Playing the C Minor Pentatonic Scale
Five notes build the C minor pentatonic scale: C, Eb, F, G and Bb. Because C has no open string to lean on, the shapes are completely movable and you find them from the root alone.
That root is on the 8th fret of the low E string, and again on the 3rd fret of the A string, which gives you two anchor points for the same notes. The relative major is Eb, so a C minor pentatonic phrase also works over an Eb chord.
Play the C minor pentatonic scale
Use the step menu in the player to switch between the single-string run and the box shapes.
Notes of the C minor pentatonic scale
| Note | Degree | Interval | Semitones from root |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | 1 | Root | 0 |
| Eb | b3 | Minor 3rd | 3 |
| F | 4 | Perfect 4th | 5 |
| G | 5 | Perfect 5th | 7 |
| Bb | b7 | Minor 7th | 10 |
Structure
C minor pentatonic scale notes:
How the minor pentatonic scale is built:
The minor pentatonic scale is built from the degrees 1 b3 4 5 b7, which gives the step pattern W+H-W-W-W+H-W (W = whole step, H = half step).
Counting in semitones from the root: 0, 3, 5, 7, 10. That makes it a 5-note scale.
C Minor Pentatonic Scale Guitar Patterns
Static diagrams of every position shown in the player above.
On one string (B)
Box pattern — position 1
Box pattern — position 2
Box pattern — position 3
Box pattern — position 4
Box pattern — position 5
3 notes per string — position 1
The minor pentatonic scale in other keys
Created by
Giancarlo is a musician (teaching guitar since 2000), software engineer, AI consultant and published researcher
