Six Strings
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Course

Intermediate · step 4 · Not started

The 5 pentatonic positions

Your position 1 is one room in a five-room house. The other four use the same five notes, higher and lower on the neck, and interlock like the CAGED shapes. Goal: play all five positions in A and move from one to the next.

Time
15 minutes a day for one to two weeks
Before you start
The A minor pentatonic, position 1; The notes on the low E and A strings
You’ll be able to
Play the 5 pentatonic positions

Five notes, the whole neck

The A minor pentatonic has only five notes: A, C, D, E, G. They’re all over the neck. Cutting them into five positions of two notes per string is the simplest way to learn them, one position at a time.

EGACDEGAACDEGACDEDEGACDEGAGACDEGACDCDEGACDEEGACDEGA
EGACDEACDEGADEGACDGACDEGCDEGAEGACDE

High E at the top, just like in tab.Neck seen from the front, headstock at the top: low E on the left, just like a chord diagram.

The A notes, in orange, are your landmarks in each position. Set the neck to 15 or 19 frets to see the positions climb past the 12th fret.

Position 1: home base (frets 5 to 8)

The one you know. The root is under your index finger, on both E strings.

ACDEGACDEEGAC

High E at the top, just like in tab; the numbers under the neck are fret numbers.

Position 2 (frets 7 to 10)

It starts where position 1 ends: the highest note on each string of position 1 becomes the lowest note of position 2.

CDEGACDEGACD

High E at the top, just like in tab; the numbers under the neck are fret numbers.

Position 3 (frets 9 to 13)

The A notes are on the A string at the 12th fret and on the B string at the 10th fret. Position 3 is a little wider: on the B string it reaches one fret further, because of how that string is tuned.

CDEGACDEEGAGACCDE

High E at the top, just like in tab; the numbers under the neck are fret numbers.

Positions 4 and 5: near the nut (or above the 12th fret)

After the 12th fret, everything starts again an octave higher. So positions 4 and 5 can also be played near the nut: position 4 between frets 0 and 3, with the open strings, position 5 between frets 2 and 5. It joins up with position 1: you’ve come full circle.

EGACDEGACDEG

High E at the top, just like in tab; the numbers under the neck are fret numbers.

GACDEGACCDEGA

High E at the top, just like in tab; the numbers under the neck are fret numbers.

Each pentatonic position surrounds an A minor chord shape: position 1 surrounds the E-shape barre chord, position 4 the open A minor. When you lose track of where you are, look for the chord shape: the A notes are inside it.

Moving between positions

To improvise across the whole neck, you need to change position without breaking the phrase. The simplest way: a slide on one string, up to the next note of the scale.

e|--------------|
B|---------8-10-|
G|-----7/9------|
D|-5-7----------|
A|--------------|
E|--------------|

Here, a slide from the 7th to the 9th fret on the G string takes your hand up into position 2. Look for other connections: every string offers one.

How to learn them

  • One position a day. Go up and down, naming every A you come across.
  • Two neighboring positions together, then three, moving up from one position to the next on the same string.
  • Improvise in a single position for a minute before adding another. Two positions you really play beat five you just recite.

You’ve got it when…