Pentatonic Scale

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Pentatonic scale
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For the record label, see Pentatone (record label).

A pentatonic scale is a musical scale or mode
with five notes per octave in contrast to a
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heptatonic (seven note) scale such as the major
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scale and minor scale. Pentatonic scales are very
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common and are found all over the world. They are
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divided into those with semitones (hemitonic) and

those without (anhemitonic).
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Recent changes
1 Pervasiveness
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2 Types of pentatonic scales

2.1 Hemitonic and anhemitonic
What links here
2.2 Major pentatonic scale
Related changes
2.3 Minor pentatonic scale
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2.4 Five black-key pentatonic scales of the piano
Special pages
3 Pythagorean tuning
Permanent link
4 Further pentatonic musical traditions
Page information
5 Use in education
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6 Further reading
Cite this page
7 See also
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"Oh! Susanna" are based on the major pentatonic scale[1]

Play (helpinfo).
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The first two phrases of the melody from Stephen Foster's
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Pentatonic scale in Ravel's Ma Mre l'Oye III.

"Laideronnette, Impratrice des Pagodes", m.9-13.[1]
Play (helpinfo) Presumably D minor pentatonic.
Pentatonic scale in Debussy's Voiles, Preludes, Book I, no.
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2, mm.43-45.[2]
8 References
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9 External links
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Languages
Pervasiveness
[edit]
Pentatonic scales occur in Celtic folk music, German folk music, Nordic folk music, Hungarian folk music, West
Brezhoneg
African music, African-American spirituals, Gospel music, Bluegrass music, American folk music, Jazz, American
Catal
blues music, rock music, Sami joik singing, children's song, the music of ancient Greece[3][4] and the Greek
etina
traditional music and songs from Epirus, Northwest Greece, music of Southern Albania, folk songs of peoples of
Dansk
Deutsch
the Middle Volga area (such as the Mari, the Chuvash and Tatars), the tuning of the Ethiopian krar and the
Eesti
Indonesian gamelan, Philippine kulintang, Native American music, melodies of China, Korea, Laos, Thailand,
Espaol
Malaysia, Japan, and Vietnam (including the folk music of these countries), the Andean music, the Afro-
Esperanto
Caribbean tradition, Polish highlanders from the Tatra Mountains, and Western Impressionistic composers such
Franais
as French composer Claude Debussy.[citation needed] Examples of its use include Chopin's Etude in G-flat major,
Gaeilge
op. 10, no. 5, the "Black Key" etude,[1] in the major pentatonic.
Galego
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
Basa Jawa
Types of pentatonic scales
[edit]
Hemitonic and anhemitonic [edit]

Main article: Anhemitonic scale
Ethnomusicology commonly classifies pentatonic scales as
either hemitonic or anhemitonic. Hemitonic scales contain
Kurd
one or more semitones and anhemitonic scales do not
Magyar
contain semitones. For example, in Japanese music the
Nederlands
anhemitonic yo scale is contrasted with the hemitonic in
Norsk bokml
Polski
Portugus
Miny scale on D,[5] equivalent to yo scale on D,[6]

with brackets on fourths
Play (helpinfo).
scale. Hemitonic pentatonic scales are also called "ditonic

scales", because the largest interval in them is the ditone
(e.g., in the scale CEFGBC, the interval found
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Portugus
between CE and GB).[8] This should not be confused
Simple English
with the identical term also used by ethnomusicologists to
Suomi
describe a scale including only two notes.
Miyako-bushi scale on D, equivalent to in scale on

