Discover The Pentatonic Scale

You probably have the basic gist of what a scale is.  We sing some notes and they go up, up, up. 

But when I start talking about pentatonic and diatonic and chromatic scales in class, people start wondering, "what the heck are those and why do we care?"

In this post, everyone (especially Sound Beginnings parents) can get excited about the pentatonic scale and improve their melody skills.  

A Scale With Every Note

You may hear mention of the chromatic scale.  (Chromatic means colorful.) This is a good one to start with because it means we play 12 semitone intervals, so 13 notes.  Play every single piano key, black and white, and that's the chromatic scale.  Voila!

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

On a piano, the 12 steps are evenly spaced, meaning the wavelength of the note changes by a consistent amount between each step.  You've played an octave when you play a note that has a wavelength twice the length from the note you began on, a 2:1 ratio. 

The chromatic scale is the fundamental set of notes from which scales can be built. It's not really musical, because it doesn't have a tonic, a home note.  

We love finding "Do is Home" in Let's Play Music, and being able to identify the home, or key note, in music we listen to. Music naturally pulls back to Do, so let's look at some scales that have a tonic note and work for writing melodies.

Scales Around the World

Thousands of years ago, peoples in different parts of the world discovered frequency ratios and pitch relationships.  By selecting 5-8 tones with relationships they liked, scales were created and used to make melodies.  Different cultures settled on varying scales, giving the music characteristic sounds.  

Note: Any of the following scales could be played in any key by creating the same pattern of skipping tones (with whole steps and half steps) to create the scale. 

The Diatonic Scale is our beloved Major Scale Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do! Read more about it here. Western music since the Middle Ages on has been based on this scale. We spend most of our time in class learning about this scale. The steps go: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Remember that trick and you can build a major scale on any note.

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

Here are the notes/intervals that make an Indian whole-tone scale, just one of the many scales that could be used in Indian music. Notice how evenly spaced the tones are...all whole steps, all the time. Here is some piano music using a whole tone scale. Sounds dreamy!

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

And a Hungarian Gypsy scale. Listen to it here...sounds like you would expect.

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

And an Arabic scale.... well, sort of. Arabic tone scales actually define wavelength intervals smaller than what we use (or have names for or piano keys for). When you're tuning your guitar and your note is a little too flat to be C but a little too sharp to be B, you're playing one of those Arabic notes that we usually pass over. Want to see how a guitar can make the microtones by adding extra frets? Pretty cool, and if you like getting sciencey with microtones, check out some computerized 53-microtone music.

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

The Blues Scale comes in super handy during our 3rd year of Let's Play Music when we get to play some piano blues! Write a new melody for your blues using these notes. Get some help learning Blues Scales here.

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

Pentatonic Scale Everywhere

The pentatonic scale, created by the  mathematician, Pythagoras, is rather special.   He started with a home/tonic note and added a perfect 5th. The 5th is an interval between two notes whose wavelength have a ratio 3:2. 

Take the notes you have, repeat the process again and get 2 more notes, or 5 all together: the pentatonic scale. These notes have nice clean ratio-relationships, so they harmonize nicely together.

By the way, repeat the process to get 2 more notes and create the diatonic scale. If you want to get a little nerdy, let Donald Duck take you on a tour of Pythagorean society in this classic educational cartoon about math.

The result is a five-note scale with the intervals most commonly used for music worldwide. You can find this scale in every musical culture.  There are loads of country, folk, jazz, and rock songs that contain just these 5 notes in the melody, but they are especially prevalent in children's songs.  

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

Do       Re      Mi         Sol     La          Do

Why so popular for children??  Because hearing and singing this small set of easily defined musical intervals is age-appropriate and prerequisite for more advanced melodies.  Pentatonic hearing and singing is foundational for children.  You'll notice in class we start by hearing, echoing, and singing the minor 3rd (sol-mi). 

