A Major Pentatonic scale on bass
Play the A Major Pentatonic scale on 4-string bass — notes A B C♯ E F♯ — with the shape on the neck, the formula, and how it sounds, every note a tap away. Free.
The scale on the neck
Here's A Major Pentatonic over the first 12 frets of the bass (standard EADG tuning). The pink notes are the root; tap any note to hear it, or play the whole scale ascending.
Press Make it interactive and the same scale opens across all 24 frets, with the other bass tunings and with every note labelled by its interval from the root (R, 2, 3…) instead of by name. The numbers are the same in every key, so what you learn here transposes straight to G or E. (Note: the root shows there as R, not as A.)
The notes
Each note is labelled with its scale degree. The formula (1 2 3 5 6) is the scale's fingerprint — identical in every key, so a one-position fingering can be slid to any root. The map above shows every scale note over the first 12 frets (open strings included), and the pattern repeats above the 12th fret.
How it's built & how it sounds
A Major Pentatonic is a five-note scale (not a mode). What makes it different: The major scale with its two clash-prone notes — the 4th and the 7th — removed. Five notes remain: 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.
The sound: Open, bright and singable. With no half-steps left in the scale, there are no “wrong” notes against a major chord. Where you'll hear it: Country, folk, pop and classic-rock melodies and solos; the friendliest scale to improvise with.
On bass this scale is the note pool for basslines and fills in this key. Land on the root on beat 1 and target the chord tones(the 3rd, 5th and any 7th) on strong beats; the other scale notes work best as passing tones on weak beats, connecting one chord tone to the next. The notes follow the chord you're on, not just the key.
Major Pentatonic on other roots
Other scales on A bass
Play guitar too? See A Major Pentatonic on guitar.
Scales and their formulas are shared facts of music theory. The fretboard and audio are generated by ThunderFret's own engine — no tabs or recordings are reproduced.
See A Major Pentatonic on the full neck inside the tool — it opens on bass, with all 24 frets and every note labelled by its interval, and you can hear a note at a time or the whole scale. Free.
Open A Major Pentatonic in the toolFrequently asked
What notes are in the A Major Pentatonic scale on bass?
A Major Pentatonic has 5 notes: A, B, C♯, E, F♯. On a standard EADG bass they repeat all the way up the neck.
What's a good bass fingering for A Major Pentatonic?
Play it as a one-octave pattern in a single position. Bass frets are wide, so most players use a 1–2–4 (index–middle–pinky) fingering low on the neck and switch to one-finger-per-fret from around the 5th fret up. Start from the lowest A shown — which is an open string in some keys. That one-position pattern is the same in every key, so you can slide it to a new root; patterns that use open strings are the exception and don't slide.
What is the formula for the major pentatonic scale?
1 2 3 5 6 — the step pattern W–W–1½–W–1½. It's the same in every key; only the starting note changes.