D, with brackets on fourths [7]
Play (helpinfo).
Svenska
Tagalog
Major pentatonic scale [edit]
/tatara
Anhemitonic pentatonic scales can be constructed in many ways. The major pentatonic scale may be thought of
Ting Vit
as a gapped or incomplete major scale.[9] However, the pentatonic scale has a unique character and is
complete in terms of tonality. One construction takes five consecutive pitches from the circle of fifths;[10] starting
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on C, these are C, G, D, A, and E. Transposing the pitches to fit into one octave rearranges the pitches into the
major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G, A.
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Another construction works backward: It omits two pitches from a diatonic scale. If we were to begin with a C
major scale, for example, we might omit the fourth and the seventh scale degrees, F and B. The remaining
notes, C, D, E, G, and A, are transpositionally equivalent to the black keys on a piano keyboard: G-flat, A-flat,
B-flat, D-flat, and E-flat.
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Omitting the third and seventh degrees of the C major scale obtains the notes for another transpositionally
equivalent anhemitonic pentatonic scale: {F,G,A,C,D}. Omitting the first and fourth degrees of the C major scale
gives a third anhemitonic pentatonic scale: {G,A,B,D,E}.
Minor pentatonic scale [edit]

Although various hemitonic pentatonic scales might be called minor, the term is most commonly applied to the
relative minor pentatonic derived from the major pentatonic, using scale tones 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 of the natural
minor scale.[1] It may also be considered a gapped blues scale.[11] The C minor pentatonic is C, E-flat, F, G, Bflat. The A minor pentatonic, the relative minor of C, comprises the same tones as the C major pentatonic,
starting on A, giving A, C, D, E, G. This minor pentatonic contains all three tones of an A minor triad.
play (helpinfo)
Because of their simplicity, pentatonic scales are often used to introduce children to music.
Five black-key pentatonic scales of the piano [edit]

The five pentatonic scales found by running up the black keys on the piano are:
Mode
number
1
Name(s)
Minor Pentatonic
Black notes
E-G-A-B-DE
G-A-B-D-E-
Ratios (Just)
30:36:40:45:54:60
White-key
transpositions
A C D E G A or E G
ABDE
C D E G A C or G A
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G-A-B-D-E-
Major Pentatonic
Egyptian, Suspended
Blues Minor, Man Gong
G
A-B-D-E-GA
B-D-E-G-AB
Blues Major, Ritusen, yo
D-E-G-A-B-
scale
24:27:30:36:40:48
24:27:32:36:42:48
15:18:20:24:27:30
24:27:32:36:40:48
C D E G A C or G A
BDEG
D E G A C D or A B
DEGA
E G A C D E or B D E
GAB
G A C D E G or D E
GABD
(A minor seventh can be 7:4, 16:9, or 9:5; a major sixth can be 27:16 or 5:3. Both were chosen to minimize
ratio parts.)
Ricker assigned the major pentatonic scale mode I while Gilchrist assigned it mode III.[12]
Pythagorean tuning
[edit]
Ben Johnston gives the following Pythagorean tuning for the minor pentatonic scale:[13]
Note
Solfege
Ratio
1/1
32/27
4/3
3/2
16/9
2/1
Natural
54
64
72
81
96
108
Audio
Step
1 (helpinfo)
3 (helpinfo)
4 (helpinfo)
5 (helpinfo)
7 (helpinfo)
Name
m3
m3
Ratio
32/27
9/8
9/8
32/27
9/8
8 (helpinfo)
Play (helpinfo)
Naturals in that table are not the alphabetic series A to G without sharps
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Naturals in that table are not the alphabetic series A to G without sharps
and flats: Naturals are reciprocals of terms in the Harmonic series
(mathematics), which are in practice multiples of a Fundamental
frequency. This may be derived by proceeding with the principle that
historically gives the Pythagorean diatonic and chromatic scales,
stacking perfect fifths with 3:2 frequency proportions (C-G-D-A-E).
Considering the anhemitonic scale as a subset of a just diatonic scale, it
is tuned thus; 20:24:27:30:36 (A-C-D-E-G = 5/3-1/1-9/8-5/4-3/2).
Assigning precise frequency proportions to the pentatonic scales of
most cultures is problematic as tuning may be variable.
Just pentatonic tuning of Lou

