The Major Pentatonic Scale is a 5 note scale that uses the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th notes of the major scale. In this lead guitar lesson, we’ll go over the five pentatonic scale shapes.These shapes are essentially the “Meat & Potatoes” of lead guitar. They are also easy to learn. Start with the root note of A, then play C, D, E, G, and then a higher A. This is because they sound great over many musical styles and are relatively easy to start improvising with. Memorizing the major keys is such a fundamental element for any instrument you play. To memorize the A minor pentatonic scale, practice playing the scale ascending and descending. Because transposition is usually pretty easy. The major pentatonic scale works just as the minor pentatonic scale when it comes to understanding and using the scale boxes. A Minor Pentatonic Scale Exercises on Guitar. If you play the guitar, it’s more about embedding the scale patterns. Learning the pentatonic scales is an important part of learning the guitar. You will use this scale as the building block to other scales and modes. If you want to play A-major pentatonic scale all the blue notes has to be A. Most popular songs that you hear are played using the pentatonic scale. Knowing the pattern of white/black keys for the 12 major scales tells you the pattern for the relative minor scales. Box shapes are four frets wide and serve as your typical guitar scales chart outline. Pro Tip: The guitar scales chart for the minor pentatonic scale is outlined below in two octaves like all of the ones above. There is a major pentatonic scale and a minor pentatonic scale. The awesome part is that they contain the same note intervals (with differing roots), so the patterns are the same. The major pentatonic guitar scale is usually played over major chords, and is used in rock music as well as country music. You just need to learn a new root note. Rather than shift our hand position upward like we do in the minor diatonic scale examples, we’ve outlined this one inside of one box shape. This is because they sound great over many styles of music, and are relatively easy to start improvising with. By adding two notes to the pentatonic scale, you can play every mode in the major key. The Am pentatonic scale, root note fret, in my opinion, is by far the most important guitar scale to learn. Pentatonic scales contain five notes, which is how it gets its name (Penta=5, tonic = tones). In the 1st position then it means that the 2nd fret on the scale box would be the 5th fret on the guitar neck as that makes all the blue notes A. Pentatonic Scales Are the Scale Shortcut.