Hi Bruce ,

The 1st position A minor pentatonic scale has the exact same shape as the 5th position A major pentatonic scale. You can see it in the charts below. Like you said, the difference is the location that you play each scale shape. You can take all five minor pentatonic scale positions/shapes and shift them down three frets to get the major pentatonic scale but there won't always be a root note located on the sixth string to use as a starting point to play the scale.

It's easy to practice the 1st position minor pentatonic scale playing it up and down starting at the root note with your pointer finger... also easy to practice the 5th position major pentatonic scale starting at the root note with your pinky. Since some of the other scale shapes won't have a root note on the sixth string, it might sound funny to play them up and down the scale starting on the sixth string because you can lose track of the key that you're in.

I think the best the to do is memorize the scale shapes... Pick a key that you want to use for practice, go on YouTube and find a jam track in that key... Practice playing the notes of the pentatonic scale over the jam track. It's good to play the notes in no particular order and come up with different note combinations instead of just playing the scales up and down... Also good to practice switching back and forth between minor and major pentatonic scales over the jam track depending on the jam track chord progression. Learning the root notes will help for playing lead over different chords like we talk about in the Bluegrass Improvising Course.

You probably know a lot of this already but hopefully this helps somebody out there. Let me know if you have any other questions on it!