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Minor pentatonic scale on guitar
The minor pentatonic on guitar: the first box string by string, the root on the low E and A strings for all twelve keys, played at a tap, MIDI and WAV to take.
Mika reads the minor pentatonic scale on guitar 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.
The A minor pentatonic scale on guitar
One position, frets 4–8, low E string first: low E: 5 8 (1 ♭3) · A: 5 7 (4 5) · D: 5 7 (♭7 1) · G: 5 7 (♭3 4) · B: 5 8 (5 ♭7) · high E: 5 8 (1 ♭3). 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 minor pentatonic scale in all twelve keys
| Root | Notes | Fret, low string | Fret, next string |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | C E♭ F G B♭ | 8 | 3 |
| C♯ | C♯ E F♯ G♯ B | 9 | 4 |
| D | D F G A C | 10 | 5 |
| E♭ | E♭ G♭ A♭ B♭ D♭ | 11 | 6 |
| E | E G A B D | 0 | 7 |
| F | F A♭ B♭ C E♭ | 1 | 8 |
| F♯ | F♯ A B C♯ E | 2 | 9 |
| G | G B♭ C D F | 3 | 10 |
| G♯ | G♯ B C♯ D♯ F♯ | 4 | 11 |
| A | A C D E G | 5 | 0 |
| B♭ | B♭ D♭ E♭ F A♭ | 6 | 1 |
| B | B D E F♯ A | 7 | 2 |
Find the key, put your finger down
The box's lowest note is the root, so playing in a key is a matter of putting your index finger on that note on the low E: E at the 12th (or open), G at the 3rd, A at the 5th, C at the 8th. The other four boxes connect above it; learn them one at a time, each starting where the last one's highest notes were.
More scales
Minor pentatonic scale Minor pentatonic scale on bass A minor pentatonic scale on guitar Pentatonic scale on guitar Major scale on guitar Blues 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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