Cavaquinho scales

Standard tuning (D G B D)

C minor pentatonic  ·  C E♭ F G B♭  ·  5 notes

d
E♭
F
G
B♭
C
E♭
F
G
B
C
E♭
F
G
B♭
C
E♭
G
G
B♭
C
E♭
F
G
B♭
C
D
E♭
F
G
B♭
C
E♭
F
G
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

Showing the first 12 frets — the fretboard repeats from there. Swipe sideways to see them all.

RootIn the scaleChord tone of the shapeTap any note to make it the new root.

The cavaquinho is the four-string instrument at the centre of samba, choro and pagode, and it is close to invisible in English-language fretboard tools. This one draws it properly.

Standard Brazilian tuning is D G B D, low to high: D3 G3 B3 D4. The outer strings are both D, two octaves apart, which is what gives the instrument its ringing, drone-like sound when a chord is strummed hard on the offbeat.

If you already play guitar

The bottom three strings are not merely similar to a guitar’s — they are identical. A guitar’s fourth, third and second strings are tuned D3 G3 B3, the same three pitches as the cavaquinho’s first three.

So every chord shape and every scale fragment you know on the guitar’s middle three strings works here unchanged, at the same frets, naming the same notes. What is new is the top string: a D an octave above the bottom one, sitting where the guitar’s B string would be. Most of learning the cavaquinho as a guitarist is working out what that fourth string is doing to shapes you already know.

How to use the diagram

The neck is drawn with 17 frets. Markers vary by maker above the twelfth, but 5, 7, 10, 12 and 15 is the pattern most players expect to find.

Because the two D strings are two octaves apart, the top and bottom rows of every diagram carry the same pattern. If a note is in the scale on the open fourth string, it is in the scale on the open first string too. That symmetry is worth using: a phrase worked out on the low D can be moved to the high D without changing a single fret number.

There is no position selector on this page. CAGED is a six-string guitar system built on standard tuning’s interval pattern, and nothing about it survives a four-string instrument tuned in a completely different arrangement. Use the fret range controls instead — set them to the four or five frets your hand covers and the diagram shows exactly what is reachable from that position.

Scales worth knowing here

Choro and samba lean heavily on major and minor scales with the chromatic approach notes filled in between, rather than on pentatonics. Two settings on this page are worth combining for that: pick Major or Natural minor, then turn on show notes outside the scale — the greyed notes are the chromatic passing tones, and seeing them next to the scale is most of the point.

The harmonic minor is also worth a look. Its raised seventh is what gives that particular tense, leading-tone sound over minor chords that is all over choro.