C Minor pentatonic Scale
C Minor pentatonic contains 5 notes: C, E♭, F, G, B♭. It has 2 flats: E♭, B♭. The step pattern is W+H–W–W–W+H–W.
The most popular scale in rock and blues guitar, hands down. Its five gritty, soulful notes are behind countless riffs and solos. If you only learn one scale for improvising, this is the one.
Formed by stripping the natural minor scale down to five notes, removing the 2nd and 6th degrees. The formula is 1, b3, 4, 5, b7. No half-step intervals means no clashing notes — it's extremely forgiving. Add a flat 5th between the 4th and 5th and you get the six-note blues scale.
Played using five interlocking box shapes, with Box 1 (the 'blues box') being the pattern every guitarist learns first. Start at the root on the low E string and you've got two notes per string in a comfortable stretch. Bending the b3 up toward the major 3rd is one of the most important expressive techniques in this scale.
Even though it's a 'minor' scale, blues and rock guitarists constantly play it over dominant 7th chords to create that gritty tension. The clash between the b3 in the scale and the major 3rd in the chord is the heart of the blues sound. Learn to connect all five boxes and you own the entire fretboard.
- Paranoid - Black Sabbath
- Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
- Back in Black - AC/DC
- Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley
- Are You Gonna Go My Way - Lenny Kravitz