Scales › minor pentatonic

minor pentatonic scale

universal minor pentatonic

What color?

The five notes of minor with no half steps (b3, 11, 5, b7): a robust, bluesy minor color that is always safe. The go-anywhere scale on any minor chord and on the blues, the basis of rock and jazz improvisation.

Origin & history

A five-note scale found on every continent since the most distant antiquity, probably the most widespread melodic structure in the world. In African American music, it is the skeleton of the blues, then of rock and pop.

Listen

• the solo on "Stairway to Heaven" — Led Zeppelin
• "Sunshine of Your Love" — Cream

Which chords to play it on?

The jazz consensus (Aebersold) recommends it on:

Try it in a real chart

Paste a chord chart into the tool: Pentania tells you, chord by chord, when this scale fits — and what other colors are open to you. Open the tool →