Easiest Scale for Guitar – Eminor Pentatonic

Today we are going to learn what I think is the easiest guitar scale.  It only uses two fingers. 

What is a Pentatonic Scale?

Penta means FIVE, so a pentatonic scale is a five note scale.  Here are the notes within an E minor pentatonic scale:

E G A B D

One thing to understand is that an E minor chord is made of the notes E-G-B. Therefore, this pentatonic scale is just the notes within the chord plus two additional notes (A and D).

Here is a saying to help you remember the notes of the E minor Pentatonic scale

Every

Guitar

Acts

Bad

Daily

Let’s hope your guitar doesn’t act bad!

E minor Pentatonic Guitar Scale

Strum an E minor chord on your guitar and then play the scale as follows:

If you are wondering why there are more than five notes, that is because it is a two-octave scale. It simply repeats once you get back to E.

the m denotes middle finger and i denotes Index finger (left hand).

Using the Pentatonic Scale

One of the reasons that pentatonic scales are used so much is that they contain notes with a high likelihood of sounding good. This is once again because most of the notes are within the chord. The scale is made up of CONSONANCES and not DISSONANCES (notes that need more care, ie, need to be resolved properly).

For now, you can use this scale over E minor chords. You can also try to create a chord progression like E minor to A7 and use this scale over that progression to improvise. More uses later!

As always, if you’d like one-on-one guitar instruction, contact me. I teach a variety of styles (popular, jazz, fingerstyle, bluegrass, as well as music theory).

Check out my Guitar Triad article for more beginner guitar material.