example in the Am pentatonic scale you have the notes:

A C D E G A

As the A minor scale is

A B C D E F G A

Two notes have been taken out the F and B. “Penta” means “five” in greek. That´s why they call it the Pentatonic scale.
Most improvisations are used in the 5th position on the guitar. Check the following positions and TAB. Play the example from the sixth string to the 1st and backwards. Especially train the backward version to get familiar with because this one is more difficult.
You can use the Pentatonic scale around the the whole fretboard. For Example if you shift the patternin the 5th position to the 7th position you have the Bm Pentatonic scale and so on.

Am Pentatonic scale 5th position:

pentatonic diagram

TAB

|——————————-5—8——————————————————-
|————————–5—7——–8—5———————————————-
|———————-5—7—————7—5——————————————
|——————5—7———————-7—5—————————————
|————5—7——————————-7—5————————————
|——5—8—————————————-8—5———————————

Underneath you find the fretboard from the 3rd untill the 12th position of the Am pentatonic scale. The 15th position has the same structure as the 3rd position.

pentatonic diagram

To improvise you don´t have to follow exactly these notes. The best technique is to use string bending to reach
the notes wich are a half or one tone (one fret or 2 frets) further on the fretboard.
For example if you bend the 5th fret on the 4th string up one tone you reach the 7th fret (from G to A)
Check the Am Pentatonic lick aswell the lick of Tin Pan Alley of Stevie Ray Vaughan.
They all use the Pentatonic Scale.