Pentatonic Scale
The pentatonic scale is the most important scale to know. Fortunately, its easy to learn. It has only five different notes and the fingering is usually a nice simple shape on the fingerboard. The following TABs show the G pentatonic scale.
Here is the ascending scale in TAB
--------------------------------------3---6-- -------------------------------3---6--------- ------------------------3---5---------------- ----------------3---5------------------------ ---------3---5------------------------------- -3---6---------------------------------------
And the descending G pentatonic
-6---3------------------------------------------ ---------6---3---------------------------------- -----------------5---3-------------------------- -------------------------5---3------------------ ---------------------------------5---3---------- -----------------------------------------6---3--
Mappings
There are 5 common fingerings for the pentatonic scale. The above fingering is probably the most commonly used one and usually the first one taught to beginning guitar players. The fingerings are often called shapes or box shapes because they make box like patterns on the fingerboard. The boxes are more clearly revealed by the pentatonic scale fingerings applet. It shows the scale, for a given key, over the entire fingerboard.
