Pentatonic Scale

The pentatonic scale is five notes out of the seven in a major or minor scale, with the two most harmonically tense notes removed. The result is a scale that sounds good over almost anything. It's the first scale most guitarists learn, and for many players it remains the primary vehicle for improvisation across blues, rock, country, and a lot of jazz.

Major Pentatonic

Take the major scale and remove the 4th and 7th degrees:

Major scale:   C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C
               1  2  3  4  5  6  7
Pentatonic:    C  D  E     G  A     C
               1  2  3     5  6

Intervals: W - W - m3 - W - m3

Notes in C major pentatonic: C D E G A

Bright, open, unambiguously happy. Country licks, bluegrass melodies, gospel runs — major pentatonic is the sound of the American south. "Oh Susanna," "Amazing Grace," countless folk songs are built on it. Jimi Hendrix used it constantly, often blurring the line between major and minor pentatonic in the same phrase.

Minor Pentatonic

Take the natural minor scale and remove the 2nd and 6th degrees:

Minor scale:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  A
               1  2  3  4  5  6  7
Pentatonic:    A     C  D  E     G  A
               1     3  4  5     7

Intervals: m3 - W - W - m3 - W

Notes in A minor pentatonic: A C D E G

Dark, gritty, immediately recognisable as "rock" or "blues." The opening riff of "Smoke on the Water," the chorus of "Sunshine of Your Love," basically every Led Zeppelin guitar solo — minor pentatonic is the vocabulary of rock guitar. It works over minor chords and dominant seventh chords equally well.

The Relative Relationship

C major pentatonic and A minor pentatonic use the exact same notes (C D E G A). They're the same scale starting from a different root — just as C major and A minor are relative keys. This is why you can often use both over the same chord progression depending on whether you want a major or minor colour.

The Blues Scale

Add one note to the minor pentatonic — the ♭5 (the "blue note") — and you get the blues scale:

A minor pentatonic: A  C  D  E  G
A blues scale:      A  C  D  E♭ E  G
                              ↑
                         blue note (♭5 / #4)

The ♭5 creates the characteristic tension and vocal quality of blues phrasing. You can slide into it, bend from it, use it as a passing tone between D and E — it's colour, not a destination.

Pentatonic Over Jazz Chords

The pentatonic scale can be superimposed over jazz chords to get interesting sounds beyond the obvious choices. Playing Am pentatonic over a G7 chord gives you the 9th, 11th, 5th, 13th, and minor 7th of G — a cluster of rich extensions. McCoy Tyner built his entire harmonic language on this approach. Playing Dm pentatonic over a Cmaj7 gives you the major 9th, 3rd, 11th, 5th, and 13th — a lush, extended sound.