Harmonic.Audio
Scale family

C minor pentatonic

Five notes: C E♭ F G B♭. Use the boxes below to find this scale in different parts of the neck.

Notes
C E♭ F G B♭
1 ♭3 4 5 ♭7
Same notes as
E♭ major pentatonic Its relative
Add the ♭5
C blues The blue note, G♭
90 bpm
Labels
  • Root, C
  • Notes of the box
  • Notes of the chord you're on
  • Blue note

Jam along

The 12-bar blues in C

Play along with a repeating twelve-bar blues. The neck highlights the notes in your box that belong to the current chord.

  1. C7Bar 1 · I7
  2. C7Bar 2 · I7
  3. C7Bar 3 · I7
  4. C7Bar 4 · I7
  5. F7Bar 5 · IV7
  6. F7Bar 6 · IV7
  7. C7Bar 7 · I7
  8. C7Bar 8 · I7
  9. G7Bar 9 · V7
  10. F7Bar 10 · IV7
  11. C7Bar 11 · I7
  12. G7Bar 12 · V7

Where it fits

Three places to use it

  • Over C minor

    All five notes belong to the key. Try landing on a note of the current chord.

  • Over a C blues

    E♭ against the C7's E is a clash, and that rub is the blues sound.

  • As E♭ major pentatonic

    The same five notes. Make E♭ home and it sounds major.

The blue note

Add the blue note

Put G♭ between F and G and the minor pentatonic becomes the C blues scale. Try sliding through it into a neighbouring note.

Pentatonic
  1. C
  2. E♭
  3. F
  4. G
  5. B♭
Blues
  1. C
  2. E♭
  3. F
  4. G♭
  5. G
  6. B♭

Hear both

Exercises

Five drills, with a click

Start in box 1 and play along with the metronome. Follow the highlighted notes on the neck above.

  1. Box 1, up and downEvery note once, low to high and back. Say the note names.70 bpmLevel 1
  2. Connect box 1 to box 2Up box 1, slide to box 2, back down. The shared notes are the bridge.70 bpmLevel 1
  3. Groups of threeThree notes at a time, one step up each time, through box 1.80 bpmLevel 2
  4. Hit the chord's notesOver the 12-bar, land on the lit notes as each chord changes.90 bpmLevel 2
  5. Call and responseHear a two-bar phrase, then answer it in the gap.80 bpmLevel 2

Minor pentatonic on every root

Pick a root