A♭ major pentatonic scale on DADGAD guitar

A♭ · B♭ · C · E♭ · F

The course explains what this page shows in Lesson 16 · The minor pentatonic.

The notes

  1. A♭1
  2. B♭2
  3. C3
  4. E♭5
  5. F6

The A♭ major pentatonic scale is A♭, B♭, C, E♭, F.

You may also see it called 1 2 3 5 6.

On the staff

A♭B♭CD♭E♭FGA♭

On a treble staff, the A♭ major pentatonic scale is written A♭ B♭ C E♭ F.

The solid notes are the A♭ major pentatonic scale. The pale notes are the rest of A♭ major, the larger scale it is carved out of, so you can see which notes it leaves out.

Why the A♭ major pentatonic scale has these flats

  1. A♭1
  2. T
  3. B♭2
  4. T
  5. C3
  6. T+S
  7. E♭5
  8. T
  9. F6
  10. T+S
  11. A♭8

A scale is a pattern of steps, and this one is T T T+S T T+S: a tone, a tone, a tone and a half, and so on. T stands for a tone, which is two semitones. T+S stands for a tone and a half, which is three semitones. The pattern is what gives A♭ major pentatonic its sound, and it stays the same whichever note you start on.

This scale has only five notes, so it does not use every letter. It is built on A♭ major, and the notes it shares are spelled the same way as they are there.

The pattern still does not fit the plain letters. If you walk the pattern up from A♭, two letters cannot keep up:

  • B♭ — the second. The pattern needs a tone from A♭, but A♭ to B is only a tone and a half, so B has to fall to B♭.
  • E♭ — the fifth. The pattern needs a tone and a half from C, but C to E is only 4, so E has to fall to E♭.

None of those accidentals was a choice. Once you pick the note to start on, the pattern decides the rest, and a key signature is a record of the result.

The A♭ major pentatonic scale is written with A♭, B♭ and E♭. A♭ has its accidental because that is the key, and the other notes need theirs because the T T T+S T T+S pattern of steps cannot be spelled from A♭ with plain letters.

The pattern of steps is the part of a scale that never changes. The letter names take sharps or flats to fit that pattern, and a key signature is a record of those sharps or flats.

On the piano

3CDE6F7GAB3CDE6F7GAB3CDE6F7GAB3CDE6F7GAB3C4D♭5E♭F♯1A♭2B♭4D♭5E♭F♯1A♭2B♭4D♭5E♭F♯1A♭2B♭4D♭5E♭F♯1A♭2B♭C2C3C4C5C6

The keyboard shows the same five notes as a shape you can see. The coloured keys are the A♭ major pentatonic scale, the pale keys are the rest of A♭ major, and you can click any key to hear it.

A♭ major pentatonic scale on the whole neck

DADGAD123456789101112131415E♭5F6A♭1B♭2C3E♭5F6B♭2C3E♭5F6A♭1B♭2C3E♭5F6A♭1B♭2C3E♭5F6A♭1B♭2C3E♭5F6A♭1B♭2B♭2C3E♭5F6A♭1B♭2C3E♭5F6A♭1B♭2C3E♭5F6

58 notes of the A♭ major pentatonic scale are marked across six strings.

This is every place the notes of the A♭ major pentatonic scale fall on the DADGAD guitar, with each note's name and its scale degree. The roots are marked so you can find your bearings.

The five boxes

Box 1 — starts on the 1
DADGAD3456789123561235612
Box 2 — starts on the 2
DADGAD56789101112235612356123
Box 3 — starts on the 3
DADGAD891011121314356123561235
Box 4 — starts on the 5
DADGAD10111213141516561235612356
Box 5 — starts on the 6
DADGAD13141516171819612356123561

The A♭ major pentatonic scale has five playable positions, at frets 3–8, 5–11, 8–13, 10–15 and 13–18.

There are five shapes, and each one starts on a different note of the scale. Once you know one shape you can slide it along the neck, and once you know all five they join up to cover the whole neck.

One climb up the neck

DADGAD678910111213141516171819202122123561235612356123TAB6810681181013101315151820182022

The climb runs from fret 6 to fret 22 and plays eighteen notes.

This is one path from the lowest root to the top of the neck, and it plays each note once, never on two strings. It takes three notes on every string. The widest stretch on any one string is five frets.