Bb minor pentatonic scale
- Notes
- Bb Db Eb F Ab
- Formula
- 1 b3 4 5 b7
- Steps
- W+H W W W+H W (W tone, H semitone)
- Also written
- A# minor pentatonic: A# C# D# E# G#
Five notes from Bb up to the next Bb. Each note is written with the letter its degree names, so the spelling follows the formula.
Bb minor pentatonic on the piano
From Bb4 to Bb5, the root in blue-green.
Intervals from Bb
| Note | Degree | Interval | Semitones |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bb | 1 | root | 0 |
| Db | b3 | minor third | 3 |
| Eb | 4 | perfect fourth | 5 |
| F | 5 | perfect fifth | 7 |
| Ab | b7 | minor seventh | 10 |
Bb minor pentatonic on the guitar
Standard tuning, high e on top as in tablature, open strings to fret 12. Every dot is a note of the scale; the pattern repeats from fret 12 up.
Chords that fit Bb minor pentatonic
Every chord of the common types (triads, sus, sixths, sevenths, add9, 7b9, 7#9) whose notes are all in the scale, on each of its notes, spelled as on the chord pages. A 5-note scale has no single set of "the" chords the way a seven-note scale does.
Same notes, different home note
Bb minor pentatonic uses exactly the same notes as Db major pentatonic. What changes is the note the music keeps returning to, and with it which chord sounds like home.
How Bb minor pentatonic is built
The natural minor without its 2nd and 6th: C and Gb are left out of Bb natural minor. The five notes left have no semitone steps, which makes it the first scale most guitarists learn for soloing. On a guitar in standard tuning the first "box" shape starts at fret 6 of the low E string, where Bb is. It has the same notes as Db major pentatonic; add Fb and you have the Bb blues scale.
Played some notes and not sure which scale they come from? The scale finder listens to the piano, a MIDI keyboard or the microphone and ranks all 180 scales.
What this page cannot do
- One spelling per scale. A# minor pentatonic is the same sounds written from A#; the root is spelled the way that needs the fewest sharps and flats.
- Equal temperament only. Blues and many folk traditions bend notes between these pitches, and Arabic and Turkish maqam scales use quarter tones that a piano cannot play.
- The guitar diagram shows standard tuning only and does not suggest fingerings; any note can be played in several places.
- The sound is a simple synthesised tone made in your browser, not a recorded instrument.