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Pentatonic scale
The pentatonic scale has five notes and no half steps, so nothing clashes. Minor and major pentatonic in every key, on piano and guitar, played, MIDI to take.
Mika starts the pentatonic scale on A and comes home to A.Tap Hear it, or tap any note on the board.
A C D E G
The notes of the A 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 pentatonic scale in all twelve keys
| Root | minor pentatonic scale | major pentatonic scale |
|---|---|---|
| C | C E♭ F G B♭ | C D E G A |
| C♯ | C♯ E F♯ G♯ B | C♯ D♯ E♯ G♯ A♯ |
| D | D F G A C | D E F♯ A B |
| E♭ | E♭ G♭ A♭ B♭ D♭ | E♭ F G B♭ C |
| E | E G A B D | E F♯ G♯ B C♯ |
| F | F A♭ B♭ C E♭ | F G A C D |
| F♯ | F♯ A B C♯ E | F♯ G♯ A♯ C♯ D♯ |
| G | G B♭ C D F | G A B D E |
| G♯ | G♯ B C♯ D♯ F♯ | G♯ A♯ B♯ D♯ E♯ |
| A | A C D E G | A B C♯ E F♯ |
| B♭ | B♭ D♭ E♭ F A♭ | B♭ C D F G |
| B | B D E F♯ A | B C♯ D♯ F♯ G♯ |
Two pentatonics, one set of notes
The minor pentatonic (1 ♭3 4 5 ♭7) and the major pentatonic (1 2 3 5 6) are the same five notes started in different places: A minor pentatonic and C major pentatonic share A C D E G. Which one you are playing depends on the chord underneath. The black keys of a piano are a pentatonic scale, which is why anything played on them alone sounds fine. Folk tunes from Scotland to China and most guitar solos live in it.
More scales
Pentatonic scale on guitar Pentatonic scale on bass Pentatonic scale on piano Major scale Minor scale Chromatic scale
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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