How To Play Major Pentatonics

This scale has 5 notes. It’s a major scale with the 4th and 7th scale degrees omitted.

This makes it very easy for the beginning and intermediate student to improvise with as the player doesn’t have to be concerned with resolving these notes.

All the notes in this scale work great against any major chord. Major7, Major6, Add2, Major9…it’s all works!

The whole/half step pattern for the Major Pentatonic scale is:

W W 1 ½ W 1 ½

Below you’ll find 4 patterns for the Major Pentatonic scale. These fingerings lay nicely under the fingers.

I think any other patterns are a bit redundant and will not aid to learning your way around the fingerboard with this scale.

Sixth String Forms

4th finger form:

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

2nd finger form:

E |-----------------------------------------------10-|
B |-------------------------------------10--12-------|
G |----------------------------9--11-----------------|
D |--------------------9--12-------------------------|
A |------------9--12---------------------------------|
E |--10--12------------------------------------------|

Fifth String Form

4th finger form:

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

2nd finger form:

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

Want To Learn More …

Do you cringe with fear when you hear the word “scales”?

From the feedback of surveyed guitarists the common struggles with scales is that they just don’t understand them at all and find it difficult to use them in your playing.

Sounds quite complex and difficult just to begin with and you haven’t even started learning it yet.  With the right guidance you can make learning about scales, easy and improve your playing all at the same time.

That is why we created a course that is tailored to this exact topic.