The ubiquitous pentatonic scale. Five notes that have forever shaped the way guitarists play rock, metal, blues, jazz, country, and polka (well, maybe not polka). Everybody knows the minor pentatonic scale, and everyone uses it. The question is, are you using it to its fullest potential? Are you only playing it over minor blues or rock jams, or can you play it in all situations?

The Pentatonic Primer

Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, let’s have a quick review. A pentatonic scale is a five-note scale. The two most common types are the Major Pentatonic and the Minor Pentatonic. A Major pentatonic scale would be the 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 scale degrees of a major scale, so in the key of C Major the notes would be:

C Major Pentatonic Scale

A Minor Pentatonic can be thought of two ways:

1. Rearrange the notes of the Major Pentatonic by starting on the 6th. So, in the key of C you get an A Minor Pentatonic scale – A, C, D, E, G
2. Thinking solely in a minor key (not relating to a major key at all), a Minor Pentatonic scale would be the 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 scale degrees. For example, here is the A Minor Pentatonic scale:

A Minor Pentatonic Scale

Beyond Basic Usage

As you all know, the basic usage for these scales would be to play a C Major Pentatonic scale over a C Major chord, and an A Minor Pentatonic scale over an A Minor chord. These sound great, of course, and millions of songs have been recorded using this method. Normally, we think the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it approach” works best, but at least for me this gets pretty boring after playing for 25 years. I can only play A Minor Pentatonic over an A Minor chord for so long before I want to claw my eyes out with boredom.

So how can we use these pentatonic scales to go beyond the norm and spice things up a bit…

Minor Pentatonic One 1/2 Step Below a Major Chord

Let’s start with a CMaj7 chord – C, E, G, B. If you play a Minor Pentatonic scale starting 1/2 step below the root of the major chord, you get some very interesting color tones:

B Minor Pentatonic Over CMaj7 Chord

As you can see, playing this Minor Pentatonic scale adds some textures, with the 9th, #11, and 13th. By related this minor pentatonic to its major counterpart, you see that for a CMaj7 chord you can play either the B Minor or D Major Pentatonic scales (same scales, starting on different notes). Depending on how you phrase your lines, you can give emphasis to the 7th or 9th of the C Major chord.

Minor Pentatonic One Whole Step Below a Dom7 Chord

Since we used C Major in the previous example, let’s stay in that key and talk about the G7 chord – G, B, D, F. Over this chord you can play a Minor Pentatonic scale located one whole step below the root of the Dom7 chord; in this case, F Minor Pentatonic:

F Minor Pentatonic Over G7 Chord

Again, some nice color tones, especially with the b9, #9, and #5. Relating it to the Major Pentatonic, you can play either F Minor or Ab Major pentatonic scales over a G7 chord.

Any Others?

Well, sure! But, it all depends on how normal and “in” or crazy and “out” you want to sound. For example, over the G7 chord you can also play a D Minor Pentatonic scale, but it’s going to sound a bit dry because it gives you the 5th, 7th, root, 9th, and 11th. Or, you can play C Minor Pentatonic and get the 11th, #5, 7th, root, and #9. You need to be careful of this one, however, because landing on the #9 too much will start to sound like you are playing a min/Maj7 chord instead.

You can also go completely nuts and play something like a C# Minor Pentatonic over a G7 and get the #11th, 13th, Maj7 (be careful of this!), b9, and 3rd. This sounds rather odd in most cases, and you must beware of the 7th since a Dom7 chord has a b7, but it can be used if done with confidence.

Experiment and, most importantly, have fun. It make take a little while to get some of the sounds into your ear, but once you do it will really open your playing up and get you out of the box you might be playing in.