Finding Major And Minor Pentatonics From The Sixth String

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Want that gritty, blues-soaked lead tone that just works over almost anything? We walk through the simple logic behind the pentatonic scale and show how one movable shape can unlock both minor bite and major sweetness without drowning you in theory. Starting from the sixth string as your map, we find the root note you need, drop the classic first-position box, and get practical with clear fingerings that help your hands memorize the pattern fast.

We dig into why minor pentatonic often sounds great over major chord progressions, the hallmark of blues and rock phrasing. Rather than memorizing dozens of scales, you’ll learn to trust a single pattern you can slide to any key—A today, G tomorrow—while keeping your focus on timing, bends, and tone. Along the way, we connect the dots between relative major and minor so you understand how one shape can serve two flavors depending on which notes you target and how you phrase your lines.

By the end, you’ll know the exact fret positions for A minor pentatonic, the one-four and one-three finger groupings to keep your technique clean, and the quick method for shifting the box anywhere on the neck. You’ll also hear why those “wrong” notes create the right kind of tension that defines rock and blues, plus simple phrasing moves—slides, bends, and call-and-response—to turn a scale into a melody. Grab your guitar, find your sixth-string root, and put these ideas to work on your next solo.

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Episode Transcript

Steve (00:36):
Okay, so if you know the notes on your sixth string, you
can figure out where your majorand minor pentatonics are by
referencing the note that youwant on the sixth string and
then building the shape thatyou're looking for.
So what I want to show you ishow major and minor really are
the same thing.
We call it a relative major andminor, and I'm not going to go

(00:57):
into a bunch of theory here inthis video, but I do want to
explain to you kind of how thisworks.
So as rock guitar players,blues guitar players, that sort
of thing, we play a lot in minorpentatonic.
And it often happens, even ifwe're playing over a major chord
progression, we might solo inminor, which doesn't really make
any sense.
But when you do it, it soundslike blues.
It sounds like rock and roll.

(01:17):
So knowing where minorpentatonic is is very important
to learn how to solo.
Again, even if you're playingin major keys, it happens quite
frequently that we would solominor over major.
Now, again, there's reasons toall that we're not going to get
into right now, but I want toshow you this.
So if you wanted to play minorpentatonic, penta being five,

(01:38):
okay, very common scale that weuse when we first start learning
how to solo.
And even advanced players useit.
I could name you all sorts ofguitar players that you know
that use pentatonic all thetime, okay?
From rock to metal to blues tocountry to all sorts of
different things.
But here's the minor pentatonicuh scale, how it looks on the
guitar in its first position orroot position.

(01:59):
So if I wanted to be in the keyof A, for instance, whether the
song's in A major or A minor orsomething, I wanted to play A
minor pentatonic, I'm gonna goup to the note A.
So I need to know the notes onthe sixth string.
That's very important.
So I'm gonna go to A here.
I'm gonna play 5, 8, 5, 7, 5,7, 5, 7, 5, 8, 5, 8.

(02:23):
Now, I would suggest usingthese fingers for now, but you
can, you know, if you need touse something different, that's
that's entirely up to you.
There's lots of different wayswe can approach these things,
but this is a good place tostart.
So if you notice I'm playingfirst finger to fourth finger,
and then I'm playing one threeone three one three, and then
one, four, one, four.
So that's an easy way for youto remember that.

(02:43):
One four, one, three, one,three, one, three, one, four,
one, four.
Because the beauty of thisscale is you can move it
wherever you want.
If you want it to be in the keyof G, you would simply find G
and play exactly.