Guitar scales › Minor Pentatonic Scale

G 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 G: the notes, the whole neck, all five boxes with TAB, and a backing track to practise over.

Notes in the G minor pentatonic scale

• G1
• B♭b3
• C4
• D5
• Fb7

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

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

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

e|---------------------6-8-|
B|-----------------6-8-----|
G|-------------5-7---------|
D|---------5-8-------------|
A|-----5-8-----------------|
E|-6-8---------------------|

e|-------------------------------8--10-|
B|-------------------------8--11-------|
G|-------------------7--10-------------|
D|-------------8--10-------------------|
A|-------8--10-------------------------|
E|-8--10-------------------------------|

e|-------------------------------10-13-|
B|-------------------------11-13-------|
G|-------------------10-12-------------|
D|-------------10-12-------------------|
A|-------10-13-------------------------|
E|-10-13-------------------------------|

e|-------------------------------13-15-|
B|-------------------------13-15-------|
G|-------------------12-15-------------|
D|-------------12-15-------------------|
A|-------13-15-------------------------|
E|-13-15-------------------------------|

3 G minor licks to play with it

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

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

e|-------------------|
B|-------------------|
G|-3h-5p-3h-5p-3-----|
D|----------------5--|
A|-------------------|
E|-------------------|

e|-6b-3--------------|
B|-------6b-3--------|
G|-------------5-----|
D|----------------5~-|
A|-------------------|
E|-------------------|

G minor backing track

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

Smooth Slow Blues in G minor | Guitar Backing Track – AUsher Jam Tracks

Songs in G minor

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

• Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
• Breakeven – The Script
• 7 Years – Lukas Graham
• Havana – Camila Cabello
• Do I Wanna Know – Arctic Monkeys
• Rocket Man – Elton John
• Your Song – Ellie Goulding
• See You Again – Wiz Khalifa
• Like A Stone – Chris Cornell
• Hey Brother – Avicii
• To The Bone – Pamungkas
• Soldier Of Fortune – Deep Purple

All songs in G minor →

Other scales in G

• G Major Pentatonic Scale
• G Blues Scale
• G Major Blues Scale
• G Major Scale
• G Natural Minor Scale
• G Dorian Mode
• G Mixolydian Mode
• G Phrygian Mode
• G Lydian Mode
• G Harmonic Minor Scale
• G 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
• F♯ Minor Pentatonic Scale
• G♯ Minor Pentatonic Scale
• A Minor Pentatonic Scale
• B♭ Minor Pentatonic Scale
• B Minor Pentatonic Scale