E-shape Major Pentatonic

The major pentatonic is the most useful scale to practice over a major chord shape, because it works over all the diatonic major chords in a key (e.g. the I, IV, and V chords). This is unlike the major scale, which contains additional notes which can clash with different chords. For this reason, it's helpful to focus our scale practice on the pentatonic, until we develop automatic "muscle memory" for playing it over the chord shape.

This lesson shows how to play the pentatonic scale over the E-shape major chord.

Scale form

This is the major pentatonic around the E-shape major chord.

Study and practice

As described in Playing Scales Musically, we want to practice scales with chord tones on downbeats in order to train our ears and fingers to play them with phrasing that sounds musical.

As you practice, focus on one small chunk of notes at a time, back and forth, until you can play it fluently without mistakes. As you play up and down the scale, when you play a note that doesn't sound perfect, go back and forth over that chunk repeatedly until you can play it perfectly a few times. This is how we program ourselves to develop fluency.

Chord tones on downbeats

This is the basic major pentatonic chord tone rhythm, which accounts for the spacing of chord tones within the scale. Press play in the diagram to see and hear the pattern, followed by the arpeggio. Try playing it on repeat a few times to get the sound of the chord tones in your ears.

Chunked with chord strums

Practice playing the major pentatonic over the E-shape major chord, alternating between playing a few notes and strumming the chord. Mix things up to keep it musical and interesting, but focus on landing on the chord tones on downbeats.