E Major Pentatonic Scale — Notes, Chords & Free MIDI

The major scale with the fourth and seventh removed, which takes out both semitones. Nothing in it can clash, which is why it is where most improvisation starts. In E Major Pentatonic the notes are E, F#, G#, B, C#, written with 4 sharps (F#, C#, G#, D#). Its parent scale is E Major. The interval that gives it its sound is no semitones at all. This page presets the scale tool to E Major Pentatonic — play it, or download it as MIDI with or without the chords.

The notes of the E Major Pentatonic scale

Related keys

• E Major — parent scale — the seven notes this one is carved out of
• E Minor — parallel minor — the same tonic, a different third

Where the Major Pentatonic scale is used

country, folk, gospel, rock leads, and countless melodies across African and East Asian traditions.

How it works

Choose a root note and a scale, and this tool builds a MIDI file containing the scale played ascending and descending in quarter notes. Enable diatonic chords to also include the triad built on every degree of the scale — a quick way to hear which chords belong to a key. Press play preview to hear the exact notes before downloading. This page arrives preset to E Major Pentatonic, so the preview and the download both start on E4 and climb through the scale from there.

What can you do with a scale MIDI file?

• Drag it into your DAW as a reference lane while writing melodies.
• Learn unfamiliar scales — modes, pentatonics, harmonic minor — by seeing them on a piano roll.
• Feed it to arpeggiators or samplers that expect incoming MIDI.

A E Major Pentatonic reference lane earns its keep fast: with E, F#, G#, B, C# laid out on the piano roll, one glance tells you whether a note in your melody belongs to the scale or is a deliberate colour tone.

Want full generated tracks instead of raw scales? Open the MIDI Maker studio and let the generator write melodies in E Major Pentatonic for you.

The major pentatonic scale in every key

• C Major Pentatonic
• Db Major Pentatonic
• D Major Pentatonic
• Eb Major Pentatonic
• F Major Pentatonic
• Gb Major Pentatonic
• G Major Pentatonic
• Ab Major Pentatonic
• A Major Pentatonic
• Bb Major Pentatonic
• B Major Pentatonic

More scales starting on E

• E Major
• E Dorian
• E Phrygian
• E Lydian
• E Mixolydian
• E Minor
• E Locrian
• E Minor Pentatonic
• E Blues
• E Harmonic Minor
• E Melodic Minor

Or head back to the scale to MIDI tool to build any combination yourself.

Keep building: chords, drums and more

• I–V–vi–IV in E Major
• vi–IV–I–V in E Major
• I–IV–V–IV in E Major
• I–vi–IV–V in E Major
• ii–V–I in E Major
• I–vi–ii–V in E Major
• Drum MIDI generator
• Audio to MIDI converter

Frequently asked questions

What notes are in the E Major Pentatonic scale?

The E Major Pentatonic scale contains 5 notes: E, F#, G#, B, C#. Measured against the major scale that is 1 2 3 5 6, and the step pattern is W W W+H W W+H. The MIDI file plays them ascending and descending in quarter notes starting from E4.

Why does the E Major Pentatonic scale have no chord for every degree?

E Major Pentatonic has only 5 notes, so stacking thirds on each one does not produce a triad on every degree the way a seven-note scale does. Players treat it as a melodic vocabulary over chords borrowed from its parent scale instead.

Is this E Major Pentatonic MIDI file free to use?

Yes — the download is free, requires no sign-up, and the generated MIDI is royalty-free for personal and commercial projects. A scale is not copyrightable in any case.

How do I use the scale MIDI in my DAW?

Drag the downloaded .mid file onto an instrument track in any DAW (Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Cubase, Reaper, Bitwig, Studio One). It appears on the piano roll as regular notes you can edit, transpose, or feed into an arpeggiator.