Can someone please tell me why there are 5 different patterns to Penatonic scales?

Question

I mean if you can move them, why do you need more than one? All are movable up and down the fretboard? Right? So why does each need 5 patterns and how do you know which one to use? This has really been bothering me as I try to lean each pattern for Major, Minor, Blues, country & etc. That's a lot to memorize. Thanks for your answer. Nick

Answer 1

A pentatonic scale is only a 5 note scale, 5-pent, tonic-note. Take any major scale and omit scale degrees 4 and 7 and you have a pentatonic scale. However in the real guitar world there are only 3 that are ever used, it has to do with how they are used.

Answer 2

You're on the right track! "Penta" means five. "Tonic" means tone or note. Pentatonic means 'five notes,' of which, there are only five individual notes of the pentatonic scale (in every position.) Breaking the pentatonic into modes means that we start a new shape from each of the five notes - resulting in five different patterns all containing the exact same notes. (That's why there's five shapes, and yes, they all have the same notes.)

What many don't understand, is that unlike the classical modes based upon the major scale, you cannot root most of the pentatonic shapes in a traditional way. Scales, arpeggios, & chords normally require a 3rd and 5th to be functional and make musical sense. The 2nd, 3rd, & 4th pentatonic shapes don't meet this criteria. Only the 1st & 5th shapes (aka, the major & minor pentatonic scales) have the necessary 1 3 5 intervals, which makes them the only two I would recommend learning.

That's the basic theory. If, however, you want to run pentatonic licks up & down the fretboard, then you'll want to know all five shapes so that you can connect them all.