C Minor Pentatonic — Venezuelan Cuatro

C Minor Pentatonic is 5 notes to the octave (pentatonic family), drawn here across the Venezuelan Cuatro's A-D-F#-B strings with every C marked, so home stays visible from anywhere in the pattern.

Gritty, bluesy, and direct — five notes with no half steps, so each one lands with attitude over a minor or dominant chord. The sound of rock and blues lead playing.

Heard in: Blues, rock, hard rock, metal, funk, and soul solos — the first scale most lead players learn and the one they never leave.

Four strings inside a major sixth put a scale in a deliberately cramped place: the same pitch turns up on two strings constantly, and one open string sounds below the string next to it, so a run that looks like it climbs on paper can fall under the fingers. These maps light every root so the ear has an anchor.

Use it the way the music does — in short pieces, between strums. Very little of this repertoire asks a cuatrista for a long scalar run; what it asks for is three or four notes that land exactly where the strumming hand was about to brake.