Pentatonic is ... Definition, examples

Many people are fond of musical art. Music is a great way to increase the strength of a person's spirit or to console him in sorrow. The music school is a wonderful institution that allows you to learn the basics, as well as many nuances of how to master this or that instrument. Many newcomers to the music industry go there at the beginning of their journey. Those people who begin to learn the ways of playing the guitar are often asked questions about what a pentatonic is on guitar. From this article we will know the answer to this question. In addition, we will become aware of what are the stages of pentatonic.

Basic principles

In the event that you would not in any way like to master the pentatonic, but nevertheless you would like to be able to come up with an amazing solo on an acoustic or an electric guitar, sooner or later you would still have to face this term. Why does this happen?

The study of what pentatonicism is on guitar is inevitable because the pentatonic is a scale with 5 sounds. The peculiarity of this scale is that it basically does not have halftones, as well as sounds that can form tritons.

The popularity of pentatonic

It would be difficult to say which of the most famous guitarists (and also bassists, keyboardists, and many other members of the musical fraternity) could not use pentatonic. For example, the blues pentatonic is an aspect without which improvisation is impossible. And, in principle, it is quite difficult to imagine a thing - a game without improvisation.

Theoretical introduction

Since the pentatonic is a five-step fret, unlike any diatonic scales, it consists not of 7, but only of 5 sounds. This is the power of this method of playing the guitar. The music school of Ancient China in the seventh century erected this device in the status of a philosophical postulate. It was believed that every note of this scale indicated a peculiar, certain mystical influence on individuals and society as a whole.

Types of Pentatonic

There are two types of pentatonic. In this case, the minor pentatonic is as popular as the major pentatonic.

Minor principles of pentatonic are almost exactly like the major ones. The difference is only in a slightly different key. This is due to the parallelism of this tone. Thus, we obtain pentatonic by removing the fourth and seventh steps from the major scale. In this case, we remove the second and sixth steps from the minor one. That's why this parallelism rule is great for pentatonic.

So, the most important rule sounds like this: a parallel minor can be built on the sixth step of the minor, while retaining all the signs on the key, if it exists. In addition, there is an option to retreat from the major tonics to one small third, in which case a minor tonic will be released. To put it simply, it will happen two steps down the string.

Let's imagine that we want to improvise some melody in the key in A minor. It is necessary to find a note on any of the strings, check with the minor principle of pentatonic and arrange the remaining notes directly considering the basic tonic. The width of the pentatonic is fourfold. Four fingers are directly responsible for four fret, each of your fingers is responsible for the note exactly in its own way. The term by which this is indicated is a positional game.

The main advice that is given to beginning musicians is that they need to lose all pentatonic, from the lowest to the highest note, and then vice versa. When you learn how to directly play all the figure data in the very initial version, then you can start and vary the game. It should be remembered that the simplest way to play the scales is to play these elements with eight notes. In this case, it is said about the duration. Do not forget that for each share, two notes are played. For example, consider the pentatonic in A-minor.

Exercise to fix the technique

Let's take la on the third string. This point will be a tonic, a second fret. Now take your third finger with your index finger and get the second position directly. Now start playing with the third harmony of the sixth string. In this place the lowest sound. Then follow the instructions on the table.

In this example, the bottom line, tablature, and is directly the neck of the guitar. In this case, his first string is at the top, while the bottom is the sixth one. On the right is the tool body, and on the left - the peg. The fret number is shown on the strings. At the same time, he is depicted taking into account all the notes above.

There is another interesting way. This method is called a triplet. In it, every fourth share is divided directly into three identical parts. Every three notes should sound, which is important, evenly during one beat. A classic example in this case is a waltz. Let's remember the standard waltz rate, as we saw it, for example, in the movies - "one-two-three-times-two-three".

