Music Video Lesson: What is a Pentatonic Scale?

Welcome to virtualsheetmusic.com and livingpianos.com, I'm Robert Estrin, your host. Today's subject is, "What is a Pentatonic Scale?" Sounds very complicated, doesn't it? Well, it's simpler than you think, and we're gonna cover that today and see how useful it is for you.

Pentatonic, penta, meaning five. A pentatonic scale contains only five notes. You know, of course, your major and minor scales contain eight notes, and you know, chromatic scales have 12 notes, so five notes, what's up with that? Well, it's very simple, and fortunately we have a piano keyboard. Why is that fortunate? Because you can visualize a pentatonic scale so easily because the black keys of the piano form a pentatonic scale. It's that simple. I don't know if you've ever noticed that if you play black keys they all sound good together, and that's one of the wonderful things about a pentatonic scale. Now, they can be transposed, which we'll get to in a moment, but first I want you to hear what a pentatonic scale sounds like.

That's the whole thing, just five notes. Now, if you take these intervals, you could transpose them into any key. Basically it's the first, thir-, first, second, third, fifth, and sixth notes of any major scale. So if you take C major, play the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth notes, there is a pentatonic scale in C major. And what is so cool about it is that everything sounds good with it.

[piano music]

That's right, you can have a lot of fun with a pentatonic scale, particularly if you're playing G Flat pentatonic because it's black keys. In fact, if you've never improvised in your life, sit down on the piano and just start making something up with black keys. As a matter of fact, if you have a friend handy, have them sit on the bench on one side or the other and play together, and you'll be shocked to discover that you can instantly make up anything and play it together and you cannot hit a wrong note if you stay with the black keys. Then you can challenge yourself and try transposing and play pentatonic in another key. Remember, the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth notes of any major scale form a pentatonic scale.

That's it for pentatonic scales. I hope this has been fun for you. I'm Robert Estrin here at virtualsheetmusic.com and livingpianos.com, see you next time.

[piano music]

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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