Pentatonics

A pentatonic is a five-note scale, the most widely used melodic framework in music. Pentatonics contain no semitone intervals, are built from five consecutive steps on the circle of 5ths, and hold both a major triad and a minor triad — the two most consonant chords, both drawn from the first five harmonics of the harmonic series. They also spread five notes as evenly as possible across the octave. This makes them the safest, most intuitive scales for melody and improvisation.

Like the major modes, a pentatonic can be rotated to start on any of its notes while keeping the same pitch classes, and it has two predominant forms:

• Major pentatonic — contains the major triad and is contained by the major major modes; bright, open, and easy to sing. It is often called the innate scale: it appears independently across cultures, and parents hum it to children with no knowledge of theory.
• Minor pentatonic — contains the minor triad and is contained by the minor major modes; soulful and raw, the foundation of blues and rock soloing.

Every major mode contains three major and three minor pentatonics. Each major pentatonic is paired with a relative minor on the same notes, and each pentatonic in turn holds a major and a minor triad (see nesting).

The remaining pentatonic modes contain neither triad from the root:

• Mode 2 — Egyptian, or suspended (1, 2, 4, 5, ♭7): ambiguous, neither major nor minor; common in Middle Eastern and East Asian music.
• Mode 3 — blues minor, or Man Gong (1, ♭3, 4, ♭6, ♭7): darker, heard in some Chinese and Japanese traditions.
• Mode 4 — ritusen, or Scottish (1, 2, 4, 5, 6): used in Scottish and Irish folk and some West African music.