repurposing pentatonics pars ii

In our former post on pentatonic scales we discussed how the minor pentatonic (specifically the A minor pentatonic) functioned over its minor and relative major chord/key areas. Today we're going to pick up that thread and see where else a minor pentatonic can be used. Keep in mind that I'm going to be dealing with the A minor pentatonic in these examples, but if it's easier for you to think C major pentatonic just substitute that whenever I use A minor.

There are 4 other keys where the notes of the A minor pentatonic are found. The first one is C major, which was implicit in our last post. The notes of A minor are in bold:

C major scale = c d e f g a b c

There are 2 other major scales where these notes are found:

G major: g a b c d e f# g
F major: f g a bb c d e f

And one melodic minor scale:

G melodic minor: g a bb c d e f# g

We can generalize our information as follows: the minor pentatonic scale is found in it's parent major scale and the major scales located to the immediate right and left of this scale on the circle of fifths.


(Clicking on the image will take you to the great site whence the image came.)

Other examples: F minor pentatonic is found in Ab major as well as Db and Eb major; C# minor pentatonic is found in E major, A major and B major.

The minor pentatonic is also found in the melodic minor scale one whole step below the minor pentatonic's root (F minor would be found in Eb melodic minor).

And since the minor pentatonic can be found in 3 major scales and 1 melodic minor scale, it will consequently be found in any of those derived modes. So A minor pentatonic is found in E phrygian, G dorian, C lydian b7, D mixolydian and so on.

And when we say 'found in' we mean 'can be used where...(blank) is used'.

So bust out your pentatonic licks and ideas and see how they sound repurposed in these key/mode areas.