Gimme 5: The pentatonic scale and YOU

Whistle
1

Another thread mentioned pentatonic scale bamboo sax’s. I’ve also heard pentatonic whistles. A wonderful scale that you can play RIGHT NOW on your whistle.

Theory: (to skip theory go straight to examples below).

The notes of the major pentatonic are: I II III V VI. i.e.: D E F# A B (D)

The minor pentatonic is based on the relative minor of a given scale.
The relative minor of D is a sixth up the scale (or third down); B.

Thus:
B D E F# A (B). B minor Pentatonic. Let me try to show this with an example.

The Pentatonic Major is between the square brackets. The relative minor is between the parenthesis:
[D E F# A (B D] E F# A B)

Numerically: Major: 1 2 3 5 6. Minor: 1 flat3 4 5 flat7
You can express the minor in terms of the major for ease on a whistle: If the major pent scale is 1 2 3 5 6 then go up six steps. There’s the start of your relative minor.
The notes (in terms of the major scale) are: 6 1 2 3 5 (or 6 8 9 10 12)

So on a D whistle you can play both the major and it’s relative minor pentatonic scale for D.

You can also play Em pentatonic on a D whistle. which I’ll bet many people do without realizing it. E G A B D.

E is the relative minor of G so [G A B D (E G] A B D E)
So now you can see we get the D Major Pent. B minor Pent, G Major Pent and E minor Pent scales all on one whistle. In fact I’ve found six pentatonic scales available on a single whistle. 3 majors with their relative minors.

Here are fingering patterns for six penta scales all available on a single
whistle.

RULES:

  1. Above each pattern are sets of two letters separated by a slash e.g. D/D.
  2. The first letter is the whistle key.
  3. The second is the pentatonic scale played with those fingerings for that key whistle.
  4. X = closed hole, O = open hole
  5. I don’t vent second octave ‘bell’ note so it’s not shown vented.
  6. Second octave is in bold.

Example 1 (major): start on bell note
Bb/Bb C/C D/D F/F G/G A/A

XXXXXX
XXXXXO
XXXXOO
XXOOOO
XOOOOO

Example 2 (relative minor): start on sixth note
Bb/Gm C/Am D/Bm F/Dm G/Em A/F#m

XOOOOO
XXXXXX
XXXXXO
XXXXOO
XXOOOO


Example 3 (major): start on 4th note.
Bb/Eb C/F D/G F/Bb G/B A/C#

XXXOOO
XXOOOO
XOOOOO
XXXXXX
XXXXXO

Example 4 (relative minor): start on second note
Bb/Cm C/Dm D/Em F/Gm G/Am A/Bm

XXXXXO
XXXOOO
XXOOOO
XOOOOO
XXXXXX

Example 5 (major): Start on 5th note
Bb/F C/G D/A F/C G/D A/E
XXOOOO
XOOOOO
OOOOOO
XXXXXO
XXXXOO

Example 6 (relative Minor): Start on 3rd note.
Bb/Dm C/Em D/F#m F/Am G/Bm A/C#m

XXXXOO
XXOOOO
XOOOOO
OOOOOO
XXXXXO


Now I need to go out and practice them all.

2

There are actually several pentatonic scales, and they’re all fun to play.

Some examples that are easy on a D whistle:

There’s the Em that Geek described:

E G A B D (E)

I’ve got a Native American flute that plays this scale - actually starts at G, but the intervals are the same…


Tweak it just a little and you get the Japanese “Sunny” (Yo) scale

E F# A B D (E)

Keep this same scale when ascending, and change the D to C# when descending, and you get the Japanese “court music” (Gagaku) scale

^ E F# A B D E v E C# B A F# E

Starting on F# you can play the Japanese “Cloudy” (In) scale. It also changes when descending:

^ F# G B C# E F# v F# D C# B G F#



There is also the black keys on the piano. I think every kid has learned to play “Chinese” music on them:

C# D# F# G# A# (C#)

or keeping the same intervals and transpose up a half step for the whistle:

D E G A B (D)

which is of course, another mode of the E pentatonic minor that we started with…

[edited to fix a typo in the Japanese In “Cloudy” scale]

3

Heck, I have a hard enough time with C major!!!

Steven

4

The fun thing about most of these pentatonic scales is that they’re great for improvising. It’s hard to go really wrong because there aren’t really dissonant pairs of notes. It’s easy to get an Asian sound, but Celtic comes pretty easily too with a bit of practice. Jazz musicians use these scales all the time, in fact, take that basic E pentatonic minor

E G A B D (E)

insert a Bb in there, and you have the E blues scale. Transpose that up a whole step, and you’ve got a whistle friendly F# blues scale:

F# - A - B - C - C# - E - F#

Which is also great for Jazz improv.

5

All the scales yer need :slight_smile:

http://www.karlsax.fsnet.co.uk/saxophonehtm.htm

HTH

6

It’s fascinating where Pentatonic scales pop up…
In a Jewish Sabbath morning service the Torah reading is followed by a Haftorah, which is a selection from the Prophets. The musical scale to which this is chanted is, with a few accidentals, the same pentatonic scale used on some Native American flutes. Kinda makes you wonder where the lost tribes of Israel ended up…
Noodling around on my NA flute, I’ve also found pentatonic tunes ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Motown oldies.

7

Oh yeah, the Japanese Shakuhachi is pentatonic too.