Using The Minor Pentatonic Scale Over Chords

The minor pentatonic scale is the most widely used scale for soloing by lead guitar players. In fact, it is the safest scale to use for creating guitar solo without sounding ‘out’ from the chord being played. The scale itself is easy to learn and memorized but how to use it can be a bit of a mystery for most beginners. Soloing over any chord or chord progression using the minor pentatonic scale is easy when you know this simple formula.

Songs are mostly written in either 'Major' or 'Minor' keys. To use the minor pentatonic scale to solo over these keys, let’s look at the separate explanation below that explain ways to use the scale with ‘Minor’ and ‘Major’ chords.

*This also assumes that you already know how to play ‘Pattern 1’ of the minor pentatonic scale.

1. Minor Chords

Soloing over a minor chord using the minor pentatonic scale is easy. Using the 6th string as your guide, locate the note of the minor chord that you’re soloing over and start playing ‘Pattern 1’ of the minor pentatonic scale on that note, for example:

a)To play over an A minor chord, you can start Pattern 1 at the 5th fret of the 6th string.

b)To solo over a G minor chord, start Pattern 1 at the 3rd fret of the 6th string.

2. Major Chords

When dealing with a Major chord, a simple formula to remember is to move the 1st minor pentatonic pattern (Pattern 1) 3 frets back down the guitar neck. As an example, let’s take a C major chord that can be found at the 8th fret of the 6th string. To solo over C major using this scale, move down 3 frets to the 5th fret and play the minor pentatonic scale there.

Theory wise, all major chords have a ‘Relative Minor' chord that can be found 3 frets back. In this case, the name of the note on the 5th fret is ‘A’, so basically we are actually playing 'A minor pentatonic' over a C major chord, yes minor scale over a major chord but it works! If we were to solo over a D major chord, the same formula applies. Move 3 frets back from the 10th fret and we will end up on the 7th fret, which is the note ‘B’. So now we are playing 'B minor pentatonic' scale over the D major chord.

In a ‘Key’ Perspective

The formula for using the minor pentatonic scale to solo over chords can also be applied to the 'Key’ of a song. Below is a brief explanation about ‘Key’:

When a particular song is said to be in the key of C Major, common chords that can be found in that song are:

C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and B diminished

So going back to the formula for soloing over a Major chord, we can use 'A minor pentatonic' scale which is 3 frets back from 'C' to solo over all of these chords.

The minor pentatonic scale really is an interesting scale to learn for its versatility and ease of use. The formula above is basically all you need to start soloing in any song using this scale. However, there are more advance and more interesting ideas for using the minor pentatonic scale over chords that we will be discussing in future articles. Until then, enjoy!