The pentatonic scale: what it is and how to use it

A pentatonic scale has five notes per octave instead of seven. The two everyone uses are the major pentatonic, which is a major scale with the 4th and 7th removed (C, D, E, G, A), and the minor pentatonic, a natural minor scale with the 2nd and 6th removed (A, C, D, E, G). Because the notes that clash most easily are gone, almost anything you play from it sounds musical, which is why it is the first scale most guitarists improvise with. The scale finder shows both, plus the blues scale, in any key.

What the pentatonic scale is

Pentatonic just means five tones. The common major and minor forms contain no semitones at all: every gap is a whole step or a step and a half. Scales of this kind, called anhemitonic, turn up in folk music from many parts of the world, from Celtic and Hungarian tunes to Chinese, Japanese and West African traditions, and in a great deal of blues, rock, country and pop. There are also pentatonic scales that do contain semitones, used for example in some Japanese music, but this guide sticks to the two familiar ones.

Major pentatonic

Take a major scale and leave out the 4th and 7th degrees. The formula is 1, 2, 3, 5, 6:

• C major pentatonic: C, D, E, G, A
• G major pentatonic: G, A, B, D, E
• D major pentatonic: D, E, F♯, A, B

The removed notes, F and B in C major, are the two that sit a semitone from a neighbour, so the scale loses the tension that pulls a melody towards resolution. It sounds open and bright, the sound of many country licks and folk melodies. A neat way to find it on a piano: the five black keys form a G♭ (or F♯) major pentatonic scale, G♭, A♭, B♭, D♭, E♭.

Minor pentatonic and the blues scale

The minor pentatonic leaves the 2nd and 6th out of the natural minor. Its formula is 1, ♭3, 4, 5, ♭7:

• A minor pentatonic: A, C, D, E, G
• E minor pentatonic: E, G, A, B, D

A minor pentatonic contains exactly the same notes as C major pentatonic, just starting from A, in the same way that A minor is the relative minor of C major. Add one note, the flattened 5th, and you have the blues scale: A, C, D, E♭, E, G. That extra note, the blue note, is a passing tone between the 4th and 5th; it sounds great when you slide through it and sour if you sit on it.

Why it is so easy to use

With no semitones, no two notes of the scale grate against each other, and the scale avoids the notes most likely to clash with the chords underneath. The minor pentatonic also fits over all three chords of a basic twelve-bar blues and over many rock progressions, and blues players often use the minor pentatonic over major chords on purpose, because the ♭3 rubbing against the major third is part of the style. The trade-off is that with fewer notes, pentatonic lines can start to sound similar; adding the missing notes back as passing tones is the usual next step, and leads naturally to the modes described in Musical modes explained: the seven modes and how to use them.

On guitar and piano

On guitar the minor pentatonic is usually learned as five box shapes that cover the neck. The first box in A minor sits at the 5th fret, with two notes per string: frets 5 and 8 on the outer strings and on the B string, and frets 5 and 7 on the A, D and G strings. The same shape moved to the 12th fret gives E minor pentatonic, which also has an open-position version starting on the open low E. The scale finder draws every note of the scale on a fretboard, for standard and alternative tunings, bass and ukulele, with the root highlighted so you can see how the boxes join up. On piano, practise the scale in one hand while the other holds the root, or play the black-key version freely over a held G♭ chord.

How to start improvising

Pick a backing: a single A minor chord, or a twelve-bar blues in A, from the chord progression generator. Set the metronome to a slow tempo and play short phrases of three or four notes from A minor pentatonic, ending each phrase on A, C or E, the notes of the chord. Leave space between phrases; silence is part of a good solo. Once that feels natural, add the blue note, then try the major pentatonic over a major chord and hear how much brighter it sounds. The virtual piano is handy for checking a phrase you heard by ear. For the theory behind the minor and major parents of these scales, see Major vs minor scales: what actually differs.