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Major pentatonic scale on guitar
The major pentatonic on guitar: the shape fret by fret, the root on the low E and A strings for all twelve keys, played at a tap, MIDI and WAV to take.
Mika plays the major pentatonic scale on guitar up and back down. No improvising.Tap Hear it, or tap any note on the board.
C D E G A
The notes of the C major pentatonic scale
C D E G A
Formula: 1 2 3 5 6. Steps from note to note: 2 2 3 2 3 semitones (whole, whole, one and a half, whole, one and a half).
The C major scale without its 4th and 7th (F and B): no half steps left, so no note clashes. The same five notes are the A minor pentatonic scale.
The C major pentatonic scale on guitar
One position, frets 7–11, low E string first: low E: 8 10 (1 2) · A: 7 10 (3 5) · D: 7 10 (6 1) · G: 7 9 (2 3) · B: 8 10 (5 6) · high E: 8 10 (1 2). 0 = open string.
1 is the root. Put it on the fret the table below gives for your key and the same shape plays that key.
The major pentatonic scale in all twelve keys
| Root | Notes | Fret, low string | Fret, next string |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | C D E G A | 8 | 3 |
| D♭ | D♭ E♭ F A♭ B♭ | 9 | 4 |
| D | D E F♯ A B | 10 | 5 |
| E♭ | E♭ F G B♭ C | 11 | 6 |
| E | E F♯ G♯ B C♯ | 0 | 7 |
| F | F G A C D | 1 | 8 |
| F♯ | F♯ G♯ A♯ C♯ D♯ | 2 | 9 |
| G | G A B D E | 3 | 10 |
| A♭ | A♭ B♭ C E♭ F | 4 | 11 |
| A | A B C♯ E F♯ | 5 | 0 |
| B♭ | B♭ C D F G | 6 | 1 |
| B | B C♯ D♯ F♯ G♯ | 7 | 2 |
The minor box, three frets down
The major pentatonic shape is the minor pentatonic box with the root moved: the 5th-fret A minor box is also C major pentatonic, and played from the 2nd fret it is A major pentatonic. Country and southern rock players slide between the two over a major chord. The shape on this page puts the root under your fingers so you hear the major sound from the first note.
More scales
Major pentatonic scale Pentatonic scale on guitar Major scale on guitar Blues scale on guitar Minor scale on guitar Minor pentatonic scale on guitar
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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