ripock
Well-known member
Since I have been rather self-indulgently pontificating about the pentatonic, I just want to give one more practical application to show I'm not blowing smoke up anyone's ass...although that is a service I would happily render if the money was right!
The pentatonic is largely connected with playing the blues. And if you practice the blues and practice in all keys, then you know the tonic, the subdominant, and the dominant of every key.
This is actually equates to a humongous concept, the secondary dominant. Every key has a dominant. For example, in C the dominant is G. However every note within the key has its own secondary dominant. And if you know your blues progressions, you already know it.
The function of the dominant is that it creates a longing to resolve with its tonic and music such as jazz often exploits this connection with the secondary dominant. In fact, if you understand the ii-v relationship and secondary dominants, you have a really big chunk of jazz.
Here's one example to illustrate what I hope I'm expressing. In the key of C, you can go from a C to an Eminor. That is just a I to iii movement and it is what it is. But remember that a dominant paves the way to the tonic. So if we assume that E is the tonic, what is its dominant? The answer is B. B is the dominant of the iii, the E. Now if you insert the B before you go to the E, it sounds a lot more resolute. B, the secondary dominant, puts the spotlight on E and makes going to the E sound much more pre-meditated.
So if you know your Blues progressions, you can drop any secondary dominant before any note to create an ad hoc turnaround to that note. It always sounds good.
The pentatonic is largely connected with playing the blues. And if you practice the blues and practice in all keys, then you know the tonic, the subdominant, and the dominant of every key.
This is actually equates to a humongous concept, the secondary dominant. Every key has a dominant. For example, in C the dominant is G. However every note within the key has its own secondary dominant. And if you know your blues progressions, you already know it.
The function of the dominant is that it creates a longing to resolve with its tonic and music such as jazz often exploits this connection with the secondary dominant. In fact, if you understand the ii-v relationship and secondary dominants, you have a really big chunk of jazz.
Here's one example to illustrate what I hope I'm expressing. In the key of C, you can go from a C to an Eminor. That is just a I to iii movement and it is what it is. But remember that a dominant paves the way to the tonic. So if we assume that E is the tonic, what is its dominant? The answer is B. B is the dominant of the iii, the E. Now if you insert the B before you go to the E, it sounds a lot more resolute. B, the secondary dominant, puts the spotlight on E and makes going to the E sound much more pre-meditated.
So if you know your Blues progressions, you can drop any secondary dominant before any note to create an ad hoc turnaround to that note. It always sounds good.