What The F? Minor Pentatonic Scales

Get some essential scale basics down and take your lead playing to new heights

There’s a good chance that you already use the minor pentatonic – it’s probably the most commonly-used scale in rock and blues lead, and players such as Angus Young, Eric Clapton and Jack White frame most of their solos around it. Learn some of the basics of the scale and you can unlock these players’ approaches to phrasing and you’ll have a better understand of their note choice. It’s generally played as a ‘two notes per string’ shape – a useful structure that helps you figure out a suitable two-finger fretting pattern, as well as making down-up style alternate picking easier to use. Let’s pick the essential scale apart.