Guitar Pentatonic Scales...
the smart (easy) way!

Learning guitar pentatonic scales is one of the first steps to soloing and improvisation.

Understanding pentatonics and their relationship(s) to the fretboard opens the door to full command of the guitar.

This article is divided into 2 sections. The first covers the basics of pentatonic scales. The second section builds on the first, and explains how to actually apply this knowledge in practice. Enjoy!

Be sure to check out the links at the bottom of this article to explore more on pentatonic scales and the guitar (there is a lot to discover).

1. Pentatonic Scales - The Basics:

As their name says, pentatonic scales contain 5 notes:

C Major Pentatonic Scale: C D E G A"Penta" means 5 in latin.

There are only 2 basic kinds of pentatonic scales: Major and Minor.

C Major Pentatonic Scale: C D E G A                A Minor Pentatonic Scale: A C D E G

In fact, they are called relative Major and Minor pentatonic scales.
This means -for instance, in the case of C Major Pentatonic- that C Major Pent and A Minor Pent are composed of the EXACT SAME notes...

...in different order.

Another very important basic fact about these scales is that they all contain either a major or a minor triad.
This means that they all contain the Root (1), a third (major or minor, 3), the perfect fifth (5), and 2 other notes:

Major and minor pentatonic scales, and their corresponding triads.

2. Guitar Pentatonic Scales, the smart way:
Harmonic and Melodic Fingerings

If we don't stretch our fingers beyond one finger per fret, we have two basic ways of playing any pentatonic scale.

All pentatonic scales contain triads, remember?
The way this plays out on the fretboard is that our basic options for playing any pent are 2:

Example of a Harmonic Fingering Pattern,
Major Pentatonic Scale

we call this a Harmonic Fingering:

You will notice that all three notes in the three major triad are on separate strings, which makes it possible to play them all at once.

Example of a Melodic Fingering Pattern,
Major Pentatonic Scale

as an arpeggio, we call it a Melodic Fingering:

You will notice that the 3rd and the 5th of the C Major triad are on a single string. This makes it impossible to play all three notes at once...

This principle holds true for all guitar pentatonic scales, which means we have 2 scales (major and minor) and 2 ways of playing each (harmonic and melodic fingerings) for a total of 4 fingering patterns.
Major Pentatonic Scales

These are the two basic ways of playing Major Pentatonic Scales on guitar:

These are the two ways of playing Minor Pentatonic Scales on guitar:

This may seem a little complicated, but our job at GTiD is to make hard things easy... so hold on!
As it happens, harmonic and melodic fingering patterns are inter-related. This makes it very easy to learn them, through understanding.

Let's take all 4 diagrams, again, in the same order, and put them all together. Take a look at this:

Guitar Pentatonic Scales:
The relationships between major and minor harmonic and melodic fingering patterns.

If the relationships between these diagrams are not clear yet, take a look at this:

Correlation 1: Major Harmonic and Minor Melodic

Take the major harmonic fingering pattern and the minor melodic fingering pattern...

and...

Presto!

These two fingering patterns are the same, except you start on a different note. This should be obvious if we consider that these scales always come in pairs: remember relative major and minor pentatonic scales?

Knowing this allows you to choose where and how you finger depending on whether you want to play chords or melody.

Let's now take the minor harmonic fingering pattern and the major melodic fingering pattern...

and...

Presto!

Again, these two fingering patterns are the same, except you start on a different note (and in this case, a different string). This should be obvious if we consider that these scales always come in pairs: remember relative major and minor pentatonic scales?

Knowing this allows you to choose where and how you finger depending on whether you want to play chords or melody.

With only 2 patterns, we have learned 2 ways of playing 2 different guitar pentatonic scales (which in the end we realized were the same thing): 2 stones, 4 birds. Cool, huh?!

Now you have learned and understood the basic patterns behind guitar pentatonic scales. The next step is to find out how they relate to diatonic scales, guitar modes. This will allow you to understand, play, and improvise much more complex melodic patterns.

Other articles on pentatonic scales you may be interested in:

Guitar Scales: Section Overview

1. Scales and Modes from A to Z: section index
2. Guitar Pentatonic Scales
3. Guitar Modes... the smart (easy) way

Extra article for the (extra) curious: Musical Scales, their origin and nature.

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