Uke Minutes 52 - Major Pentatonic Scales

interesting
Thanks for that!!
good lesson

Why use a pentatonic scale?

This may be more of a theory question but I'm unclear on why I would use a pentatonic scale as opposed to the major scale. Does it work better for particular types of music? Thanks

I checked out Wikipedia and it sounds like pentatonic scales are common in blues and rock music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale

jk93117 said:

This may be more of a theory question but I'm unclear on why I would use a pentatonic scale as opposed to the major scale. Does it work better for particular types of music? Thanks

I checked out Wikipedia and it sounds like pentatonic scales are common in blues and rock music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale

Click to expand...

Take a look at the 3 major chords in the key of C.

C, F, G.

If we construct the major scale for each, we have:

C major: C D E F G A B

F major: F G A Bb C D E

G major: G A B C D E F#

If we begin each scale on C for the purposes of this example, similar notes become evident:

C major: C D E F G A B

F major: C D E F G A Bb

G major: C D E F# G A B

The only 5 notes that are common among all three scales are

C D E G A

The major pentatonic scale.

An added bonus is that there are no half steps in the scale, so it's impossible to make a dissonant sounding chord.

Those are a couple of reasons.

awesome seeso thanks for the info!