Minor Pentatonic Scale

What Are The Notes Of The Pentatonic Minor Scale

There are two types of pentatonic scales, major and minor pentatonic. The minor pentatonic scale is the most commonly learnt of the guitar scales, especially by people learning lead guitar or rock guitar and is the one covered in this lesson.
Actually, the major pentatonic scales and the minor pentatonic scales are the same, they're just played in a different place.

The scale can be played in five positions on the guitar fretboard forming five box patterns. We'll start off with the E Minor pentatonic scale. I'm not going to go into any theory about how this scale works, I'm just going to show you the notes in it. The first pentatonic box is shown in the tab below with root note on the open low e string.

e |----------------|----------------|--------0---3---|
B |----------------|----------------|0---3-----------|
G |----------------|--------0---2---|----------------|
D |----------------|0---2-----------|----------------|
A |--------0---2---|----------------|----------------|
E |0---3-----------|----------------|----------------|

This is the fretboard diagram for the first box:

E Minor Pentatonic Scale - First Box

This tab shows the second box:

e |----------------|----------------|--------3---5---|
B |----------------|----------------|3---5-----------|
G |----------------|--------2---4---|----------------|
D |----------------|2---5-----------|----------------|
A |--------2---5---|----------------|----------------|
E |3---5-----------|----------------|----------------|

And the diagram for the second box:

E Minor Pentatonic Scale - Second Box

Third box tab:

e |----------------|----------------|--------5---7---|
B |----------------|----------------|5---8-----------|
G |----------------|--------4---7---|----------------|
D |----------------|5---7-----------|----------------|
A |--------5---7---|----------------|----------------|
E |5---7-----------|----------------|----------------|

Third box diagram:

E Minor Pentatonic Scale - Third Box

Fourth box tab:

e |-----------------|----------------|--------7---10---|
B |-----------------|----------------|8---10-----------|
G |-----------------|--------7---9---|-----------------|
D |-----------------|7---9-----------|-----------------|
A |--------7---10---|----------------|-----------------|
E |7---10-----------|----------------|-----------------|

Fourth box diagram:

E Minor Pentatonic Scale - Fourth Box

Fifth Box Tab:

e |-----------------|------------------|--------10---12---|
B |-----------------|------------------|10---12-----------|
G |------------------|--------9---12---|------------------|
D |------------------|9---12-----------|------------------|
A |--------10---12---|-----------------|------------------|
E |10---12-----------|-----------------|------------------|

Fifth box diagram:

E Minor Pentatonic Scale - Fifth Box

After the fifth box, it starts again at the first box, same notes but one octave higher:

e |------------------|------------------|--------12---15---|
B |------------------|------------------|12---15-----------|
G |------------------|--------12---14---|------------------|
D |------------------|12---14-----------|------------------|
A |--------12---14---|------------------|------------------|
E |12---15-----------|------------------|------------------|

And this is the fretboard diagram:

E Minor Pentatonic Scale - First Box One Octave Higher

Finally, this diagram shows all the notes of the E Minor pentatonic scale right up to fret 24:

E Minor Pentatonic Scale - All Notes

You should start to practice playing this scale in the different positions with a metronome. Play single notes per beat, two notes per beat, and three notes per beat. Practice going up and down the scale and increase the speed when you are ready.

I'll show you the minor pentatonic scale in different keys in another lesson and what to do when you start in a higher key and run out of fretboard to fit all the boxes in.