Pentatonic Scale: Breaking Out of the Pentatonic Rut
Published on 26 February 2025
Disclaimer: The information in this article is provided by the guest blogger and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of guitarguitar.
Music doesn't always have to be complicated. In fact, a plethora of beautiful and iconic songs across various genres have been created using a selection of just five notes. If you've been playing guitar for a while now, you might have already guessed that I'm referring to the minor pentatonic scale. So much musical goodness can be created with the minor pentatonic scale that it can often be hard to stray away from it. If you're one of many guitarists that struggle to break out of the minor pentatonic box, this lesson is for you! We're going to take a look at how to use the familiar shape of the minor pentatonic, and transform it into three new scales with small changes!
Be sure to watch the video below to see in detail how each scale is crafted, how to visualise them, and most importantly, how to use them across the fretboard!
Minor Pentatonic
Before we dive into all of the changes we're going to make, we need to make sure that we really understand how the minor pentatonic scale works. The five notes needed to build the minor pentatonic are the 1, b3, 4, 5 and b7. These are the five intervals needed to play the minor pentatonic in any key, but for this lesson, we're going to focus on A minor pentatonic, as it has no accidentals (the collective term for sharps and flats). Therefore, the notes that create the A minor pentatonic would be A, C, D, E and G.
Check out the images below to visualise how the A minor pentatonic can be played on the fretboard.
If the concept of naming intervals is new to you, be sure to check out our harmony course! It will guide you through the language of scales, how they're built, and how to use them in a musical context!
If I've just caused a bit of confusion by saying we're using a scale that has no sharps or flats in it, yet the minor pentatonic has a b3 and b7, I'm simply referring to the quality of the interval. The major scale is always used as the foundation in music theory, meaning that the b3 and b7 in the minor pentatonic are simply flattened degrees of the major scale.
Let's compare A major and A minor to make sense of this. A major is made up of the following notes: A, B, C#, D, E, F# and G#, whereas A minor has the notes of A, B, C, D, E, F and G. Therefore, to transform the major scale to the minor, we need to flatten the 3rd, 6th and 7th degrees. This is something to remember for later in the lesson!
One final thing before we move onto the first scale transformation - attached below is a lick in A minor that we're going to use as the framework to put all of the new scales into practice.
A minor pentatonic lick:
Blues Scale
I'm sure this doesn't come as a huge surprise to some of you, but the first and easiest way to add some flavour to the minor pentatonic is to add the b5 degree (Eb), also known as the blue note, which creates the blues scale. This is the note that exists between the fourth and fifth degree of the scale, and naturally holds a significant amount of musical tension when played against the root note. Many fantastic players implement this note in their playing to create those heart-wrenching moments in blues music, as the tension created evokes a real emotional response in us.
Think of the blue note as salt - it tends to make most dishes better, but too much of it doesn't taste or feel good. If we use the blue note too frequently, not only will it become quite jarring as it clashes with the harmony, but it also becomes a bit too predictable, and loses its evocative powers.
Be sure to check out the diagram below to see how we can add this note into the minor pentatonic scale shape. I've also tweaked the initial lick we learned and added the b5 interval to help you put it into practice.
A blues lick:
Natural Minor
As we've just discovered, adding just one note to the minor pentatonic can have a huge impact on the overall sound. So, what would happen if we added two notes? If we introduce both the 2nd (B) and b6 (F) degree to the minor pentatonic, we would have transformed it into the natural minor scale (also commonly known as just the minor scale). The natural minor is actually the framework for which the minor pentatonic is taken from, which explains why we label the five intervals as 1, b3, 4, 5 and b7, as opposed to just 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
So why does adding these two notes make such a big difference? The obvious answer is that we simply have more harmonic tools at our disposal. Another reason is that the 2nd and b6 degree are the two remaining notes that allow us to target all of the notes in the triads of the underlying harmony.
