In this article, I’m going to introduce you to the minor pentatonic scale, explain where it comes from (and why you should care), and give you some tips on how to use and recognise it in the real world.

The minor pentatonic scale is a staple of rock and blues guitar, which is also quite common in metal, punk, and other genres of music influenced by those styles. As implied by ‘pentatonic’ in the name, the minor pentatonic scale is a five note scale which shares its scale notes with the natural minor scale.

While the two scales share notes, the use and overall sound of the minor pentatonic scale is quite different from the natural minor scale. The examples below show the A natural minor scale and A minor pentatonic scale.

A Natural Minor Scale (click to enlarge)

Listen to the A Natural Minor Scale

A Minor Pentatonic Scale (click to enlarge)

Listen to the A Minor Pentatonic Scale

Consonance and Dissonance

The only difference between these two scales is that the 2 and flat-6 notes are removed from the natural minor scale to form the minor pentatonic scale. This is why the two sound slightly different from one another. These two notes also happen to be the most dissonant notes in the natural minor scale.

Dissonance essentially means these notes clash against the root note of the scale.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is the reason the two scales can be so similar and be used and sound noticeably different. The example below gives an audible example of this idea of dissonance. The first two bars have consonant notes over a background rhythm guitar playing A power chords. The second two bars have the dissonant 2 and flat-6 notes over the same rhythm guitar:

Consonance and Dissonance with the Natural Minor Scale (click to enlarge)

Listen for the consonant and dissonant notes

The nice part of the minor pentatonic scale that tends to appeal to guitarists and other improvisors is that all of the notes in the scale are consonant notes to varying degrees. Listen to the entire pentatonic scale over the same rhythm guitar part, and notice how all of the notes fit fairly well on top of the rhythm guitar:

The minor pentatonic scale sticks to the consonant notes (click to enlarge)

Listen to the consonant notes

Recognizing the Scale

Both the natural minor scale and minor pentatonic scale have the same overall minor feel. The difference in recognizing the two scales is listening for the 2 and flat-6 notes. The following example has a simple lead guitar part over eight bars. Four of those bars have the minor pentatonic scale and four have the natural minor pentatonic scale:

Solo mixing the natural minor and minor pentatonic scales (click to enlarge)

Solo 1: Try to identify the natural minor and minor pentatonic sections

The following example is a little tougher. Again, four bars of the following example are the natural minor scale and four bars are the minor pentatonic scale, but there are some more advanced guitar techniques thrown in, and the natural minor scale section has less emphasis on the 2 and flat-6 notes than the above example:

A tougher example - try to distinguish natural minor from minor pentatonic (click to enlarge)

Solo 2: Try to identify the natural minor and minor pentatonic sections

Further Training

The best method to get comfortable recognizing the difference between the minor pentatonic scale and the natural pentatonic scale is to practice playing both. The more you use either scale in your own playing, the better you will get recognizing the scales. The sound of a scale is reinforced each time it is played.

Song writing is also a good way to hone your aural skills. The different nuances of both scales will be reinforced as you use either one to create a song. You will typically find the minor pentatonic scale unsuited for certain songs because the 2 and flat-6 notes are required to create certain moods in a song. On the other hand, there may be instances where you set out to use the natural minor scale and never use the 2 or flat-6 notes, and so effectively only use the minor pentatonic scale.

Playing and using the scales in your music is the most effective way to reinforce the basic ear training and learn to recognize both scales.



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Edit: Thanks to alert reader Matthew F. for pointing out the typo in the third paragraph: The natural minor’s second degree isn’t flat! Apologies to any readers who may have been confused by that one.