Guitar scales › Minor Pentatonic Scale

F Minor Pentatonic Scale – Guitar

The first scale most guitarists learn for soloing: five notes, five boxes, and the sound of almost every rock and blues solo. Here it is in F: the notes, the whole neck, all five boxes with TAB, and a backing track to practise over.

Notes in the F minor pentatonic scale

• F1
• A♭b3
• B♭4
• C5
• E♭b7

Formula: 1 – b3 – 4 – 5 – b7. Use it to solo over songs in F minor, and over F blues and rock progressions.

Same five notes as the A♭ major pentatonic scale – the shapes are identical, only the home note changes.

F minor pentatonic scale on the whole neck

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The 5 boxes (positions) with TAB

Each box is one hand position. Learn Box 1 first: play it up with the TAB, then back down, then move to the next box – together they cover the whole neck.

e|---------------------1-4-|
B|-----------------1-4-----|
G|-------------1-3---------|
D|---------1-3-------------|
A|-----1-3-----------------|
E|-1-4---------------------|

e|---------------------4-6-|
B|-----------------4-6-----|
G|-------------3-5---------|
D|---------3-6-------------|
A|-----3-6-----------------|
E|-4-6---------------------|

e|---------------------6-8-|
B|-----------------6-9-----|
G|-------------5-8---------|
D|---------6-8-------------|
A|-----6-8-----------------|
E|-6-8---------------------|

e|-------------------------------8--11-|
B|-------------------------9--11-------|
G|-------------------8--10-------------|
D|-------------8--10-------------------|
A|-------8--11-------------------------|
E|-8--11-------------------------------|

e|-------------------------------11-13-|
B|-------------------------11-13-------|
G|-------------------10-13-------------|
D|-------------10-13-------------------|
A|-------11-13-------------------------|
E|-11-13-------------------------------|

3 F minor licks to play with it

Box 1 licks from the JamEase lick library, written for F minor (h = hammer-on, p = pull-off, / = slide, b = bend, ~ = vibrato).

e|----------------|
B|----------------|
G|----------------|
D|----------------|
A|-------13-------|
E|-13-16----16-13-|

e|-----------------|
B|-----------------|
G|---------13------|
D|-13/-15------15--|
A|-----------------|
E|-----------------|

e|-13------16b-16b-16b-13~-|
B|-----13------------------|
G|-------------------------|
D|-------------------------|
A|-------------------------|
E|-------------------------|

F minor backing track

Play the boxes over this, starting and ending phrases on the gold root notes.

Slow Blues Guitar Backing Track F Minor – erto sound

Songs in F minor

These songs are in F minor, so this is a scale that fits for soloing over them:

• All Of Me – John Legend
• Boulevard Of Broken Dreams – Green Day
• Frozen - Let It Go – Misc Cartoons
• Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
• Clocks – Coldplay
• Hello – Adele
• Aashiqui 2 - Tum Hi Ho – Misc Soundtrack
• Lemon Tree – Fool's Garden
• Closer – The Chainsmokers
• Glimpse Of Us – Joji
• Something In The Way – Nirvana
• Misery Business – Paramore

All songs in F minor →

Other scales in F

• F Major Pentatonic Scale
• F Blues Scale
• F Major Blues Scale
• F Major Scale
• F Natural Minor Scale
• F Dorian Mode
• F Mixolydian Mode
• F Phrygian Mode
• F Lydian Mode
• F Harmonic Minor Scale
• F Melodic Minor Scale

Minor Pentatonic Scale in other keys

• C Minor Pentatonic Scale
• C♯ Minor Pentatonic Scale
• D Minor Pentatonic Scale
• E♭ Minor Pentatonic Scale
• E Minor Pentatonic Scale
• F♯ Minor Pentatonic Scale
• G Minor Pentatonic Scale
• G♯ Minor Pentatonic Scale
• A Minor Pentatonic Scale
• B♭ Minor Pentatonic Scale
• B Minor Pentatonic Scale