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A minor pentatonic scale
A minor pentatonic is A C D E G, five notes, no sharps or flats. Hear it, see it on piano and guitar (5th fret box), and take it as MIDI or WAV for a backing track.
Mika reads the A minor pentatonic scale as 3 2 2 3 2. Semitones, not feelings.Tap Hear it, or tap any note on the board.
A C D E G
The notes of the A minor pentatonic scale
A C D E G
Formula: 1 ♭3 4 5 ♭7. Steps from note to note: 3 2 2 3 2 semitones (one and a half, whole, whole, one and a half, whole).
Natural A minor without its 2nd and 6th (B and F). The same five notes are the C major pentatonic scale.
In Hz, from A4: A4 440.0 · C5 523.3 · D5 587.3 · E5 659.3 · G5 784.0.
The A minor pentatonic scale on the piano
White keys: A C D E G; no black keys.
For the fingering, slide the thumb under after the black keys, never onto one.
The A minor pentatonic scale on guitar
One position, frets 4–8, low E string first: low E: 5 8 (A C) · A: 5 7 (D E) · D: 5 7 (G A) · G: 5 7 (C D) · B: 5 8 (E G) · high E: 5 8 (A C). 0 = open string.
The root A sits at fret 5 on the low E string and at fret 0 on the A string. Slide the same shape there for any other root.
The first scale most guitarists learn
A minor pentatonic at the 5th fret is the box behind thousands of rock and blues solos: index finger on the 5th fret, the rest of the hand on the 7th and 8th. It works over an A minor chord, over an A7 blues and over most songs in C major, because it is the same five notes as C major pentatonic. For a backing track, take the MIDI below into a DAW and put a drum loop under it, or open the app and hum over it.
More scales
Minor pentatonic scale A minor pentatonic scale on guitar E minor pentatonic scale C minor pentatonic scale D minor pentatonic scale G minor pentatonic scale A minor: scale and chords
How this page works
Hear it plays the scale up and down at 100 BPM on one of four Brumm sounds. Take it gives the same notes as a MIDI file and a WAV. − and + move the root. Every note here is computed from the formula.
Sources
Scales and modes: Open Music Theory, musictheory.net. Piano fingerings: the standard scale-book fingerings (ABRSM scale books; Hanon, The Virtuoso Pianist, part 3). Trumpet valves: the standard B♭ trumpet fingering chart (Yamaha, Bach). Hz: A4 = 440 Hz, ISO 16.
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