Pentatonic Scales (Fretboard Diagrams, Standard and Tab Notation)

Entire (Moveable) Guitar Fretboard Diagram of Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales

• Major Pentatonic Scale root notes = Star
• Minor Pentatonic root notes = Triangle
• All the other notes = blue/purple squares
• Use the fretboard note locator table (see below) to pick the key of the pentatonic scale.

Guitar Fretboard Note Locator

How to Use the Fretboard Note Table to Find the Key of a Pentatonic Scale on the Fretboard Diagram

1. What key for the pentatonic scale?
2. For example, say you want to play in a A major pentatonic scale.
3. Look for the note A on the table below.
4. You find 6th string, 5th fret as one instance of A.
5. Look above, to the moveable fretboard pentatonic scale diagram.
6. Find a star (the “root” note of the major pentatonic scale) on the 6th string.
7. Now orient your scale patterns so that triangle is on the 6th string, 5th fret of your guitar!
8. Enjoy!
9. Try singing/humming along to help get the notes/melodies of the scales in your ears.

Guitar Fretboard Note Locator Table

This table goes up to the 15th fret. After the 11th fret, the fretboard repeats itself. This is because (in Western music) there are 12 notes to an octave, so after the 11th note (aka the 11th fret), the note “repeats” – it is just an octave higher (if you go up) or and octave lower (if you go down).

So the 12th fret is the same as the open strings, the 13th fret, the same as the 1st fret. The 14th fret is the same as the 2nd fret. Basically once you get to the 12th fret, just subtract 12 and you’ll know which notes to use.

You can see how it works in the table for any note on the the 12th-15th frets. They’ll be the same as the notes on the 0 (open strings) -3rd frets.

Standard and Tab Notation – A minor and C major Pentatonic Scales

PDF of A minor and C Major Pentatonic-Scales (Tab and Standard Notation), 2 octaves

The corresponding scale diagram for A minor Pentatonic (5th fret) and C major Pentatonic (8th fret – red square is C)

Fretboard Diagrams of Pentatonic Scales (1st Position)

Here’s the first form of the pentatonic scale. You can move the form to change the key of the scale. The (major) root of the scale is in red. There’s more than one root because the form cover more than 2 octaves.

There exist more forms of the pentatonic scale that I will draw at a later point (see the major scales for now to get an idea). Check out minor pentatonics and major pentatonics as well.

Major Pentatonic Scales

C major

5th fret

D major

7th fret

E major

9th fret

F major

10th fret

G major

12th fret

A major

2nd fret

B major

4th fret

Minor Pentatonic Scales

A minor

5th fret

B minor

7th fret

C# minor

9th fret

D minor

10th fret

E minor

12th fret

F# minor

2nd fret

G# minor

4th fret

Related Articles/Lessons

• Major Pentatonics
• Minor Pentatonics (6 Fretboard Diagrams for Guitar)
• Creating Diatonic Jazz Chords (and Melodies) from Major Scales
• Major Scales for Guitar (8 Fretboard Diagrams)
• Harmonic minor scale – Lesson 9
• Blues scales (Fretboard Diagrams for Guitar)

Special Thanks

To pdf2jpg.net for converting the PDF of the pentatonic scale to an image!