Consider the major pentatonic

Let's talk in more detail about what a major pentatonic is. This technique can be obtained by removing from the most natural C major gamma of the fourth and seventh steps. Accordingly, the formula of this technique: 3 (before) - 2 (re) - 3 (mi) - 5 (salt) - 6 (la).

It is worth paying attention to this. The fact is that the pre-major and a-minor pentatonic are actually from the same sounds. Nevertheless, due to the fact that they all have a very different interval structure, they vary. In this case, the very rule of paired keys is extended to them. These are key-minor key minorities that have the same number of signs of alteration in their key. For example - C major - A minor, G major - E-minor (or F-sharp). Thus, it turns out that the pentatonic boxes on the guitar, if we consider them with respect to this property, are universal. In other words, pre-major and a-minor pentatonic have the same fingering in their structure. However, in this case, the location of the tonal center itself, as well as other stages, differ from each other.

Halftone Pentatonic

In Japanese folk music, as well as, in principle, Asian, the reception of a halftone pentatonic is popular. There are quite widely known five-series series, in addition to the main seven-stage sound series.

Halftone pentatonic is a pentatonic species widespread among the countries of the East. An example of such a pentatonic is the following: efgg # -a #. Intervals in this case are half-tones (that is, small seconds). In this case, the intervals are ef and gg #.

Other examples of pentatonic

By the way, there is also a mixed pentatonic and tempered. In the mixed, the properties of the halftone and classical, non-zeroton pentatonic are combined, whereas the tempered one is an Indonesian type of the scale of the slender. It has neither tones nor halftones.

Guitarists using pentatonic

One of the most prominent guitarists of modern times R. Fripp claimed that it usually takes five to six years to learn one of the scales. Nevertheless, many people think that the more scams they know, the better for them. In order to describe this phenomenon, one can use the well-known and extremely good folk expression of "picking up verses". Such people, instead of expanding and deepening their knowledge and understanding of what is already known, jump from one straight to the next without mastering anything.

Since the pentatonic is the easiest, and moreover, a popular way to master frets, then it is found in all styles of music. There are a lot of reasons for this. The main, most likely, in the most neutral sound of this technique. Miles Davis used the pentatonic particularly intensively in his improvisations. Including even where it might seem unacceptable.

Isolation from natural frets

Nevertheless, in addition to the enormous advantages of pentatonic, it also has one big drawback. The fact is that its sound is quickly bored and come up with something unusual in a single fret becomes quite difficult. The main standard way to diversify the sound of pentatonic can be adding a step 5b and a blues style. In addition, many use tonic pentatonic for each of their new chords. In the blues tradition, it is common to use one pentatonic for approximately all the chords of the sequence.

Nevertheless, there is, among other things, another remarkable way that helps to expand the expressiveness and possibilities of pentatonic. With this method, you can create extremely unusual sounds, while using only 5 notes. This method is called "isolation of pentatonic from natural frets."

To begin with, let's take the three most common modes: Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian. Now remember the connection of the chord with the corresponding harmony. Following this, it is necessary to find the pentatonic in each of the modes. Due to the fact that there are only five possible types of arrangement of sounds in the pentatonic itself, our goal is to find the variants of these calls in the chosen fret.

Using the simplest principle, now we start to try every possible option from each note. In this case, if it is impossible to build a second from the note itself, then in this case we will have only one option (namely, to start with a small third). If we generalize the result obtained, we obtain the conclusion that each stage of a certain pentatonic can correspond to its own pentatonic. You can give an analogy of the harmonization of the gamma chords. As a result, we get seven pentatonic in order to beat one chord. We can use any of them to open a variety of new possibilities for playing chords.

This principle is extremely good for improvisation. You can, without hesitation, create a very modal pentatonic sound. Let's say that you can remember the fact that with every major major it is possible to use that pentatonic, which is located one-and-a-half below the very basic tone. You will be able to play the B-minor pentatonic in C-major.

Well, now you've learned that pentatonic is a wonderful way to master the guitar playing and even go deeper into its jungle.