[compiler-guy]

Nearly every popular-music guitar lesson series in the world teaches the five various pentatonic patterns--the few exceptions being those that focus on classical guitar or non-western music. You might find this article interesting.

https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/43516/can-someone-...

There is definitely theory to how they are constructed, and you are right that the shifts and adjustments can be derived if you think about it and practice it. But that's just a longer way to the five patterns.

[cma]

The other patterns for the basic scales are just the missing notes too, like black keys being pentatonics and white being a traditional scale.