Learning how to play the minor pentatonic scale on guitar was one of the best things I ever did on guitar. It was the biggest breakthrough for me in terms of being able to improvise.
The beauty of this scale is that it fits over so much. It works best with the blues but can work with a number of different styles.
What is a Pentatonic Scale?
Up until now the scale lessons on SixStringAcoustic.com have been focused on major and minor scales. Major and minor scales have 7 notes within the octave and are known collectively as heptatonic scales.
Pentatonic scales have just 5 notes within the octave – hence the name penta (which means ?five? in greek).
There are a number of different pentatonic scales as you can imagine given that it’s any scale with 5 notes in the octave.
Related: How to play the Major Scale on Guitar
Hemitonic and Anhemitonic
The most common pentatonic scales are the minor pentatonic and major pentatonic. These two scales are known as anhemitonic – which basically means that there are no semi tone (half step) intervals in the scale. Hemitonic pentatonic scales contain semi tone intervals.
O.k. enough of all of that – let’s see how to play the minor pentatonic on guitar.
The Minor Pentatonic
The minor pentatonic has the following pattern
- Root
- 1 ? tone interval
- Whole tone
- Whole tone
- 1 ? tone
- Whole tone (back to root)
So for example in an E minor pentatonic scale the notes would be.
- E
- G
- A
- B
- D
- E
How to play on guitar
Sticking with the E minor pentatonic let’s see how it’s played on guitar, first in the open position and then further up the neck.
E minor pentatonic open position.
e:------------------------| B:------------------------| G:------------------------| D:--------------0--2------| A:--------0--2------------| E:--0--3------------------|
O.k. but we want to practice a more interesting pattern and include the notes from all of the strings. So here?s the full pattern.
e:-------------------------------0--3--3--0----------------------------| B:-------------------------0--3--------------3--0----------------------| G:-------------------0--2--------------------------2--0----------------| D:-------------0--2--------------------------------------2--0----------| A:-------0--2--------------------------------------------------2--0----| E:-0--3--------------------------------------------------------------3-| e:---------------------------------| B:---------------------------------| G:---------------------------------| D:---------------------------------| A:---------------------------------| E:-0-------------------------------|
E minor pentatonic further up the neck
e:----------------------------7--10--10--7-----------------------------| B:---------------------8--10----------------10--8----------------------| G:---------------7--9------------------------------9--7----------------| D:---------7--9------------------------------------------9--7----------| A:--7--10------------------------------------------------------10--7---| E:---------------------------------------------------------------------| e:---------------------------------| B:---------------------------------| G:---------------------------------| D:---------------------------------| A:---------------7-----------------| E:-10--7--7--10--------------------|
A minor pentatonic
Now let’s take a look at a minor pentatonic that starts of the E string, in this case the “A” minor pentatonic.
e:--------------------------------5--8--8--5---------------------------| B:--------------------------5--8--------------8--5---------------------| G:--------------------5--7--------------------------7--5---------------| D:--------------5--7--------------------------------------7--5---------| A:--------5--7--------------------------------------------------7--5---| E:--5--8---------------------------------------------------------------| e:---------------------------------| B:---------------------------------| G:---------------------------------| D:---------------------------------| A:---------------------------------| E:--8--5---------------------------|
Can you see the pattern?
For every pentatonic scale starting on the A string the pattern is the same. And for every pentatonic scale starting on the E string is the same. So you just need to find the root note and the pattern is the same!
For example to play a D minor pentatonic you use the same pattern as the E minor pentatonic but you start it on the 5th fret of the A string.
If you want to play a G minor pentatonic you would use the same pattern as the A minor pentatonic but you start on the 3rd fret of the E string.
This is the beauty of learning scales on guitar – and with the pentatonic scales it’s particularly easy to learn because there are only 5 different notes.
What Next?
As always practice, practice, practice!
If you can learn this scale well it will make playing along with others and improvising so much easier.
In a future lesson (maybe in the next one or the one after that) I will also show you the blues scale which is based on this minor pentatonic. And of course we will also look at the major pentatonic too.
Until then, keep practicing and see you next time.
Related: Online Guitar Lesson Reviews
