E Major Pentatonic Scale

What is the E Major Pentatonic Scale?

The major pentatonic takes the major scale and distills it to five bright, consonant tones by dropping the 4th and 7th. It's the sound of country, folk, and classic rock leads, and once you realize it shares the exact same shapes as the minor pentatonic (just from a different root), you'll unlock two scales for the price of one. Here's how the E Major Pentatonic Scale lays out on the fretboard.

Notes and Positions

Bright and country-flavored pentatonic. On bass, the fretboard view helps you visualize where the important tones sit for building lines across positions. Use a finger-per-fret approach first, then add shifts only when the line needs a wider range. In the key of E, the notes are: E, F#, G#, B, C#.

How to Use It

You'll often hear it in Country, Pop, Rock, and Folk. A good way to internalize the sound is to sing the root, then sing a few scale degrees before you play them.

Start with the root on beat 1, add the 5th on beat 3, then work the other scale tones in as passing notes. Use the interactive fretboard above to spot repeats of the same note on different strings and frets.