Minor Pentatonic
The rock and blues workhorse. If you learn one scale on guitar, learn this one.
5 fretboard positions in standard tuning, low string on the left. Every dot is a note of the scale and the number inside it is the scale degree, so you can see the shape and the theory at once.
root notescale notenumbers inside the dots are scale degrees
Box 1
Open position
When to use it: It lands in open position for this key, so the open strings carry the low notes — easy to play, but the one shape you cannot slide to another key. Start here. The root sits under your first finger on the 6th string, so the whole box moves with the key — slide it up two frets and you are in the next one.
Box 2
Frets 3–6
When to use it: Directly above the root box. Most blues phrasing lives in the overlap: bend the ♭3 here and resolve back down into pattern 1.
Box 3
Frets 5–8
When to use it: The middle of the neck. Good for horizontal runs — you can slide out of it into pattern 2 below or pattern 4 above without repositioning your hand.
Box 4
Frets 7–10
When to use it: Root on the 4th string. This is the shape to reach for when the vocal sits high and you want to answer above it.
Box 5
Frets 10–13
When to use it: The lowest box in the set. It puts the ♭7 under the 6th string, which is why it feels like the turnaround shape.
5 notes, built off E with the formula 1 · ♭3 · 4 · 5 · ♭7. Five notes, five boxes, and roughly half of all recorded guitar solos. Pattern 1 is movable, so once you can play it in one key you can play it in twelve.
With 5 notes there is no seven-chord diatonic set to stack. What matters instead is which chords this scale fits over: every chord below is built entirely from notes in the scale, so you can solo across it without hitting a note that fights the backing chord.
Scales are not islands. Same notes, different home note gives you the relative scale; same home note, different notes gives you the parallel.
Relative
G Major Pentatonic ScaleIdentical notes, resolved to G instead of E. Every pattern on this page works unchanged.
Parallel
E Major Pentatonic ScaleSame root, different colour. Swapping between the two mid-song is the oldest trick in pop writing.
Matching key
Key of E MinorThe key page has the full diatonic table, the common progressions, and every chord in the key with diagrams.
The E minor pentatonic scale has 5 notes: E, G, A, B, D. The interval formula is 1–♭3–4–5–♭7, counted up from E.
It is not a seven-note scale, so it has no diatonic harmony of its own. The chords whose notes fit entirely inside it are G, Em, Asus2, Dsus2, Gsus2, Asus4, Dsus4, Esus4 — those are safe to solo over with this scale.
Start with Pattern 1 (root box) in open position. It lands in open position for this key, so the open strings carry the low notes — easy to play, but the one shape you cannot slide to another key. Start here. The root sits under your first finger on the 6th string, so the whole box moves with the key — slide it up two frets and you are in the next one.
They use exactly the same notes — E, G, A, B, D — but resolve to different home notes. Play the pattern thinking E and you hear the E minor pentatonic scale; think G and the same shape becomes the G major pentatonic scale.
The patterns above get your fingers moving. These explain what the notes are actually doing, so you can use the scale instead of just running it.
6 min read
Pentatonic Scales — Five Notes That Always WorkFive notes, none of them wrong — the full case for this scale.
5 min read
Major and Minor Scales — Built from Intervals, Felt in SongsThe two notes pentatonic leaves out, and why dropping them makes soloing easier.
7 min read
The 12-Bar Blues — Three Chords, A Century of HitsMinor pentatonic over a 12-bar blues is the first solo most players ever play.