Section: Pentatonic Scales

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Pentatonic scales are, as their name suggests, scales containing only five notes. They have come into common use in jazz largely through the playing of John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Woody Shaw, and other musicians during the 1960's and 1970's.

A pentatonic scale will always contain some steps and some larger leaps, as it impossible to fit five leaps within an octave or cover an octave in five steps. As a result, a pentatonic scale imposes some structure on lines played using it. The scale itself determines where leaps must occur. Unlike conventional scale that consist entirely of steps, the pentatonic scale creates some of its own melodic interest. Musicians using pentatonic scales often simply play the scale itself as part of their improvised melodies.

Since a pentatonic scale contains fewer notes than a conventional scale, pentatonic scales tend to be more harmonically ambiguous. They may lack thirds or sevenths that would help define the function of the underlying chord. Also, since there are fewer note choices, lines created from a pentatonic scale are more limited than those that are based on conventional scales. Pentatonic scales encourage the use of sideslipping both to add harmonic interest, and, through the tension thereby created, to reinforce the original tonality. This technique is described further in the unit on Improvisation.

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Section: Pentatonic Scales