Find the Minor Pentatonic: The First Solo Scale

The short answer: Find the Minor Pentatonic drills the five-note pentatonic minor scale (1 ♭3 4 5 ♭7) — the most-used soloing scale in rock, blues, and pop. Drop minor's two most dissonant notes and you get a scale that sounds good over almost anything. Key plus zone; find it, fast.

What the game is

You get a key and a zone and find the five pentatonic notes. With only five notes and no half-step clashes, it is the most forgiving scale on the guitar — and the game drills its famous boxes into muscle memory.

What it teaches

• The five pentatonic boxes across the neck.
• Why removing two notes makes the scale so forgiving.
• The foundation for blues and lead playing.

Why it's cool

This is where most solos begin — the scale nearly every guitarist learns first and keeps using forever. The next milestone is breaking out of the box and connecting the five shapes.

Where to start

Read the minor pentatonic scale and its course, then how to break out of the pentatonic box.