Harmony Relationship Chart

Chart that shows all the relationships of scales and harmony inside a scale.

To prepare you for this article refer to the post categories of Theory and Technique that contain the articles named Fret Finger Placement, Interval Theory, Understanding Major Scale Modes.

This article is about the Minor Pentatonic Scale and how the scale relates to chord harmony. The Penta name stands for 5 notes and this scale was originated from early music cultures in China, Polynesia and Africa. This scale is used in a lot of modern music (Blues, R&B, Rock & Jazz) and it is one of the easiest scales to solo in. The intervals in the scale come from a lot of popular common chords that are used in modern music. It is a wide interval scale made up of (1 whole steps – 3 frets wide) and (1 1/2 steps – 4 fret wide).

I put together a guitar pentatonic scale chart for chord harmony to the five modes of the Minor Pentatonic Scale. This guitar pentatonic scale chart shows the scale to chord interval formulas that match by column for each scale mode degree. The row for the scale mode degree are in Roman Numerals. In music the lower case represents minor and upper case is major. The notes row is each note of the scale. The Minor Pentatonic row is the name of each mode with their interval formula in brackets. Below that on the far left column are all rows for the related chord types. Each column with a chord name and a formula in brackets has a relationship match to the scale formula for that column. This guitar pentatonic scale chart is great way to find chord progression orders for song ideas in the A Minor Pentatonic Scale.

Below the chart there are scale fingerings, the top ones show the interval formulas for each scale mode with the tonal center (1) having a square. The matching shape fingerings below each shows the fret finger placement numbers in the Finger Per Fret Rule. The chromatic notes not played in the seven note major scale is an outline of the pentatonic scale. This is just like the black keys not played on the piano in the key of C Major (The white keys).

A lot of great guitar players stay in the pentatonic scale in the majority of their guitar solos. They hold out the major scale half step notes only to chord voices that match them. These notes are either played or sometimes bending into the note. A lot of blues and rock riff base song ideas use a pattern of notes used as a rhythm from the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale sounds very bland until you use vibrato and bending to give the notes an expressive quality. Rock style pentatonic riffs have a lot of rapid hammer on and pull off sequenced patterns that are played very fast. In the Blues Style the notes are more slowly phrased and articulated. There are some great guitar players that can fit in dynamically phrased fast runs into their blues solos like the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Pentatonic Scale Harmony Chart


A Minor Pentatonic Harmony Chart

A Minor Pentatonic Scale Harmony Chart



The Major Scale has 7 mode degrees  I – Aeolian, ii – Dorian, iii – Phrygian, IV- Lydian, V – Mixolydian, vi – Aeolian, vii – Locrian. If the scale has a Major 3rd the roman numerals are upper case letters and Minor 3rd lower case letters. Each scale can have can have a match to other 5 note pentatonic scales, arpeggios and chords to the same formula intervals of  the different varieties. All these matches can be organized in to groups and categories like the periodic table in chemistry.

The Guitar Analyzer Software has a matching data base to find all of these matched scale and arpeggio formulas. Then it loads them into spreed sheet table to create a scale harmony relationship chart. You can then select the scale mode degree and instantly select each matched type to see the matched interval formulas and steps. The root notes for each octave are isolated by square shapes and each octave also can be color separated on the display guitar fret board. Then here is the really cool thing you can see how the matched formula fits into the primary diatonic selected scale by giving it a border note. This gives a two dimension level viewing platform of the scales and arpeggios within the primary diatonic scale.

Your not just stuck viewing them in just a couple of fingerings. You can select 1 to 3 octaves and everything in between including 3 shape groups no fingerings. Every position within the guitar fret board range can also be selected. You can also select the notes, interval and finger placement. If you select another key the data base with find the new key notes and instantly rearrange and load new fingering position on the guitar fret board.

There is no fumbling back and forth between pages of a book or multiple books to try and understand and learn something you have everything right in front of you to see it in all the dimensional levels of view. You have the light turn on and all the blocks give way (ahh haa!! I can see it and understanding it now).

Relationship Chart

n Mode Verse Maj Pentantonic

Relationship Chart
