Major Pentatonic vs Minor Pentatonic – and How to Combine Them — Pathfinder Guitar

The first scale most guitarists learn is the minor pentatonic scale.

It’s versatile, it’s easy and is used in a good 90% of the memorable guitar solos we know and love.

Eventually, you’ll probably feel it’s a bit limiting in isolation. So where should you go next?

One often overlooked alternative is the major pentatonic – a scale which is not as different as you might think.

Recap: What is the Minor Pentatonic Scale?

In musical terms, the minor pentatonic scale is made up of 5 notes. We often refer to these notes as:

1 – b3 – 4 – 5 -b7

which is really just comparing it to the notes of a major scale.

For example, a C Major Scale is made up of C – D – E – F – G – A – B. We count C as 1, D as 2, E as 3 and so on.

So, using that knowledge, a C Minor Pentatonic Scale is made up of the notes:

C – Eb – F – G – Bb

All of these notes also appear in the C Natural Minor Scale, so you could also think of it as a cut down Natural Minor Scale if you’d prefer.