What creates a minor pentatonic scale?

Answer 1

If you don't have much background in music theory, it MAY be easier to explain a major pentatonic scale first.

Think of going up 'Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do and taking out 'Fa' and 'Ti' in the process.

In more theoretical terms, it's a major scale with the 4th and 7th omitted.

To circle back to your question, every major key has a relative minor. In simple terms this could be thought of as 'La, Ti, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La' and in the case of the minor pentatonic, 'Ti' and "Fa' (now the 2nd and the 6th) would still be omitted.

Answer 2

A Pentatonic Scale is a select 5 notes out of your standard 7-note scale, hence the name: Pentatonic.

A Minor Pentatonic uses notes from the Natural Minor Scale. These notes are:

Root(1), Minor 3rd(b3rd), 4th, 5th, and Minor 7th.

Another way to think about it: You are skipping the 2nd and the 6th.

In terms of intervals:

Root--W+H--b3rd--W--4th--W--5th--W+H--7th

Answer 3

Take a natural minor scale (1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7) and play only 1, b3, 4, 5, b7. For an A minor pentatonic, you would play A, C, D, E, G, while it's parent scale, the A natural minor would be A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

Answer 4

There are a many ways of producing a minor pentatonic scale. Here are two, one that uses intervals and one that uses the minor scale:

Intervals: Pick any note, then jump up a minor third. Then, a major second, another major second, and yet another major second. From there, jump up a minor third. You've just played all the notes for the pentatonic scale of the note you began on. See below:

Starting note: C

+minor 3rd: Eb

+major 2nd: F

+major 2nd: G

+minor 3rd: Bb

If you add another minor second, you'll end up on C again.

-Minor Scales:The minor scale has 7 notes, and "pentatonic scale" literally means "5 note scale". In the pentatonic scale, these five notes are a certain distance away from each other. To create this from the minor scale, you just have to remove the second and sixth notes. See below:

A Natural Minor: A B C D E F G

A Pentatonic Minor: A C D E G

Done! Now you're ready to play blues solos and sing folk songs (and a million other things..).

Answer 5

Adding my perspective to the other 2 answers: Looking at the piano keyboard, the black keys, played by themselves, will give you both a major and a minor pentatonic scale. The black keys come in groups of 3 and 2. If you start at the 1st of the group of 3 (the one on the left) and play them upwards (to your right), when you've played 5 black keys, you've played a major pentatonic scale. If you start one key to the left of where you started before - that is, the right-hand key in the pair of 2 black keys - and play 5 notes going up, you've played a minor pentatonic scale. The names of these scales are F-sharp pentatonic and D-sharp minor pentatonic, respectively. The important thing to see here is that a minor pentatonic scale shares the same 5 notes with its "relative major" pentatonic, but its "home note" is a minor third (i.e. 3 half-steps) lower than the home note of its relative major pentatonic scale. This is the same relationship that major and minor scales have with each other. The other 2 answers above give the example of the C pentatonic scale (C-D-E-G-A) which shares the same 5 notes as its relative minor pentatonic scale (A-C-D-E-G), but its home note, C, is a minor third above the home note (A) of its relative minor. Got it?

Answer 6

A minor pentatonic scale is a scale consisting of five notes. It can be thought of from the perspective of a minor key, where an A minor pentatonic would be the 1, flat 3, 4, 5, and flat 7 scale degrees of A natural minor or from the key of the relative major, where A minor pentatonic would be the 6, 1, 2, 3, and 5 of C major. In either case, the notes of A minor pentatonic are the same: A, C, D, E, and G. It uses the same notes as the C major pentatonic scale.

Answer 7

Lets view the A minor pentatonic scale for example.

The scale includes scale degrees 1st, flat 3rd, 4th, 5th, and a flat 7th. So the scale consist of notes A, C, D, E, & G. That's what creates a minor pentatonic scale.