F Minor Pentatonic
Four flats, one shape, and nowhere to rest.
F minor pentatonic is F, A♭, B♭, C and E♭. On paper it looks forbidding, four flats; on a guitar it is one moveable shape at the 1st fret, and the darkest place this scale goes.
The flats are a spelling problem, not a playing one
The formula is unchanged: 1 ♭3 4 5 ♭7. F minor carries four flats when written down, but the fretboard does not care how a note is spelled — the shape is the same one you already play in A minor, moved down four frets.
- F A♭ B♭ C E♭ — four flats on paper.
- Box 1 at the 1st fret, root on the low E string.
- The relative major is A♭, with the same five notes.
Low, tight and deliberately uncomfortable
Down at the 1st fret the frets are at their widest and the string tension at its highest, so bends fight back. Most players take the second shape at the 8th fret instead, where the hand can breathe. Both are the same five notes.
- At the 1st fret the stretch is wide and bends are stiff.
- The box at the 8th fret is the practical one.
- No open strings belong to the scale.
Where F minor pentatonic lives
F minor is a favourite of soul, R&B and film scores, and of metal bands tuned down a half step, where it falls under the fingers as E minor shapes. Use it over Fm, an F minor blues, or a slow Fm–B♭m–C7.
- Fits Fm, Fm7 and an F minor blues.
- The key soul and R&B ballads keep returning to.
- Add B for the F blues scale.
F minor pentatonic looks hard written down and plays like every other minor pentatonic — four flats, one shape, and the darkest corner of the neck.
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