#OLD BLUE SONG TRUMPET KNOTES HOW TO#
#OLD BLUE SONG TRUMPET KNOTES SERIES#

The musical concepts of this traditional and folk music formed the basis of genres such as jazz, gospel, and bluegrass, as well as modern folk music. Early Gregorian chants contained pentatonic melodies, and pentatonic scales in various forms are found in traditional Native American, African, and South Asian music. Regardless of the musical era, it’s hard to avoid running into the pentatonic. Though it’s commonly used in modern music, the pentatonic scale is a senior citizen in the world of music musical instruments believed to be 50,000 years old were found to be tuned to the pentatonic scale!Īnother reason the pentatonic scale is thought to be an early development in Western music is the ubiquity of it throughout various epochs in music. YOUR EMAIL: Where does the pentatonic scale come from? Add them back in to a pentatonic and you’re back to the major. Omit “ fa” and “ ti” and you transform the major scale into a pentatonic scale. One of the best ways we can understand this musical powerhouse is through another old system (although not quite so much – it dates to the Middle Ages) – the solfa syllables (aka solfege): Let’s have a look at how the major scale compares to the pentatonic.Įach major scale step can be numbered by degrees:įor the major pentatonic scale simply remove the fourth and seventh degrees: Majorīy comparison, the major scale – the scale that we first learn and which “seems” to be the basis of everything – only became popular in the beginning of the 1600s. Look at the intervals in a pentatonic scale, and going up from the root note you’ll find a major second, major third, perfect fifth, and major sixth.īoth the perfect fourth and the major seventh are omitted in the pentatonic scale, leaving only consonant intervals! Pentatonic vs. Here’s another way of looking at it: the major seventh and to some extent the perfect fourth intervals are considered to be dissonant in a major scale. Now, let’s look at the notes involved in the pentatonic scale the fourth and seventh degrees are missing! The tritone is therefore absent from the pentatonic scale, and the tension and suspense disappears from the scale: This interval introduces tension and suspense to the scale. In a major scale, the fourth and seventh degrees form a tritone. Let’s look into precisely what makes the pentatonic scale so universally pleasant-sounding and easy to layer over chords and other scales. So why does the pentatonic scale sound good? If we sing a major pentatonic scale, it will sound like this, containing the notes C D E G A C: Therefore, the pentatonic scale degrees are 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6.

#OLD BLUE SONG TRUMPET KNOTES SERIES#

To derive the major pentatonic scale from the major scale (we’ll get to the minor later), simply remove the 4th and 7th degrees, which leaves you with five notes per octave.Ī major pentatonic scale consists of a series of intervals starting from do: For the purposes of this article, we will focus on major pentatonic scales, which contain the five most commonly used pitches in simple songs and folk melodies, and on the minor pentatonic, which is also found across different styles of music. What is a Pentatonic Scale?īy definition, a pentatonic scale contains five pitches per octave. Solfa syllables will be your best friend in remembering and being able to recall the distinct intervals used in the major and minor pentatonic scales. Now, we will look at the major and minor pentatonic scales, and see how the intervals in these scales can help us recognize even more patterns in simple melodies. In previous parts of the Start Solfa lessons so far, we’ve covered the basics of finding “ do” and applying solfege syllables in a given key, as well as singing and hearing intervals.

#OLD BLUE SONG TRUMPET KNOTES HOW TO#

By the end of this lesson, you’ll understand how to build the pentatonic scale in any key, and layer it over chords and other scales – a useful foundation for later lessons. This part of the Start Solfa lesson series, will explore the pentatonic scale and its countless uses. And despite its ancient origins, the pentatonic scale is as fresh and new and useful today as it has ever been. This scale, found in virtually every culture in the world, is the pentatonic or five-note scale, existing in major and minor forms. This is a scale that’s been around a long, long, time – maybe even the first scale ever grunted out by proto-humans way back in history.

Well, there is one scale that – while it may not rule them all – is by far the most useful. What if there was one scale to rule them all? Major scales, natural minor scales, harmonic minor scales, melodic minor scales, chromatic scales, diminished scales, Lydian augmented scales… Scales, scales, scales! Just how many scales do we really need to know?

Old blue song trumpet knotes