A major pentatonic scale
The A major pentatonic has 5 notes: A B C# E F#. It comes from removing the 4 and the 7 from the major scale (degrees 1 2 3 5 6), so it has no half steps between its notes.
- Notes
- A B C# E F#
- Formula in degrees
- 1 2 3 5 6
- Steps
- W-W-W½-W-W½
W = whole step (2 half steps), H = half step (1 half step) and W½ = a whole step and a half (3 half steps).
On the fretboard
All the notes of the scale from fret 0 to 12, with the root highlighted. You can see the names or the degrees, and listen to it from the root up to the octave.
What the notes show
Relative scale
The relative of A major pentatonic is F# minor pentatonic: it has the same notes, but starts on F#.