The Pentatonic Scale, pt. II - scale fingering patters

 Last month was the first in a series of posts regarding the pentatonic scale and this month I'll continue by delving into fingering patterns. 

It may be a bold statement, but I would venture to say when most guitarists are first introduced to the pentatonic scale through the minor form. The minor pentatonic scale uses five scale tones which can be extracted from a major scale (see last month's post). As an example we will be using A minor pentatonic: A C D E G. 

                        A.                                                                            B.

The five notes of the scale are generally expanded over two octaves spread across the six strings (diagram A). Following "the one finger per fret rule" the fingering pattern of those notes are indicated in diagram B. Many students are introduced to the scale using only the fingering pattern, but students should understand that the finger patterns are not arbitrary! The fingering pattern is used because that's where the notes of the scale are! 

Click here to get a PDF copy of the minor pentatonic scale pattern complete with notation and tab.

Next month I'll explore simple licks students can use to start soloing.