Bb major pentatonic has five notes — Bb, C, D, F and G — and a bright, open sound used across rock, country, pop and gospel. It is common in jazz, soul and horn-section music, with the same shapes as A major pentatonic one fret higher. It shares every note with G minor pentatonic: treat Bb as home and it sounds major, treat G as home and it sounds minor.
Red dots are the root, Bb. Double-ringed dots are shared by two boxes — that is where you slide from one box into the next.
All 5 boxes on one page with note names, plus a 7-day practice plan. Print it and keep it by your guitar.
Download the free chart All 26 free charts →Each box holds all five notes in a four-to-five-fret span. New to the scale? Learn Box 1 first, then add the boxes on either side of it.
The root box. Bb is at fret 6 on the high e string, fret 8 on the D string and fret 6 on the low E string.
The widest box — it spans five frets. Bb is at fret 11 on the B string and fret 8 on the D string.
Sits around the 12th-fret double dot, so it is easy to find. Bb is at fret 11 on the B string and fret 13 on the A string.
Open position — it uses the open strings, and the same shape repeats at fret 12. Bb is at fret 3 on the G string and fret 1 on the A string.
Bb is at fret 6 on the high e string, fret 3 on the G string and fret 6 on the low E string.
It fits over Bb, Bbmaj7, Bb6 and Bbadd9, and over country, pop and rock songs built on Bb–Eb–F. Because it is also G minor pentatonic, the same shapes work over songs in G minor.
Box 1 covers frets 5–8, with the root note Bb at fret 6 on the low E string. There is also an open-position version (Box 4) using the open strings.
Bb, C, D, F, and G — the intervals 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6.
They share the same five notes and the same box shapes. Treat Bb as home and it sounds bright and major; treat G as home and it sounds darker and minor.
Use the open strings plus the first few frets: low E 1–3, A 1–3, D 0–3, G 0–3, B 1–3, high e 1–3. This is Box 4 of the scale.
The Bb major scale has seven notes (Bb C D Eb F G A). The pentatonic drops Eb and A, the two notes a half step from their neighbors, which is why it is hard to hit a wrong-sounding note with it.
The Bb major triad (B♭ · D · F) sits inside every Bb major pentatonic box, so you can outline the chord without changing position. See its shapes in every inversion on the guitar triads page, and the major arpeggio across all six strings on the guitar arpeggios page. Full pages: B♭ major triads, the B♭maj7 arpeggio and the B♭7 arpeggio.
Each Bb major pentatonic box holds one shape of the Bb major chord: Box 1 the E shape, Box 2 the D shape, Box 3 the C shape, Box 4 the A shape and Box 5 the G shape. See how the five shapes connect up the neck in the CAGED system guide.
See also: Minor pentatonic scale · Major pentatonic scale · Blues scale