Once children are hearing and reproducing it, Echo Ed sings patterns that contain la.  Then we add in do  and re as ear-training progresses to more complex tunes.  (Very last we add echoes with fa and ti...notes from the major scale)

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates how his audience has already internalized the pentatonic scale. Wherever he goes in the world, the audience 'gets' the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is part of every musical culture!

  
Sing the Pentatonic

Here's a collection of songs built on the pentatonic scale. Many more of your favorite children's tunes fit into this category, too. 

Notice that the pentatonic scale avoids half step intervals. It seems easier to train your vocal chords to jump to the intervals without having to consider the half steps that occur in the major scale.

Pentatonic songs are great to teach to your child or any beginning singer. You'll recognize many from our Sound Beginnings classes (click links to hear these songs). There are thousands of pentatonic songs you would recognize, but here are a few:

• Amazing Grace 
• Camptown Races
• The Crawdad Song
• Mister Rabbit
• Old Dan Tucker
• Ten in the Bed
• Mary Wore Her Red Dress
• Alabama Gal
• Bow Wow Wow
• Old MacDonald Had a Farm (and other songs)
• Bought Me A Cat
• Old Brass Wagon
• Rocky Mountain
• Button You Must Wander

Have fun singing with the pentatonic scale, and if you're interested, check out our blog series on Singing in Tune.

- Gina Weibel, M.S.

Let's Play Music teacher

Are Music Lessons Holding Me BACK?

I was recently talking with a fellow Let's Play Music teacher about piano lesson choices and at one point she said, "well, try to avoid the dangers you get with traditional piano lessons." 

Danger!? Oh my!  I left the conversation wondering: are there really things taught in traditional-style piano lessons that actually cause harm? That actually hold us back from learning music? Can taking lessons somehow make us worse musicians?

Took Lessons, But Can't Play

I didn't think much about it again until a student named Ellie registered in my Red Balloons class. Her mom, Amy, told me she was excited to have her daughter learn to play piano, and that she really wanted to learn to play, too.  She told me, "I don't know how to read music but I really want to learn."

Imagine my surprise a few weeks later when I happened to hear Amy play a delightful recital piece on the piano! I said, "I thought you didn't know how to play!?!"  

Amy responded, "But I don't know anything! I only know that one song. I took lessons as a kid, I have that one song memorized, and that's all I can play. I don't actually know anything about music." 
 
Amy's story surprised me, but then I remembered that my mother and my sister are in the exact same boat: they both know how to play exactly one song,  'Greensleeves', after their childhood lessons. I asked around to other parents and adults, and it turns out a LOT have taken piano lessons, but identify themselves as not knowing how to play or read music.

So I decided I better take another look at this idea: what goes on in piano lessons, and why are too many adults from my era saying they don't know any music beyond their one recital song? Why do they feel nervous about making music, even though they took years of lessons?

The Big 5 Skills of Musicianship

I fumbled trying to put into words what defined lessons that could output a musician instead of a one-song-wonder. Luckily I found this great interview at www.easyeartraining.com with Dr. Chad West. 

Dr. West is a leading expert and author of a recent article defining FIVE core skills that define musicianship. They are:

• Executive
• Notation
• Rhythmic
• Tonal
• Creativity 

Executive skills are the obvious ones: how to make your fingers actually technically play the instrument. Notation is also pretty straightforward: how to understand written notes and music theory in order to play what was intended. These two skills are the external skills of musicianship; progress in these skills is easy to evaluate because the results are external (the student's output is measured.)

Executive and Notation skills are the main focus of many school and private music lessons, often at the expense of other skills.  That's what my LPM colleague was referring to as the danger of some lessons. Students take lessons for years, but they just don't feel confident that they can make music.  Actually, after lots of practice with executive and notation skills, they may be pretty good and reading and playing music, but still not feel like they can create music.

After a childhood experience like that, adults conclude that they just can't get it. They have a negative view of themselves as musicians. The deeper mysteries of music seem beyond their grasp. So they give up on music, and often decide against sending their children (and then grandchildren) to music lessons. 

