What is a pentatonic scale?
Q: What is a pentatonic scale?
A: A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes in each octave. It is commonly found in folk music from all over the world.
Q: How can you find a pentatonic scale?
A: An easy way to find such a pentatonic scale is by using all the black notes of a keyboard. You can also use the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th notes of a major scale to create one.
Q: What are some advantages of using the pentatonic scale?
A: Using the pentatonic scale is a good way for children to make up their own tunes as it does not matter too much which note is used for the start and finish, because there is no feeling of a clear key. The notes always sound good when played together. Many folk songs are either pentatonic or nearly so.
Q: Are there any famous songs that use this type of musical scale?
A: Yes! Well-known songs such as "Land of the Silver Birch" or "Auld Lang Syne" are both examples of pentatonic tunes. Classical composers have sometimes used this type of musical scales too; Claude Debussy's piano piece La fille aux cheveux de lin has a tune which is almost entirely composed with this type of musical scales except for one note while Maurice Ravel used it to write music which sounded Chinese and his Mother Goose suite (Ma Mère l'Oye) sounds like something out of fairy tales.
Q: What other types of music use this kind of musical scales?
A: The Indonesian gamelan music uses two different types called slendro and pelog which are both based on Pentatonic Scales.
Q: What does “penta” mean in Greek?
A: In Greek, “penta” means “five” - referring to the five notes found in each octave within Pentatonic Scales.
