Types of Scales: Pentatonic

When we think of scales in music, we usually think of the major scale: DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA, TI, DO.  In the movie, The Sound of Music, this is the scale Maria first teaches the children.  This scale uses seven different notes.  It's probably the most commonly used scale we hear today.  From a practical standpoint, a scale is a set of notes, usually dividing an octave (definition 3), used to create a tune. 

Non-musicians--and even some musicians--often don't realize that there are many different kinds or families of scales.  One of these is the family of pentatonic scales, widely used in folk songs.  These scales have only five different notes.  Because our ears are accustomed to hearing the major scale, we tend to hear pentatonic in terms of major (DO, RE, MI, SOL, LA) or minor (DO, me, FA, SOL, te).  (Me and Te are MI and TI, but lowered 1/2 step.)

Many hundreds of beautiful folk songs are written in pentatonic.  My readers may know some of these folk songs and hymns, all of which are in pentatonic:

1. Amazing Grace
2. Old MacDonald Had a Farm
3. Go, Tell It on the Mountain
4. How Firm a Foundation
5. I'm Gonna Sing When the Spirit Says Sing
6. Mary Had a Baby
7. Goodbye, Ol' Paint
8. There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
9. Fair and Tender Ladies
10. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
11. The Gallows Pole
12. Land of the Silver Birch
13. Wayfarin' Stranger

To name a few!

Note: the recordings of these songs use a pentatonic scale for the melodies, while the accompaniments are harmonized in diatonic. 

My books Introducing the Recorder and Music Theory and Music Theory for Choral Singers use pentatonic songs to introduce the idea of scale. 

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Next post: Types of Scales: Diatonic