Pentatonic Scales

Pentatonic scales have five notes – two of the notes in the ordinary scale are missed out. There are two pentatonic scales, a pentatonic major and a pentatonic minor. These scales are easy to learn and generate lots of music, from heavy metal through mainstream rock jamming to folk tunes.

Pentatonic scales are great for improvising because they provide a limited set of notes which sound good over a maximum number of chords. Because there are only five of them, it’s easier to pick a note, and it’s more likely to be a good one.

Finding pentatonic scales on the keyboard

You can play six pentatonic scales using just the white piano keys – three major pentatonic scales and three minor pentatonic scales, in three pairs. The same five notes are used in each pair of major and minor pentatonic scales. These three pairs of scales are shown in the following diagrams.

The shaded notes on each keyboard are all pentatonic scale tones. One complete octave (T to T) is more darkly shaded. This octave is played up and down in the audio file.

The keyboards line up accurately with the written music, so you can use the keyboards to ‘read’ the music. The minor pentatonic scale is written in the bass clef just to help you read the notes – it isn’t necessarily played below the major scale in practice.

Pick out the darker-shaded octave T to T, using two hands and any fingers that feel comfortable. The audio track under the diagram plays the major (top) scale first, then the minor (bottom) scale. – the one for the major scale is above, for the minor, below.

C major and relative A minor

G major and relative E minor

F major and relative D minor

Using these keyboard diagrams, you can immediately start picking out pentatonic melodies at the keyboard. ‘Doodle’ with both hands covering a total of perhaps eight or nine notes - the T-to-T octave and a couple of notes either side. Start and end on your ‘T’ note (for tonic, explained below). You might find the scales sound familiar.

Here are some sample ‘doodles’. They all start and end on the tonic (name-note). Try to copy them.

C major

A minor

G major

E minor

F major

D minor

The notes of the pentatonic scales

The notes of the two pentatonic scale are indicated in shorthand on the keyboards in the diagrams above.

The notes (scale tones) of the major pentatonic scale are:

The tonic, the major second, the major third, the perfect fifth, and the major sixth

(The fourth and seventh notes of the major scale are missed out.)

The tonic (T) is the name-note of a scale. The tonic of the D major pentatonic scale is note D; the tonic of the E minor pentatonic scale is note E.

The notes (scale tones) of the minor pentatonic scale are:

The tonic, the minor third, the perfect fourth, the perfect fifth, and the minor (or flattened) seventh.

(The second and sixth of the natural minor scale are missed out.)

The pentatonic scale tones in shorthand, as used in the keyboard diagrams, are:

Note that in the shorthand, ‘major’ (the second, third and sixth) and ‘perfect’ (the fourth and fifth) are now understood, and not written down.

As you see from the keyboard diagrams above, you can use the shorthand to find the pentatonic tones just by counting keys from T = 1, but only for C, G, and F major and A, E, and D minor pentatonic scales. After that you need black keys, and you have to know your scales.

Which note is the tonic?

Melodies often start and end on the tonic (name-note) of the key the piece is in. If you are improvising, or just ‘messing about’ creatively, it pays to know which note the tonic is.

There are five notes in a pentatonic scale. Two of the seven normal scale tones in the octave are skipped, leaving gaps. That leaves the remaining five notes grouped into one group of two notes and one group of three notes. The same two groups are used for two pentatonic scales, one major and one the relative minor.

Here’s how to find the tonic in those groups of three and two notes:

• The tonic of the major pentatonic scale is the lowest of every group of three notes.

• The tonic of the minor pentatonic scale is the highest of every group of two notes.

The tonics are marked with a T on the keyboards in the three keyboard diagrams above. Check that they follow the description given.

Here are the tonics of the three pairs of pentatonic scales marked on less cluttered keyboards – major tonics above and minor tonics below. Doodle around and between tonics to improve your ‘ear’ for the home note of the two scales.

C major and A minor

G major and E minor

F major and D minor

You have to pay close attention to the groups of black keys on your keyboard to see where the notes of these white-keys-only pentatonic scales are.

One-octave pentatonic scales in written music

Play these one-octave major and minor pentatonic scales.

First, revise the pentatonic scale tone shorthand:

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The music says to play from one tonic (T) up to the next tonic then back down again. To avoid having to think about fingering, use two hands – the left hand for the bottom three notes and the right hand for the top three. The stems of the left hand notes are shown pointing down, and pointing up for the right hand notes.

Use any fingers that are convenient. The purpose of the drill is to start to recognise the sound of the two pentatonic scales and to ‘see’ them on the keyboard. As soon as you can, watch your hands playing the scale tones on the keyboard, rather than looking at the written page.

Notice that the keyboards no longer line up with the music. You have to think about where T is, which keys to skip, and match up the scale tone shorthand above and below the music with the shorthand on the keyboard.

C major and A minor

The audio clip plays the major (top) then the minor (bottom) octave scale. Both scales are written in the treble clef. Find the right place from the audio track.

G major and E minor

F major and D minor

Now let’s introduce some major/minor pentatonic pairs that use one black key. They’re not any harder to play if you follow the keyboards. The black keys are indicated by sharps (#) in the music.

D major and B minor

Bb major and G minor

(The black keys are indicated by the flats (b) in the music.)

The next two pairs use two black keys.

A major and F# minor

Eb major and C minor

This is the end of Pentatonic Scales (1). To prepare to go on to the next module, read through the text again carefully, and play through the musical examples repeatedly to drill in the sound of the scales and their groups-and-gaps shape.

Pentatonic Scales (2), the next module in the series, will introduce and coach you in some riffs which use what you have learned in this lesson, but before going on, you should at least be able to pick out the six white-key pentatonic scales.

Try to cultivate an attitude of curiosity – you really have to enjoy ‘messing about’ to become a creative keyboard player, and pentatonic scales are a great place to do just that. Playing the six ‘doodles’ by ear is a benchmark exercise here.

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Pentatonic Scales (1) is a free piano lesson online from Musicarta.com, a collection of learning materials for piano teachers and creative keyboard players of all ages and stages. Visit the Musicarta home page for an overview of all the site’s free online piano lessons.

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