Pentatonic scales: major, minor and the five modes

Definition

A pentatonic scale has five notes per octave. The most widespread in the world is the anhemitonic one (without semitones), obtained by stacking four fifths: C – G – D – A – E → C D E G A. It is the “black keys” scale of the piano (Gb Ab Bb Db Eb). This entry goes deeper into the five modes; the entry “Pentatonic scales and the blues scale” gives the overview.

Major pentatonic

• Degrees: 1 2 3 5 6. Steps: T T 1½ T 1½.
• On C: C D E G A. On G: G A B D E. On E: E F# G# B C#.
• It is the major scale without the 4 and 7, that is, without the two notes of the tritone (F and B in C): for this reason it has no “wrong” notes over I, IV and V and always sounds consonant.

Minor pentatonic

• Degrees: 1 b3 4 5 b7. Steps: 1½ T T 1½ T.
• On A: A C D E G. On E: E G A B D. On C: C Eb F G Bb.
• It is the relative of the major (A minor pentatonic = C major pentatonic): natural minor without the 2 and b6.

The five modes (from the notes C D E G A)

The Chinese names (Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, Yu) indicate the degrees of the pentatonic scale in traditional Chinese theory. The Western names vary between texts: always check the formula.

Color and chords of each mode

• 1 (major): bright, folk, country; sits well over C, Cmaj7, C6, C6/9 and over all of Ionian.
• 2 (suspended): open and ambiguous, with no third: perfect over sus chords (D7sus4, D9sus4) and in modal jazz.
• 3 (Jue): dark minor with a b6, with no 2nd and no 5th: works over an m7(b13) or as a “softened” Phrygian without the b2.
• 4 (yo/ritusen): suspended and sunny, with no third; over sus and add9 chords.
• 5 (minor): rock, blues, R&B; sits well over m7, m9, m11 and, in the blues, also over dominants.

Why it is so widely used

• Interval vector <032140>: no semitones, no tritones, the maximum of fourths/fifths. There are no tensions that “ask” for resolution: every note can be held.
• It is found in very distant cultures: Chinese and Japanese music, West African, Celtic and Scottish, African American spirituals, the Andes, Indonesia (slendro is another pentatonic scale, with different intervals).
• Bernstein, in the Young People’s Concerts, presented it as a “universal” scale precisely because of its construction by fifths.

Pentatonic over chords (improviser’s tricks)

• Over Cmaj7: C major pentatonic (basic color), G major pentatonic (adds B, the major 7th, and removes F) or D major pentatonic (Lydian color: D E F# A B).
• Over Dm7: D minor pentatonic, A minor pentatonic (adds the 9th) or E minor pentatonic (Dorian color with 9 and 13).
• Over G7: G major pentatonic, or Db major pentatonic (altered: Db Eb F Ab Bb = b5 b13 b7 b9 #9).
• Over C7sus4: Bb major pentatonic or C suspended pentatonic.

Examples in real pieces

• Major: “Amazing Grace” (spiritual), “My Girl” (The Temptations, bass and guitar riff), “Auld Lang Syne”.
• Minor: the solo of “Stairway to Heaven” (Jimmy Page, A minor pentatonic), “Sunshine of Your Love” (Cream, riff in D pentatonic-blues), almost all rock and blues solos.
• Classical: Debussy, “Pagodes” (Estampes); Dvořák, Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” (pentatonic themes); Puccini, Madama Butterfly and Turandot (pentatonic themes to evoke Japan and China).
• Modern pop: many EDM and K-pop toplines are entirely pentatonic, because they work over any chord in the loop.

Common mistakes

• Using the A minor pentatonic over an A major chord in a non-blues piece: the b3 (C) against the chord’s C# clashes.
• Always landing on the tonic: vary the arrival notes (the 9th, the 6th).
• Staying only in the guitar “box”: learn the five modes as five different colors.

Exercise

1. Loop Am – F – C – G: write a topline using only A C D E G and check that no note clashes.
2. Play the five rotations of C D E G A starting from each note over a drone on the same note: listen to the five colors.
3. Over a D7sus4 vamp use the D suspended pentatonic (D E G A C).

Related

Pentatonic scales and the blues scale; Japanese pentatonic scales; Blues scales; Set theory (2); Chord-scale theory.