D Minor Pentatonic — Tenor Banjo

D Minor Pentatonic is 5 notes to the octave (pentatonic family), drawn here across the Tenor Banjo's CGDA strings with every D 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.

Fifths put seven semitones between neighbouring open strings, so a scale spreads three or four notes to a string and one fingering repeats across every pair — learned once, moved sideways.

Run it against a click at a tempo where every note gets the same weight. On a banjo an uneven scale is audible immediately — the instrument gives you no sustain to hide behind.