Harrison's "American gamelan", Old
Granddad.[14] This gives the
proportions 24:27:30:36:40.
Play (helpinfo)
For example, the slendro anhemitonic scale and its modes of Java and
Bali are said to approach, very roughly, an equallytempered five note scale,[16] but, in fact, their tunings vary
dramatically from gamelan to gamelan.[17]
Slendro approximated in Western notation.[15]
Play (helpinfo)
Composer Lou Harrison has been one of the most recent

proponents and developers of new pentatonic scales
based on historical models. Harrison and William Colvig
tuned the slendro scale of the gamelan Si Betty to overtones 16:19:21:24:28.[18] (1/1-19/16-21/16-3/2-7/4)
They tuned the Mills gamelan so that the intervals between scale steps are 8:7-7:6-9:8-8:7-7:6.[19] (1/1-8/7-4/33/2-12/7-2/1 = 42:48:56:63:72)
Further pentatonic musical traditions
[edit]
The major pentatonic scale is the basic scale of the music of China and the music of Mongolia. The
fundamental tones (without meri or kari techniques) rendered by the 5 holes of the Japanese shakuhachi flute
play a minor pentatonic scale. The Yo scale used in Japanese shomyo Buddhist chants and gagaku imperial
court music is an anhemitonic pentatonic scale[20] shown below, which is the fourth mode of the major
pentatonic scale.
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play (helpinfo)
In Javanese gamelan music, the slendro scale is pentatonic, with roughly equally spaced intervals (
MIDI sample (helpinfo)). Another scale, pelog, has seven tones, but is generally played using one of several
pentatonic subsets (known as pathets), which are roughly analogous to different keys or modes.
In Scottish music, the pentatonic scale is very common. The Great Highland bagpipe scale is considered three
interlaced pentatonic scales.[21] This is especially true for Piobaireachd which typically uses one of the
pentatonic scales out of the nine possible notes. It also features in Irish traditional music, either purely or almost
so. The minor pentatonic is used in Appalachian folk music. Blackfoot music most often uses anhemitonic
tetratonic or pentatonic scales.[22]
In Andean music, the pentatonic scale is used substantially minor, sometimes major, and seldom in scale. In the
most ancient genres of Andean music being performed without string instruments (only with winds and
percussion), pentatonic melody is often leaded with parallel fifths and fourths, so formally this music is
hexatonic. Hear example:
Pacha Siku (helpinfo).
Jazz music commonly uses both the major and the minor pentatonic scales. For example, jazz pianists Art
Tatum, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, blues, and rock. Pentatonic scales are useful for improvisors in
modern jazz, pop, and rock contexts because they work well over several chords diatonic to the same key, often
better than the parent scale. For example, the blues scale is predominantly derived from the minor pentatonic
scale, a very popular scale for improvisation in the realm of blues and rock alike.[23]
Rock guitar solo almost all over B minor pentatonic (helpinfo) For instance, over a C major triad (C, E, G) in
the key of C major, the note F can be perceived as dissonant as it is a half step above the major third (E) of the
chord. It is for this reason commonly avoided. Using the major pentatonic scale is an easy way out of this
problem. The scale tones 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (from the major pentatonic) are either major triad tones (1, 3, 5) or
common consonant extensions (2, 6) of major triads. For the corresponding relative minor pentatonic, scale
tones 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 work the same way, either as minor triad tones (1, 3, 5) or as common extensions (4,
7), as they all avoid being a half step from a chord tone.
U.S. military cadences, or "jodies," which keep soldiers in step while marching or running, also typically use
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pentatonic scales.[24]
Hymns and other religious music sometimes use the pentatonic scale. For example, the melody of the hymn
"Amazing Grace",[25] one of the most famous pieces in religious music.
The common pentatonic major and minor scales (C-D-E-G-A and C-E-F-G-B, respectively) are useful in
modal composing, as both scales allow a melody to be modally ambiguous between their respective major
(Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian) and minor (Aeolian, Phrygian, Dorian) modes (Locrian excluded). With either modal
or non-modal writing, however, the harmonization of a pentatonic melody does not necessarily have to be
derived from only the pentatonic pitches.
Use in education
[edit]
The pentatonic scale plays a significant role in music education, particularly in Orff-based, Kodly-based, and
Waldorf methodologies at the primary/elementary level. The Orff system places a heavy emphasis on
developing creativity through improvisation in children, largely through use of the pentatonic scale. Orff
instruments, such as xylophones, bells and other metallophones, use wooden bars, metal bars or bells which
can be removed by the teacher leaving only those corresponding to the pentatonic scale, which Carl Orff
himself believed to be children's native tonality.[26] Children begin improvising using only these bars, and over
time, more bars are added at the teacher's discretion until the complete diatonic scale is being used. Orff
