The Minor Pentatonic Scale System – G minor

Sooner or later you and your guitar are going to end up at a musical jam session where someone will call out, “Let’s play a blues.” Now one thing you can be sure of is that it will be either in the ‘G’ or ‘E’ key. Knowing the basic blues chord progressions and how to solo in the keys of G and E is essential stuff the advancing guitarist must know. Today’s project will focus on the key of G and specifically the G minor pentatonic scale. 

The G minor pentatonic has a great earthy quality that makes it ideal for blues, rock and jazz music. In fact, just about everyone will love this scale. The notes in the G minor pentatonic scale are:

G – Bb – C – D – F – (G)

If you play these notes anywhere on the guitar fingerboard you will be playing the G minor pentatonic scale. Here’s the most common fingering pattern for the scale:

G – using your first finger behind the third fret, sixth string

Bb – played with the fourth finger, sixth fret, sixth string

C – first finger, third fret, fifth string

D – played with your third finger behind the fifth fret, fifth string

F – first finger, third fret, fourth string
G Minor pentatonic scale pattern

—————————
—————————
—————————
——————-3—[5]-
———–3—5———–
-[3]—6——————-

Keynotes indicated as [ ]

Here is the same scale one octave higher:

———————-[3]-
————–3—6——-
——3—5—————
-[5]———————-
————————–
————————–

Now for another popular way to play the G minor pentatonic scale:

———————————
———————————
———————————
————————-3–[5]-
————-1—3—5———
—1—[3]———————-

Notice how in this instance the first note is not the keynote. Remember it’s vitally important to identify where the keynote is situated in the scale as it will help you transpose the scale into different keys.

Our next project is to pre-record a background to practice the G minor pentatonic scale over. Many rock and pop songs use chord progressions derived directly from the notes in the pentatonic scale.

Typical chord progression(s) would be:

G /// | Bb /// | C /// | D /// ||

or

G /// | C /// |D /// | C /// ||

One of the key ingredients to creating your own individual style is learning the names of the notes in each scale rather than just learning a fingering pattern.

About the Author:
Mike Hayes is a guitar teacher, author, performing musician and session guitarist with over 30 years of professional experience. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular FREE e-course