Chord Colors

G♯ Vietnamese scale

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About the G sharp Vietnamese scale

G sharp Vietnamese is used for Vietnamese-flavored and folk melodies. Think of it as a dark five-note scale with a minor third and flat sixth.

Its notes are G, B, C, D, and E. The formula is 1½ W W H 4 semitones.

E and B are open guitar strings that sit inside this scale, ready to drone under a riff. A guitarist finds the lowest G at the 4th fret of the low E string. Capo the first fret to play G Vietnamese with G-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 1open
Box 2fr 4
Box 3fr 7
Box 4fr 9
Box 5fr 11

Notes and intervals

1G#G♯Root
2BBMinor 3rd
3C#C♯Perfect 4th
4D#D♯Perfect 5th
5EEMinor 6th
Steps1½ W W H 4 semitones
Semitones3-2-2-1-4
Degrees1 3 4 5 6

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

Vietnamese in other keys

Embed this scale

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

Ab Vietnamese scale on guitar shown as colored note dots
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