believed that the use of the pentatonic scale at such a young age was appropriate to the development of each
child, since the nature of the scale meant that it was impossible for the child to make any real harmonic
mistakes.
In Waldorf education, pentatonic music is considered to be appropriate for young children due to its simplicity
and unselfconscious openness of expression. Pentatonic music centered around intervals of the fifth is often
sung and played in early childhood; progressively smaller intervals are emphasized within primarily pentatonic
as children progress through the early school years. At around nine years of age the music begins to center
around first folk music using a six-tone scale, and then the modern diatonic scales, with the goal of reflecting
the children's developmental progress in their musical experience. Pentatonic instruments used include lyres,
pentatonic flutes, and tone bars; special instruments have been designed and built for the Waldorf
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curriculum.[27]
Further reading
[edit]
Pentatonicism from the Eighteenth Century to Debussy by Jeremy Day-O'Connell (University of Rochester
Press 2007) the first comprehensive account of the increasing use of the pentatonic scale in 19th century
Western art music, including a catalogue of over 400 musical examples.
Trn Vn Kh "Le pentatonique est-il universel? Quelques reflexions sur le pentatonisme", The World of
Music 19, nos. 12:8591 (1977). English translation p. 7684
Kurt Reinhard, "On the problem of pre-pentatonic scales: particularly the third-second nucleus", Journal of
the International Folk Music Council 10 (1958).
Yamaguchi, Masaya (New York: Charles Colin, 2002; Masaya Music, Revised 2006). Pentatonicism in Jazz:
Creative Aspects and Practice. ISBN 0-9676353-1-4
Jeff Burns, Pentatonic Scales for the Jazz-Rock Keyboardist (1997).
See also
[edit]
Jazz scale
Quartal and quintal harmony
Raga
Suspended chord
Traditional sub-Saharan African harmony
References
[edit]
1. ^ a b c d Bruce Benward and Marilyn Nadine Saker (2003), Music: In Theory and Practice, seventh edition (Boston:
McGraw Hill), vol. I, p.37. ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0.
2. ^ Bruce Benward and Marilyn Nadine Saker (2009), Music in Theory and Practice, eighth edition (Boston: McGraw
Hill): vol. II, p.245. ISBN 978-0-07-310188-0.
3. ^ M. L. West, "Ancient Greek Music", Clarendon Press, 1994, [page needed].
4. ^ Anastasios-Phoibos Christides, A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity, revised and
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5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
expanded translation of the Greek text edition (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press,
2007), [page needed].
^ Susan Miyo Asai (1999). Nmai Dance Drama, p.126. ISBN 978-0-313-30698-3.
^ Minoru Miki, Marty Regan, Philip Flavin (2008). Composing for Japanese instruments, p.2. ISBN 978-1-58046273-0.
^ Titon, Jeff Todd (1996). Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples, p.373. ISBN 0-02872612-X.
^ Anon. (2001) "Ditonus", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley
Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers; Bence Szabolcsi (1943), "Five-Tone Scales and
Civilization", Acta Musicologica 15, Fasc. 1/4 (JanuaryDecember): pp.2434, citation on p.25.
^ Benward & Saker (2003), p.36.
^ Cooper, Paul. 1973. Perspectives in Music Theory: An Historical-Analytical Approach, p.18. New York: Dodd,
Mead. ISBN 0-396-06752-2.
^ Khan, Steve (2002). Pentatonic Khancepts, p.12. ISBN 978-0-7579-9447-0.
^ Ricker, Ramon (1983). Pentatonic Scales for Jazz Improvisation, p.2. ISBN 978-0-7692-3072-6. Cites Gilchrist,
Annie G. (Dec. 1911). "Note on the Modal System of Gaelic Tunes", Journal of the Folk Song Society, pp.150-153.
^ (Spring - Summer, 1964). "Scalar Order as a Compositional Resource", p.64, Source: Perspectives of New
Music, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 56-76. [1] . Accessed 01/04/2009 02:05.
^ Leta E. Miller and Fredric Lieberman (Summer 1999). "Lou Harrison and the American Gamelan", p.158,
American Music, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp.146-178.
^ "The representations of slendro and pelog tuning systems in Western notation shown above should not be
regarded in any sense as absolute. Not only is it difficult to convey non-Western scales with Western notation..."
Lindsay, Jennifer (1992). Javanese Gamelan, p.39-41. ISBN 0-19-588582-1.
^ Lindsay (1992), p.38-39: "Slendro is made up of five equal, or relatively equal, intervals".
^ "...in general, no two gamelan sets will have exactly the same tuning, either in pitch or in interval structure. There
are no Javanese standard forms of these two tuning systems." Lindsay (1992), p.39-41.
^ Miller & Lieberman (1999), p.159.
^ Miller & Lieberman (1999), p.161.
^ Japanese Music, Cross-Cultural Communication: World Music, University of Wisconsin Green Bay .
^ Cannon, Roderick D. (2008) The Highland Bagpipe and its Music. Pub. Birlinn Ltd. ISBN 1841586668
^ Nettl, Bruno (1989). Blackfoot Musical Thought: Comparative Perspectives, p.43. Ohio: The Kent State
University Press. ISBN 0-87338-370-2.
^ "The Pentatonic and Blues Scale" . How To Play Blues Guitar. 2008-07-09. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
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24. ^ "NROTC Cadences" . Retrieved 2010-09-22.

