Ab Minor Pentatonic
- Notes
- Ab B Db Eb Gb
- Degrees
- 1 b3 4 5 b7
Character
The five-note scale at the base of blues and rock soloing — the natural minor with the 2nd and 6th removed.
It shares its notes with the major pentatonic and differs only in root: start the same five notes three semitones lower and you have the minor pentatonic. One shape covers both.
Add the flattened fifth and it becomes the blues scale. That single note supplies the characteristic tension.
Relative key
Shares its notes with B Major Pentatonic. Only the root differs. B Major Pentatonic →
Practice
One position is enough to start soloing, which is also why players get stuck in it. Play the same shape twelve frets up as well.
It is used freely over major progressions too. In theory some notes clash; that clash is the sound of the blues.