Pentatonic scale
The pentatonic scale consists of five notes per octave and manages without semitone steps. You get it by leaving the fourth and seventh degrees out of the major scale. It is one of the most widespread scales in the world, and with it you can hardly play a note that sounds wrong.
- Notes
- five per octave
- In C major
- C, D, E, G, A
- Left out
- 4th and 7th degrees (F, B)
- Semitone steps
- none
- Minor pentatonic
- same notes from A: A, C, D, E, G
Leaving out two notes
The major scale has two semitone steps: between the third and fourth and between the seventh and eighth degrees. These are exactly the places that can go wrong in free playing, because a semitone next to a chord note is immediately audible as friction. If you leave out the fourth and seventh degrees, C major keeps C, D, E, G and A. Each of these notes fits the C major chord without rubbing a semitone against any of its notes, and the order is free. Against other chords a note can rub, for example E against F in the F major chord.
Major pentatonic on C
Between no two neighbouring notes lies a semitone. Every note fits the C major chord without rubbing a semitone against any of its notes.
Minor pentatonic on A
The same five notes, only the point of reference has moved: as between C major and A minor.
The black keys of the piano together make a pentatonic scale. The pentatonic underlies Scottish folk songs, Chinese music, West African melodies and American blues. If you add a single note to the minor pentatonic, the diminished fifth, in A minor the E♭, you get the blues scale. This added note is called the blue note.
Where the five notes come from
If you stack four pure fifths from C, C, G, D, A, E, and fold the notes into one octave, you get C, D, E, G, A. The pentatonic therefore arises from the same interval as the circle of fifths, only the stack is broken off after five notes. That is one possible explanation for why the same scale turns up in cultures that never had contact. The two notes that come in with the major scale, F and B, arise when you continue the stack of fifths in both directions, and with them come the semitone steps.
Pentatonic in practice
On the guitar the minor pentatonic has a pattern with two notes per string that can be shifted across the fingerboard. It is the basis of many rock and blues solos. With Orff instruments the F and B are simply taken away, leaving an instrument on which nothing can sound wrong. As a public-domain example the article names “Auld Lang Syne”.
Common mistakes
- Endless loop: The pattern can be played up and down for as long as you like without anything going wrong, and that becomes a trap. Restriction creates form.
- Taking major and minor pentatonic for different scales: They are the same five notes with a different point of reference.
- Holding the blue note: It is mostly passed through or bent.
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Related terms
ScaleMajor scaleNatural minorSemitoneFifthChurch modeDegree (scale)Relative key
Editor: Maik Krohm · reviewed on 3 October 2026
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