Chord Colors

D♯ Ionian Pentatonic scale

357912

About the D sharp Ionian Pentatonic scale

D sharp Ionian Pentatonic is used for pop, folk and melodic writing. Think of it as five bright notes drawn from the major scale. It is D Melodic Minor Pentatonic with the third raised.

Its notes are D, G, G, A, and D. The formula is 4 semitones H W 4 semitones H.

Also called Ryukyu Scale and Okinawan.

An unfretted guitar already sounds D and G from the key. A guitarist finds the lowest D at the 6th fret of the A string. A capo at the first fret brings D Ionian Pentatonic within reach of D-shape fingerings.

Positions

Playable shapes for this scale up the neck. Tap any note to hear it.

Pentatonic boxes

The five shapes blues and rock are built on, the first scale most guitarists ever solo with, one box per note up the neck.

Box 1fr 3
Box 2fr 4
Box 3fr 6
Box 4fr 10
Box 5fr 11

Notes and intervals

1D#D♯Root
2GGMajor 3rd
3G#G♯Perfect 4th
4A#A♯Perfect 5th
5DDMajor 7th
Steps4 semitones H W 4 semitones H
Semitones4-1-2-4-1
Degrees1 3 4 5 7

Shapes

Chromatic

CC♯D♭DD♯E♭EFF♯G♭GG♯A♭AA♯B♭B

Circle of Fifths

CGDAEBF♯G♭C♯D♭G♯A♭D♯E♭A♯B♭F

Related scales

Ionian Pentatonic in other keys

Modes

The same notes, starting on a different note.

Embed this scale

Paste the snippet into a lesson page, a blog or a forum post. The card links back here.

Eb Ionian Pentatonic scale on guitar shown as colored note dots
Chord Colors

There's so much more to explore

Explore on the go. Over 150 chord progressions, modal mixture, build your own progressions, and more!

Try web version iOS app
Chord Colors on iPhone showing chords, guitar voicings, progressions, and scales