One shape, two scales
A free guitar lesson · 4 steps · about 7 minutes
The same five notes
Put the two boxes side by side and something interesting appears.
These two pictures show exactly the same notes in exactly the same places. The first is A minor pentatonic, the second is C major pentatonic. Only the filled dots, the roots, are different.
Relative major and minor
A minor and C major share all their notes. Keys and scales that do this are called relative: A minor is the relative minor of C major, and C major is the relative major of A minor.
Every major key has a relative minor, and it is always three frets lower:
| Major | Relative minor |
|---|---|
| C | A minor |
| G | E minor |
| D | B minor |
| A | F# minor |
| E | C# minor |
What really changes
If the notes are the same, what makes one sound happy and the other sad? Where you land.
Play the box and finish your phrases on A: it sounds minor. Play the same box and finish on C: it sounds major. The chords underneath the tune decide which note sounds like home, and your ear follows them.
That is the real secret of both scales: it is not the shape, it is the root you keep returning to.
Try it
Play the box, then end on the A at the fifth fret of the low E. Now play the same notes and end on the C at the eighth fret of the low E. Listen for the difference in mood. Nothing but your last note has changed.
So now you know two scales and one shape. Move the box anywhere on the neck and it is a minor pentatonic from the note under your first finger, and a major pentatonic from the note three frets higher.