Pentatonic guitar scales are usually the first venture outside of chords for most beginners. Pentatonic scales are used in rock & blues guitar music, and are the easiest of most scales to learn since there are one 5 possible variations of shapes to memorize for every possible key you can play in.
This article is going to explain what a pentatonic scale is, show you the first of five shapes you will need to learn and provide an example in A minor using this first shape.
What is a Pentatonic Guitar Scale?
Pentatonic guitar scales are scales made up of only 5 different notes. While you play more then 5 notes during the sale on the neck you only play 5 different notes, that is you play some notes more then once in a different octave. Compared to other scales that contain 7 or more notes, the pentatonic scale is the easiest for beginners to master & memorize.
The A Minor Pentatonic Guitar Scale
Before I describe the scale I want to first show you what it looks like on the guitar neck, you can see it in the first illustration below. Assume that this diagram starts at the fourth fret of your guitar neck, so the second fret in from the left would actually be fret number five.
This diagram shows you first what notes you play during the A minor pentatonic scale in the first shape. Notice how there are 12 notes to be played, how ever there are only 5 different notes: A, C, D G and E.
e|——|–1—|——|——|—4–|——
B|——|–1—|——|——|—4–|——
G|——|–1—|——|—3–|——|——
D|——|–1—|——|—3–|——|——
A|——|–1—|——|—3–|——|——
E|——|–1—|——|——|—4–|——
To understand what fingers to use where I’ve included this second diagram. Keep in mind that we’re assuming the image is starting at the 4th fret, so for the first note you’d be placing for first finger on the 5th fret of the low E string.
e|——|–A—|——|——|—C–|——
B|——|–E—|——|——|—G–|——
G|——|–C—|——|—D–|——|——
D|——|–G—|——|—A–|——|——
A|——|–D—|——|—E–|——|——
E|——|–A—|——|——|—C–|——
Moving this Pentatonic Shape Around the Neck
The great thing about pentatonic guitar scales is the shapes which form the scale (such as the diagram listed above) can be used all over the neck. This example is in the key of A minor, what if you wanted to play it in the Key of G?
Changing the key is easy, slide the shape back two frets and have your starting note now on the 3rd fret of the low E string and you playing in the key of G. By following the exact same pattern but moving everything back two frets you’ll be playing the G major pentatonic scale.
There are 5 different shapes you can play for each key of the pentatonic scales, this is the first. This is an easy position to start with since the root note of the scale is the first note played.
I suggest you go grab you’re guitar and give this scale a go on your own, playing it forwards and backwards. When learning scales with either online guitar lessons, a book or even private lessons learning the material is similar, but practice is what makes it perfect.
If this stuff is a little over your head, don’t worry, you may want to consider trying a beginning guitar dvd. Learning guitar from DVD videos is becoming very popular and is far less expensive then private lessons.