C minor pentatonic has five notes — C, Eb, F, G and Bb — and a bluesy, soulful sound used across rock, blues and soul. It is a common key for slow blues and soul, and every shape is A minor pentatonic moved up three frets. It shares every note with Eb major pentatonic: treat C as home and it sounds minor, treat Eb as home and it sounds major.
Red dots are the root, C. 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. C is at fret 8 on the high e string, fret 10 on the D string and fret 8 on the low E string.
Sits around the 12th-fret double dot, so it is easy to find. C is at fret 13 on the B string and fret 10 on the D string.
Open position — it uses the open strings, and the same shape repeats at fret 12. The widest box — it spans five frets. C is at fret 1 on the B string and fret 3 on the A string.
C is at fret 5 on the G string and fret 3 on the A string.
C is at fret 8 on the high e string, fret 5 on the G string and fret 8 on the low E string.
It fits over Cm, Cm7 and Cm9, over a 12-bar blues in C (C7–F7–G7), and over most rock progressions in C minor. Because it is also Eb major pentatonic, it works over songs in Eb major too.
Box 1 covers frets 8–11, with the root note C at fret 8 on the low E string. There is also an open-position version (Box 3) using the open strings.
C, Eb, F, G, and Bb — the intervals 1, ♭3, 4, 5, and ♭7.
They share the same five notes and the same box shapes. Treat C as home and it sounds minor and bluesy; treat Eb as home and it sounds bright and major.
Use the open strings plus the first few frets: low E 1–3, A 1–3, D 1–3, G 0–3, B 1–4, high e 1–3. This is Box 3 of the scale.
The C minor scale has seven notes (C D Eb F G Ab Bb). The pentatonic drops D and Ab, the two notes a half step from their neighbors, which is why it is hard to hit a wrong-sounding note with it.
Every note of the C minor 7 chord (C · E♭ · G · B♭) is in C minor pentatonic, so each box above already holds the Cm7 arpeggio: take out the 4th and land on what is left. The same chord as three-note shapes on neighboring strings is on the guitar triads page. Full pages: C minor triads and the Cm7 arpeggio.
Each C minor pentatonic box holds one shape of the C minor chord: Box 1 the Em shape, Box 2 the Dm shape, Box 3 the Cm shape, Box 4 the Am shape and Box 5 the Gm shape. Open C minor with CAGED shapes on, or see how the five shapes connect in the CAGED system guide.
See also: Minor pentatonic scale · Major pentatonic scale · Blues scale