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alteration is that you need to omit the second and the sixth
notes from the minor scale.
Here is the "equation" of the minor pentatonic, have a look at
how it relates to the natural minor scale steps as well:

I II III IV V VI VII I

Minor scale 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 1

Minor 1 b3 4 5 b7 1
pentatonic

The intervals used to construct the minor pentatonic are

important to remember, since when you'll be playing in any
given key, you will often refer to the "flat third" or the "fifth",
instead of naming out the notes.

MINOR PENTATONIC
SCALE SHAPES ON
GUITAR
You may already know the intervals between the notes of the
minor pentatonic scale, and can also play its first shape. But
did you know that there are 4 other forms to the minor
pentatonic?
The different shapes are predefined by the scale intervals
themselves, and serve as a visual guide to guitarists, helping
us remember the scale pattern.

The 5 forms of the minor pentatonic make it possible to

play the scale in any key anywhere on the fretboard. Here are
the 5 forms of the minor pentatonic connected across the
fretboard in the key of E.

There are a couple of important things to note on the above

image:

The gray circles are the root note of the scale, so in this
instance, E.

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After shape 5, you would repeat from shape 1 again, since

you are 1 octave above the original starting point.
This pattern of minor pentatonic shapes can be used in any
key. For example, if you wanted to play in the key of F,
you would move the whole thing over by 1 fret, F# would
be moved by 2 frets, G by 3 frets, and so on. When you
move the scale to a different key, all the gray dots (root
notes) will be on the note of the chosen key.
When learning the scale patterns, learning where the root
notes are is very important, since you usually resolve an
improvised solo to the root note of the key.

Now the above diagram may look intimidating, but it's very
nice and logical. Notice that the left side of each shape is the
same as the right side of the shape before it, which means that
even if you forget a shape, you'll be able to deduct it from its
neighbors.

The best way to learn the forms of the minor pentatonic is

to learn each shape one by one. Play each note of the shape up
and down until you get it programmed into your fingers, than
start skipping notes within the shape, and finally start
connecting the shapes. More on that below though.

Minor Pentatonic Shape 1

This is the first, and most well known of the pentatonic forms,
since most people learn this first and somehow forget about
the rest of the fretboard. Don't get me wrong, you can make
up cool solos in this shape alone, but hey, why would you
want to restrict yourself to drinking water all your life, when
life is so sweet out of the box...

Minor Pentatonic Shape 2

This is one of my favorite shapes. It contains "BB's box",
which is just 5 notes that BB King uses religiously. These 5
notes are the highes 5 notes, notice how easy they are to
finger and move in-between. Trust me, you can improvise
massive blues solos with these 5 notes alone, just like BB.

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Minor Pentatonic Shape 3

This is an easy shape to remember, but I personally just use it
passively. However, the notes on the top 2 strings can provide
hours of soulful blues fun.

Minor Pentatonic Shape 4

The fourth shape of the minor pentatonic is probably the
second most used shape, since the notes on the higher 4
strings are easy to finger and provide a barrage of
possibilities.

Minor Pentatonic Shape 5

Again, I usually use pattern 5 passively, mainly to connect
shape 4 and shape 1 (which, if you'll remember, comes after
shape 5 again), or just to slide into the notes of shape 1.

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CONNECTING THE MINOR

PENTATONIC SHAPE
FORMS
After learning the different forms of the pentatonic, you'll
want to start connecting the dots, literally The world is
your oyster, feel free to experiment and move freely
between the shapes. If you mess up, you'll hear it straight
away, since it won't sound right.

To make things a bit easier, know that there are a couple

of popular minor pentatonic patterns that are easy to
remember, and fun to play.
Here are 2 of the most popular patterns in 2 keys I chose at
random. You can play these patterns up, down, left, right,
sideways, or whatever, its your pick. The thing that makes
these patterns terrific is that the notes are always 2 frets
apart, which means you just use your 1st and 3rd to play the
entire pattern. Easy as pie!

I've marked the points where you can connect the different
shape forms, by sliding either your third finger up if you are
playing the scale ascending, or your first finger down if you
are descending in the scale.

Minor Pentatonic Pattern 1 - Key of G

Minor Pentatonic Pattern 2 - Key of D#

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MINOR PENTATONIC
SCALE IN DIFFERENT
KEYS
As you know already, the minor pentatonic scale is a movable
scale. The scale shapes we learned above are all movable.
If you want to see this applied to the various minor keys, click
on the minor pentatonic key of your choice below:

A- Bb- B- C- C#- D- Eb- E- F- F#- G- G#

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