Being able to target the notes that create the underlying chord will massively improve your phrasing, as it allows you to control the build-up and resolution of tension. It can often be too tempting to constantly resolve to the root of the overarching scale, which leads to repetitive phrasing. Targeting the other notes that create the underlying chord can be a great way to resolve tension, while allowing you to create a more interesting contour with your melodies!
Let's understand this in a bit more depth by looking at this chord progression as an example: Am, F, G, Em. The second chord, F major, is comprised of the notes F, A and C, and the third chord, G major, is built with G, B and D. As we can see, the construction of these two chords relies on the notes of the natural minor scale. Therefore, adding the notes B and F will give you more choice on how to emphasise each chord by being able to target all three notes of each triad.
Try this natural minor version of the lick over the Am, F, G, Em chord progression to hear how the introduction of the 2nd and b6 really brings out a new flavour! Try our how to learn licks course to come up with your own tasty lead lines with these newly learned scales!
A natural minor lick:
Music is all about telling a story through the use of the build-up and resolution of tension. And though I strongly encourage you to introduce the use of targeting notes of the underlying chords into your lead playing, please don't be afraid to explore what notes sound best to you over certain chords.
Harmonic Minor
The last scale we're going to tackle is the harmonic minor scale. This is just a slightly tweaked version of the natural minor scale we've just been practicing, but adds a whole new level of tension and flavour! The harmonic minor shares 6 out of 7 notes with the natural minor, with the one difference bring the 7th degree. We simply need to raise the minor 7th (G) to a major 7th (G#).
Though we're raising the minor 7 to the major 7, it has a darker sound than the natural minor, as it creates more tension in the harmony. I would recommend using the major 7 (G#) in a similar way to the blue note/b5 (Eb) - in moments where you want to create tension, or as a passing note to inject some flavour!
An important note on the harmonic minor - we need to consider the affect that raising the 7th degree has on the harmony to really get the best out of the scale. To do this, let's revisit the chord progression mentioned earlier in this lesson - Am, F, G, Em. Both G major and E minor have the minor 7 (G natural) in their triads: G B, D, and E, G, B. Therefore, playing the major 7 (G#) over these two chords would create a semi-tone clash between the G natural and G#, which doesn't sound too pleasing in most cases…
So, we have two choices - either change the G natural to a G# in the chords, or, we can avoid the G# over these two chords altogether. My advice would be a happy medium - avoid the G# over the G major chord, and change the G natural to a G# in the E minor chord, to change it to an E major chord. This creates the very grand cadence of a major V chord, to the minor I chord - one example of the beauty of the harmonic minor scale! If you need a bit more guidance with chord theory, we're here to help with our scale harmonisation course!
And one final time - here's the version of the lick in A harmonic minor. I'd recommend trying it over the chord progression of Am, F, G, and E - I'm confident you'll love this small change!
A harmonic minor lick:
Try them all together!
I sincerely hope that this lesson has helped opened some doors for you, and will help you take your playing to the next level! Once you feel comfortable with each of the scales individually, try blending them all together to create brand new melodies and discover all the beautiful music you're capable of composing. There are no 'wrongs' in the wonderful world of music, so trust your ears and play what sounds best to you.
Whether you feel like you've mastered the concept of changing the pentatonic scale, or would like a bit more guidance, Guitar Club is always there to help! With access to an extensive range of courses covering a vast amount of essential guitar topics, you'll become the player you've wanted to be in no time! Sign up for free for 7 days and be confident learning from mentors that genuinely want you to succeed! We look forward to seeing you there soon!
Author: Mark Shoebottom
Bio: Mark has been sharing his passion of guitar with students for over a decade, and is now working with the amazing team at Your Guitar Academy / Guitar Club. He has also worked with various bands, but now focuses more on his instrumental project - Inflexion. Be sure to swing by the Guitar Club to access all the content you'll need to take your playing to the next level, as well as many more free lessons!
