Contents
- 01Five notes that never clash: the major pentatonic
- 02The minor pentatonic: the same ladder from another rung
- 03Why runs are studied on the pentatonic
- 04The blue note: the one that lives between the fourth and the fifth
- 05Twelve-bar blues: three chords, one scale
- 06Modes: the same scale started from another degree
- 07Dorian: the minor with the bright sixth
- 08Mixolydian: the major with the lowered seventh
- 09Recognizing them by ear: the note that surprises you
- 10Choosing a scale to ornament or improvise
- 11Exercise: three scales from the same tonic
- 12What you take with you
Pentatonic, blues and modes: the scales of popular music
Five notes that never clash, the note that rubs on purpose and two modes that change the color of a melody.
What you'll learn
In this lesson you'll get to know the scales you hear most in popular music: the pentatonic, which almost never clashes with anything, the blues scale, with a note that rubs on purpose, and two modes that change the color of a melody with a single note. By the end you'll be able to sing them from different tonics and start recognizing them by ear.
What you'll need
About 24 minutes and a place where you can sing comfortably. You'll use the app's Vocalization tool, which opens with the Minor pentatonic pattern, and this lesson's three MIDIs: the major pentatonic in two directions, the A minor pentatonic with the blue note, and Dorian and natural minor side by side. At the end, a guided staff is waiting for you to write the C major pentatonic. If you have a piano or keyboard at hand, it will help you find the notes, but you don't need one.
If you're just starting
This lesson shows you where many runs come from, the flavor of the blues and those colors that are neither fully major nor fully minor. It helps to have gone through 'Scales and key' first, because here we use degrees, the major scale and the natural minor. If something slips past you, don't worry: we'll build it up with examples and with your voice, not with memorized formulas.
Words you'll come across
- Pentatonic
- A five-note scale with no semitones that almost never clashes with the chords of the key.
- Blue note
- The diminished fifth, the one that lives between the fourth and the fifth: a note 'bent' downward that gives a blues flavor.
- Blues scale
- The minor pentatonic with the blue note added; in A, A C D E♭ E G.
- Mode
- A scale with its own color, depending on which degree of the major scale you start from.
- Dorian
- A natural minor with a major sixth, which gives it a melancholy brightness that sounds less sad.
- Mixolydian
- A major scale with a minor seventh, which sounds relaxed and in no hurry to close.
- Characteristic note
- The note that sets a mode apart from the closest major or minor and defines its color.
- Run
- Several fast notes in a row on a single syllable, like an ornament going down or up.