Pentatonic scales have a variety of reasons why they work so well in pop music.
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Recently I wrote a post that offered ten basic tips for writing melodies that are easily remembered by listeners. Just to finish up that thought, I wanted to pay tribute to the benefit of writing melodies that use pentatonic scales as their primary note source. A pentatonic scale is one that uses only five notes. While technically pentatonic scales can use any 5 notes within an octave, they are usually based on a major scale that excludes the 4th and 7th degrees.
In other words, a C major pentatonic scale uses the notes: C D E G A C
The minor pentatonic scale uses the same notes, but begins the sequence on the relative minor note of A: A C D E G A
For an example of a song melody that uses the major pentatonic, listen to “The Show Goes On” (Lupe Fiasco). For minor pentatonic, listen to “Sunny” by Bobby Hebb
These kinds of pentatonic melodies have a great advantage when adding chords: because the pentatonic scales they use avoid semitones, you’ll find that they lend themselves well to most of the chords that naturally occur in any key. This is particularly true if the chords follow the circle of fifths, though any good progression will usually work.
To create a circle of fifths progression, start on your home key (say, C), jump to any chord (say, Am), and then move the chords downward by 5ths until you reach the tonic chord again. For example, C Am Dm G C is a circle of fifths progression.
A melody that avoids semitones (which is what pentatonic melodies do) means that they avoid the most common types of tendency tones, which are often semitones that must move in a prescribed direction in order to resolve properly. For example, The Eagles’ “Wasted Time” uses a melody that’s primarily pentatonic. But at the end of the melody (“You’re afraid it’s all been wasted time”) you hear the 4th degree of the scale (on the syllable “-fraid” from the word “afraid”). That 4th degree is a tendency tone; it must resolve in one direction: downward.
Avoiding semitones means that there’s less imperative that melodies must move in any particular direction, and it becomes easier to harmonize them.
Because a pentatonic melody is easy to harmonize, you can repeat pentatonic melodic fragments with the chords changing underneath. It’s a great way to use repetition, which we know is an important feature of good melodies. The changing chords keep the melody sounding fresh even though it’s taking a short melodic shape and simply repeating it.
That is precisely what happens in the chorus of “The Show Goes On”. A melodic fragment is sung twice with different chords each time (1- “All right, already, the show goes on all night“; 2- “Til the morning we dream so long“). A new shorter fragment is then created that’s sung three times (1- “Anybody ever wonder“; 2- “when they would see the sun go“; 3- “Just remember when you come up“; before a final repeat of the first fragment (“the show goes on.”)
To create pentatonic melodies, try just improvising melodies on the black notes of a keyboard. It’s fun to simply allow your fingers to ramble over the black keys, but try creating coherent shapes that can serve as parts of melodies. Remember to use repetition, both literal and approximate.
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I’ve always liked using minor pentatonic melodies with dominant seventh chords such as C7 to F7. You could also use a major pentatonic with most major key progression. You’re right it is alot of fun!! I’ve also thought that a good way to memorize the major pentatonic by ear is the song “My Girl” (the bass line). Not a big fan of the song but it is very useful for remembering what the intervals are by ear.
Yes, that rising guitar lick at the beginning of “My Girl” (Temptations) is a great example of a major pentatonic. I’m wondering which notes you’re using over the C7 and F7 to produce the minor pentatonic?
-Gary
its actually more of a combination between the major and minor pentatonic. For example, the C7 would have Bb in common with the minor so I might start with a minor and then end up going from Eb to E to bring back the dominant seven quality. And then the on the F7 you can do the same thing its just with different note combinations. Its hard to explain lol…maybe I’ll record it sometime.