"Pentatonics" redirects here. For the a cappella group and their 2015 album, see Pentatonix and Pentatonix (album).
"Pentatone" redirects here. For the classical music label, see Pentatone (record label).
The first two phrases of the melody from Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna" are based on the major pentatonic scale[1]
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale).
Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient civilizations[2] and are still used in various musical styles to this day. As Leonard Bernstein put it: "the universality of this scale is so well known that I'm sure you could give me examples of it, from all corners of the earth, as from Scotland, or from China, or from Africa, and from American Indian cultures, from East Indian cultures, from Central and South America, Australia, Finland ...now, that is a true musico-linguistic universal."[3] There are two types of pentatonic scales: those with semitones (hemitonic) and those without (anhemitonic).
^Bruce Benward and Marilyn Nadine Saker (2003), Music: In Theory and Practice, seventh edition (Boston: McGraw Hill), vol. I, pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0.
^John Powell (2010). How Music Works: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and Beyond. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-316-09830-4.
^Bernstein, L. (1976)
The Unanswered Question, Cambridge Mass., Harvard University Press.
A pentatonicscale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major...
existing scale, notably the flat fifth addition to the minor pentatonicscale. However, the heptatonic blues scale can be considered a major scale with altered...
the major pentatonicscale, using scale tones 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 of the natural minor scale. Diatonic functionality Jazz minor scale Jazz scale#Modes of...
the scale generated by beginning on the fifth step of a pentatonicscale as the V pentatonicscale. Levine points out that the V pentatonicscale works...
often used on V7♯5 chords. Two pentatonicscales common to jazz are the major pentatonicscale and the minor pentatonicscale. They are both modes of one...
The in scale (also known as the Sakura pentatonicscale due to its use in the well-known folk song Sakura Sakura) is one of two pentatonicscales commonly...
practice Japanese traditional music is often based on pentatonic (five tone) or heptatonic (seven tone) scales. In some instances, harmonic minor is used, while...
list of musical scales and modes. Degrees are relative to the major scale. Bebop scale Chord-scale system Heptatonic scale Jazz scale List of chord progressions...
Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an audava rāga (or owdava rāga, meaning pentatonicscale). It is usually described...
of pentatonicscale that draws its notes from the diatonic scale (in the exclusive sense, above) is sometimes called the diatonic pentatonicscale: C–D–E–G–A[–C]...
prehistoric music. Tetratonic scales were common among the Plains Indians, though less common than the pentatonicscale. Amongst the Arapaho, Blackfoot...
The yo scale is a pentatonicscale used in much Japanese music including gagaku and shomyo. It is similar to the Dorian, but does not contain minor notes...
strings, is 64 inches (1.6 m; 5 ft 4 in) long, and is tuned in a major pentatonicscale. It has a large, resonant soundboard made from Paulownia wood. Other...
blues scale, but the scale most commonly called "the blues scale" comprises the minor pentatonicscale and an additional flat 5th scale degree: C E♭ F G♭...
いんせん) is a tuning scale adapted from shamisen music by Yatsuhashi Kengyō for tuning of the koto. It only differs from the hirajoshi scale by one note. In...
the essential tuning systems used in gamelan instruments that have pentatonicscale. Based on Javanese mythology, the Slendro Gamelan tuning system is...
(musical scale of South Indian classical music), created in the early nineteenth century by Muthuswami Dikshitar. It is an audava rāgam (meaning pentatonic scale)...
A,E} are the notes of the major pentatonicscale on C, which contains only consonant intervals. The C-pentatonicscale omits the open B of standard tuning...
The Akebono scale is a musical scale commonly used in traditional Japanese music. Akebono and the Diatonic scale use the same intervals, but Akebono has...
(1999-11-27). PentatonicScales for Jazz Improvisation. Alfred Music. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-4574-9410-9. Pentatonicscales, as used in jazz, are five note scales Danneley...
consist of a scale simpler than the classical eight-pitch scale of eastern culture, often finding itself in the pentatonic or tritonic scale. The voice...
pentatonicscale. The whole tone scale is also anhemitonic. A special subclass of the hemitonic scales is the cohemitonic scales. Cohemitonic scales contain...
musical scale used in Indian classical music. There are two scales, one in Hindustani music and one in Carnatic music. The Hindustani rāga is a pentatonic scale...
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