Pentatonic Scales

Penta is the Greek root word for five. So a pentatonic scale consists of only 5 different notes. While there are many possibilities for arranging 5 different notes to create a scale, we are going to look at the 2 most common. They are major pentatonic, and minor pentatonic.

In order to fully understand how pentatonic scales are constructed, you should have an understanding of how to construct basic 7 note major and minor scales. Because pentatonic scales are derived from them.

A major scale is just a pattern of whole steps and half steps (W W H W W W H). A C major scale consists of the natural notes from C to C (no sharps or flats). Each note in the scale is assigned a number from 1 to 7. These numbers are very important to your understanding of music theory. As you are looking at different scales and chords, you will be using these numbers to help understand how they are constructed. The major scale is the constant to which you will be comparing everything else to.

C D E F G A B C - C major scale
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 - scale functions

If you rearrange the notes of a C major scale to go from A to A instead of C to C, this is an A minor or A natural minor scale. It has it's own pattern of whole steps and half steps (W H W W H W W) So a C major scale and A minor scale consist of the same notes, just in a different order. If you apply this pattern of whole steps and half steps to the notes from C - C, you will have to flat the E, A and B notes. This is a C minor scale. You can now see the difference between major and minor by comparing C minor to the C major scale. Since E was the 3rd note in a C major scale, Eb now is labeled with the function "b3". So the minor scale has a b3, b6, and b7 in comparison to the major scale. These numbers are referred to as the formula for a scale.

The formula for a natural minor scale is 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C - C minor scale
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 1 - scale functions

A major pentatonic scale comes from a major scale by removing the 4th and 7th degrees. So a major pentatonic scale consists of only the 1 2 3 5 6 of the major scale.

C D E F G A B C - C major scale
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 - scale functions

It may seem funny, but the formula for a major pentatonic scale is 1 2 3 5 6. The G may be the 4th note in a major pentatonic scale, but it is not considered a "4". Remember that the numbers that you see in music are in relationship to the major scale. And in a C major scale G is the 5th note.