25. ^ Turner, Steve (2002). Amazing Grace: The Story of America's Most Beloved Song, p.122. HarperCollins. ISBN 006-000219-0.
26. ^ Beth Landis; Polly Carder (1972). The eclectic curriculum in American music education: contributions of
Dalcroze, Kodaly, and Orff. Washington D.C.: Music Educators National Conference. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-94079603-4.
27. ^ Andrea Intveen, Musical Instruments in Anthroposophical Music Therapy with Reference to Rudolf Steiners
Model of the Threefold Human Being
External links
[edit]
Pentatonic Scales for Guitar- A brief introduction
Look up pentatonic in
Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.
Alternative uses for the pentatonic scale

Video: How to Play Pentatonic Panflute
by Brad White
Printable pentatonic scale shapes for guitar

Pentatonic Minor - Learning The Five Scale Positions for guitar
Detailed Examination of pentatonic scales in Southern Appalachian folksongs
Discussing theory and use of pentatonic scale on guitar
Pentatonic music of Aka Pygmies (Central Africa)
The Power of the Pentatonic Scale
with photos and soundscapes
on World Science Festival

Musical scales (list)
V T E
Categories: Pentatonic scales
[show]
Musical scales
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For the record label, see Pentatone (record label).

heptatonic (seven note) scale such as the major

scale and minor scale. Pentatonic scales are very

divided into those with semitones (hemitonic) and

2 Types of pentatonic scales

What links here

2.2 Major pentatonic scale

2.3 Minor pentatonic scale

2.4 Five black-key pentatonic scales of the piano

4 Further pentatonic musical traditions

Cite this page

open in browser PRO version

"Oh! Susanna" are based on the major pentatonic scale[1]

The first two phrases of the melody from Stephen Foster's

Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API