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Pentatonic Scale-tone Practice Patterns
(page 2)

This is the second page of major pentatonic scale-tone practice patterns associated with the Musicarta Pentatonics Workbook.

Use the series navigation on the right to click through to other pages.

MPSPP 6

Pattern 6 is pure zigzag initially, then every second pair of notes is inverted. Then the first of the two pairs of notes in the beamed groups is inverted (but not the second), then all the pairs of notes are inverted.

MPSPP 7

Pattern 7 is like Pattern 6 but keeps the up-down alternation going right through the (first) line, then the reverse, down-up, alternation. This would be a good pattern to cycle through the keys. Instead of ending, drop down a tone and play the pattern in C, then in F, then in B flat, and so on.

MPSPP 8

Pattern 8 is the major pentatonic scale played in rising triplets overlapping by one tone, then skipping up and stepping down across the beaming (rhythm).

MPSPP 9

Pattern 9 is zigzag pentatonic scale tones but with the third pair of four inverted (rising). On the way down, it’s the last of the four pairs of notes that’s inverted. The drill overall sounds better. You should always be listening for improvements, or simply for what you’d prefer to hear and play, and be ready to branch out of the patterns given.

The second rise-and-fall alternates ‘up’ pairs and ‘down’ pairs.

MPSPP 10

Pattern 10 plays around with ‘up’ and ‘down’ pairs but in six-eight. The first pattern in the drill is up-up-down pairs with the beamed groups only climbing one scale-tone at a time (and the reverse on the way down). The second pattern is the same but the groups only overlap by one scale-tone, so the pattern moves up and down a lot faster. The last pattern is the same but with up-down-up pairs.

MPSPP 11

Pattern 11 plays with next-door pentatonic scale tones (step movement) as well as skip-a-tone pairs. Two movements are explored: step-skip-skip and skip-step-skip.

Because the pentatonic scale has only five notes, two of the steps in the scale are bigger than a whole tone, so they might look like skips at first.

Examining melodic movement like this, especially in the pentatonic scale, will train your brain and ears to pick up melodies better than almost anything else.

Transposing the patterns

You can transpose the patterns by pure shape into the other all-white-key major pentatonic keys C and F.

After that, you should venture into the one-black-key keys, D and B flat, then the two-black-keys keys A and E flat, and so on.

You can see what these will look and sound like by loading the download MIDI files into MidiPiano and adjusting the 'Key' contro, one click per semitone.

Make a practice schedule to gradually work through the patterns in pentatonic keys at least up to three black keys (A flat and E majors).

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