The 5 Pentatonic Scale Shapes You Must Know
In order to learn how to solo and improvise in blues and rock you must know the 5 pentatonic scale shapes. A lot of blues players tend to get stuck in the first pentatonic scale shape, but to be truly free and improvise across the entire fretboard you need to know all the shapes.
And it’s not just about that. Every shape gives it’s own sound and feeling to a guitar lick. This is where the magic happens. This is where the coolness and the beauty comes through all these different shapes. They all got their own personality.
Learn all the shapes thoroughly and when you do also learn them in different keys. It is a lot of work, but it is important that you do, so take your time with it. Practice with focus and dedication.
The examples below are all in the key of A, but you can play these shapes in every key, just move the shapes up and down the neck. The red notes are showing the root notes of the scale, so in the scale shapes below they are all A notes.
If you want to play the shapes in the key of G for example, all you need to do is move them 2 half steps down. (a half step is a one fret distance) If you want to play the shapes in the key of E move up 7 half steps, etc, etc.
Good luck and enjoy!
e:------------------------5-8-5-----------------------------------------|
B:--------------------5-8-------8-5-------------------------------------|
G:---------------5-7----------------7-5---------------------------------|
D:----------5-7-------------------------7-5-----------------------------|
A:-----5-7----------------------------------7-5-------------------------|
E:-5-8------------------------------------------8-5---------------------|
e:----------------------------8-10-8------------------------------------|
B:----------------------8-10----------10-8------------------------------|
G:-----------------7-9---------------------9-7--------------------------|
D:------------7-10------------------------------10-7--------------------|
A:------7-10-----------------------------------------10-7---------------|
E:-8-10----------------------------------------------------10-8---------|
e:------------------------------10-12-10--------------------------------|
B:------------------------10-13----------13-10--------------------------|
G:-------------------9-12----------------------12-9---------------------|
D:-------------10-12--------------------------------12-10---------------|
A:-------10-12--------------------------------------------12-10---------|
E:-10-12--------------------------------------------------------12-10---|
e:-------------------------------12-15-12-------------------------------|
B:-------------------------13-15----------15-13-------------------------|
G:-------------------12-14----------------------14-12-------------------|
D:-------------12-14----------------------------------14-12-------------|
A:-------12-15----------------------------------------------15-12-------|
E:-12-15----------------------------------------------------------15-12-|
e:-------------------------------15-17-15-------------------------------|
B:-------------------------15-17----------17-15-------------------------|
G:-------------------14-17----------------------17-14-------------------|
D:-------------14-17----------------------------------17-14-------------|
A:-------15-17----------------------------------------------17-15-------|
E:-15-17----------------------------------------------------------17-15-|
(1 octave lower = 12 half steps down)
e:------------------------3-5-3-----------------------------------------|
B:--------------------3-5-------5-3-------------------------------------|
G:---------------2-5----------------5-2---------------------------------|
D:----------2-5-------------------------5-2-----------------------------|
A:-----3-5----------------------------------5-3-------------------------|
E:-3-5------------------------------------------5-3---------------------|
Feel free to leave a comment. I’d appreciate it.
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Thanks, Klaus Tol
This is a great post.
I am a guitarist and the very first thing I learned was the 5 pentatonic positions.
So important. Nice work..
Hey Dan,
Indeed very important to master the blues.
Thanx.
Klaus
Hi Klaus
great site and very informative.
Hi Tom,
Thanx for the compliment.
Glad you like it!
Klaus
Great website. Ive been searching everywhere to learn how to improv with little success. But this has helped me so much.
Thank you!
Hi Seth,
I’m glad I could help you out.
I’ll add more improvisation tools in future posts.
Klaus Tol
May I just say that I totally love you for this ^^
Hi Alex,
Enjoy the shapes. Practice well.
Klaus Tol
I can’t stop playing these scales now! thanks Klaus :D
Hey Mark,
Good for you!
Once you can play all the shapes, start playing each shape a half step up, a half step down or 2 half steps down, etc. Try to play them every where on the neck, so you learn to think in shapes and not in frets.
It’s a great exercise and you’ll benefit from it.
Klaus
These patterns are very important. Strange though My 2 guitar teachers, one who is self taught and played for 25 years plays awesome jazz has a great band and shreds to anything, and my other teacher who is in a Hendrix tribute band also plays great. I showed both of my teachers the other four positions. These teachers are great even though… One of them I brought to an open mike he played blues (lead) over the resident guitarist and everybody in the room was very impressed.
Excellent post and video. Really helps out. :)
These posts have been so extremely helpful in bringing me to the next level of my guitar playing. Thank you so much for all the time you put into these lessons, I really appreciate it.
Hi there,
I’ve just discovered your website and am finding it very useful.
I understand how to move it to go into different keys but say you wanted to play in the key of C, would that mean that all the scales would start from the 7th fret of the E string? Im confused how you would play the scales on the earlier frets for a key such as C or D.
Hi klaus, just wanted to compliment you on a great website, im on here all the time, videos and tutorials u do here are fantastic, u have simplicity in your teaching, and I being somewhat of a beginner/intermediate player its taught me alot. If you could do a lesson on triads formations(more complex and some simple) id greatly appreciate it!
Not too shabby!
Z
@FretZeroMusic
Why not just play the five Blues positions. You would just be adding the blue note and it sounds so much better. (To me anyway)
Hi Peter,
I totally agree on that. The blue note is the b5 (flatted fifth).
So now we’ve got:
Minor pentatonic = 1, b3, 4, 5, b7
Blues scale = 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7
Best regards,
Klaus