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Why do so many apps seem to omit the "minor penatonic" scale?
Different drummer and thumbjam, I'm looking at you!
Or, is there something about music theory that I don't understand. Thanks.
Comments
If you start playing from the fifth note of the major pentatonic scale, in the C major pentatonic scale this would be A, you would be playing the A minor pentatonic scale, every minor pentatonic scale has the same notes as the major pentatonic scale of its relative major, just start playing from the fifth note of the scale .
On ThumbJam it's listed as Blues Pentatonic Minor. I haven't looked at the scales in DD.
Also, the Major and Minor Pentatonic scales ( notes ) are the same using the circle of fifths (C major = A minor ). Hope that makes sense.
I've got a 'secret' trick when playing the Minor Pentatonic scale on guitar. On a minor chord ie Am, it always start with an A, 5th fret. Switching to Major, you'll always find the right scale by moving down 3 frets relative to the Minor. For A it would be 2nd fret.
Don't tell anyone!
Thanks, I was never trained in music theory, and this helps a lot.
I think this is essentially the same tip tonappas gives ... I'm a keyboard player, not a guitarist. So here's my blues improvisation tip from the piano keyboard side of my understanding. There's a little music theory to understand but it's fun!
If, for example, if you want to play the A minor pentatonic scale: A minor is the relative minor of C major. Therefore all the notes of the C major pentatonic scale are the same notes as are in the A minor pentatonic scale.
If you want to improvise blues in a major key signature, C major for example: Just play the minor pentatonic scale from C major's relative minor key ... A minor ... you'll seem like a musical genius!
The relative minor of any key signature can be found by going down three half steps (three frets on the guitar fingerboard). So, the relative minor of G major is E minor, for example.
But don't limit yourself to only 5 notes (pentatonic scale) when there are 12 notes at your fingertips (in most Western Hemisphere music anyway). I usually use the chromatic scale for improvisation in any key ... but I do know the rules and try to avoid poor note choices if possible.
Jazz educator, Jamie Aebersold, said: "In jazz there are no wrong notes ... only poor choices".
Jam on you funky buffoons!
dTb
Thanks. Thats actually very useful! Three taps on the transpose down button to play in Major
Lol. Hope you're joking. Did you learn that from Adrian Belew?
Alex Lifeson uses a lot of notes that kinda tug you back into the scale. Chromatic is surely the way. No rules etc.
I learned it as "enharmonic equivalents", back in the day. So now it is referred to as "relative major/minor"? I will have to update my music vocabulary. I seem to use some outdated terms.
Different things actually, as I remember, relative major/minor being about keys as in "this song is in the key of A minor" so, scales really, and enharmonic equivalents is about individual notes where for instance, the black key between C and D can be either C# and Db
I'm not joking. I first started learning jazz improvisation back in college from a book by George Russell called "the lydian chromatic concept for tonal organization." It's been a long time since I studied that book and I may not be remembering it exactly right, but as I recall, there were all these different scales you could use based off the Lydian scale and depending on the chord symbol. In the end you had all these different scales from which to choose for improvising and if you put them all together it's the chromatic scale.
For jazz & rock improvisation you have to know the rules of what will work but there's nothing wrong with breaking the rules sometimes and going off into outer space ... That is where all 12 notes of the chromatic scale come in handy.
In jamming situations, I've found that it is possible to almost play anything you want as long as you keep the rhythm up and don't space out for too long. You have to bring the solo back to earth every once in a while. ... unless you're jamming like Sun Ra. In that case it's OK to keep your improvisations in orbit around Saturn indefinitely. Ha!ha!
As mmp said, enharmonic equivalents are not what I was talking about. Enharmonic equivalents are the same pitch note but with different names ... Like C# and Db.
I was talking about related relative major and minor key signatures. The relative keys are the paired major and minor scales that have the same key signature but a different tonic. So, the C major scale and A minor scale have the same key signature... no sharps or flats. A minor is the relative minor for C major. The keys of G major and E minor both have one sharp etc. all the way around the circle of fifths.
So for the purpose of @johnfromberkeley original question of the post: Why do so many apps omit the minor pentatonic scale?
I guess it's because you can just use the major pentatonic scale from the relative major key since it is all the same notes.