If you want to play riffs, solos, or anything beyond strumming chords, you need to learn a scale. And there’s one scale that sits at the foundation of just about everything — the E minor pentatonic. Colin estimates that fifty percent of famous guitar riffs come from this scale or some variation of it. It’s the first guitar scale every player should learn.

The best part? It only uses two fingers and open strings. You can learn it in five minutes and spend years getting mileage out of it.

The Pattern

The E minor pentatonic in open position uses only the 2nd and 3rd fingers. One finger per fret — 2nd finger plays 2nd fret notes, 3rd finger plays 3rd fret notes. No pinky, no first finger (for now).

Here’s the pattern string by string, starting from the low E:

• 6th string: open, then 3rd fret (3rd finger)
• 5th string: open, then 2nd fret (2nd finger)
• 4th string: open, then 2nd fret (2nd finger)
• 3rd string: open, then 2nd fret (2nd finger)
• 2nd string: open, then 3rd fret (3rd finger)
• 1st string: open, then 3rd fret (3rd finger)

The notes are E-G-A-B-D, repeated over two octaves plus one extra note at the top (G on the 3rd fret, 1st string). Pentatonic means five notes — that’s all you need.

Down-Up Picking

When you practice this scale, alternate your picking: down-up, down-up, all the way through. Every note gets one pick stroke. Down on the first note of each string, up on the second. Keep it strict.

When you reach the highest note (G on the 3rd fret, 1st string), don’t hit it twice — just turn around and come back down. If you keep your down-up pattern consistent the whole way through, your low E at the bottom should land on a downstroke again. That’s how you know you’re doing it right.

The Descending Trap

Going up is straightforward — low note on each string first, then the higher note, cross to the next string. But coming back down trips up a lot of beginners.

The natural instinct is to keep going open-then-fretted on each string, the same as ascending. But that reverses the pitch direction on each string — you end up with a switchback pattern instead of a smooth descent.

The correct way: start from the minor pentatonic scale, then the open string, then cross down. So it’s 3rd fret first string, then open, then 3rd fret second string, then open, and so on. High to low on every string, all the way down.

How Riffs Fit In

Every riff you hear Colin play in these lessons comes straight out of this scale. That hammer-on riff on the 2nd string? It’s just two notes from the pentatonic. Those blues licks? All pentatonic notes in different orders with different rhythms.

A scale isn’t music by itself — running up and down it sounds clinical. But once you know where the notes are, you can start pulling pieces out of it and turning them into something that sounds good. That’s what riffs are: small chunks of a scale played with rhythm and feel.

Practice the scale with a metronome or drum machine. Get clear notes, steady timing, and smooth string crossings before worrying about speed. This one scale will keep you busy for a long time, and it’s the starting point for everything else in the guitar scales library.

Once you’re comfortable here, the next step is moving this same pattern up the neck — check out the chromatic scale for a different approach, or the major diatonic scale to see how this five-note pattern fits inside a larger seven-note framework.