Or MAYBE, they are lucky enough to find something better for their children.

Internal Skills

The other three skill sets: having a good sense of rhythm, understanding melodies and harmonies, and being creative with your music, are often overlooked in music teaching. Dr. West refers to these skills as internal. All five skills need to be nurtured to help a youngster become a well-rounded musician. 

Current practices often focuses on executive skills and notation at the expense of teaching internal musicianship skills because notation and technique are easier to teach and quantifiable to assess. It is easy to immediately determine if students are performing the notes correctly. It is, however, very difficult to know if they are audiating correctly. (Read about how we use singing for feedback.)

As a music teacher, I feel pressure to show parents (and their wallets) that music lessons have paid off. It is quick and rewarding (and tempting) to teach students to play a few amazing piano pieces. It's slower and less showy to spend time doing ear-training and composing games. I can understand why teachers and parents might fall into a trap of focusing just on executive skills because they have quick and impressive returns on investment.

Pushing Buttons or Making Music?

Dr. West happily points out that not all educators today are neglecting students' development. In classes where a focus is on movement, singing, chanting, listening, and creating, students are developing 'readiness' for music that pays off in the long run. Audiating, matching pitch, and keeping steady time are skills that don't have flashy, quantifiable outcomes to measure right away, but parents and teachers who value these skills see that in the long run, students with these skills bring more meaning to the notation. These students understand and create music, not just read and play music. 

Dr. West just described Let's Play Music and Sound Beginnings classes!

Why is audiation so so critical? West says, "when students aurally recognize missed notes, feel when they are rushing or dragging, and have musical ideas apart from that which is dictated to them, they are functioning as musicians. Without audiation, students are simply pushing buttons as they decode dots on a page."

What You can Do Now

Now that you are aware of the big picture, and want your family to become more musical, here are some actions you can take:

*Sing and Play rhythm and musical games with your baby or toddler. Create a musical environment at home with lots of clapping, banging, dancing, singing, and call-and-response songs. These simple skills don't feel like impressive recital material, but they lay a foundation of internal musical skills.

*Take your Baby or toddler to Sound Beginnings classes. Parents can find great value in going to class to learn new ideas for songs and games to play at home. Learn how to "play music" with your child. Coming to class is another way to ensure that you really follow through and do this type of play together.

*Find a Let's Play Music class near you for your 4 or 5 year old. The three years of this class are carefully crafted to balance all musical skills so students will be complete musicians. (What is a complete musician?)

*Get the Two-for-One deal. Amy is going to love learning all of the ear-training and music theory that Ellie learns along the way. As we get into year 2 and 3, parents can keep up, but they will need to practice a little bit to learn the repertoire. It's worth it! Take advantage of the chance to come to class with your child, learn everything she learns, and become the musician you wished you'd been the first time around. 

*Connect with Piano Teachers who have gone through Connections, our referral program for sending graduates to private teachers. We try to help you find teachers who understand the big picture of musicianship and are willing to work on creativity and ear-training along with notation and execution. Interview teachers and find out what skills they find important, and how they help your child strengthen them. Excellent teachers are out there! They know that audiating and composing can be taught. Let them know that you understand the importance. Please tell us who your excellent teachers are so we can send them even more of our grads.

*Fill Your Gaps in musicianship. If your childhood music teacher neglected some internal musicianship skills, you can give yourself the gift of time and attention to those skills.  Check out programs online like Easy Ear Training (online and with apps) and Musical U, or practice games like Theta Music Trainer. It's never too late to learn a new song or join a music class. I love sending adults to group piano classes; they are so much fun! 

One More Skill

I am relived that parents today are not giving up completely on music lessons for their children, even if they didn't have an amazing go at it.  I hope they don't give up on themselves, either.

I asked Amy what type of music she wants to be able to play. For now, she decided to play fun children's songs that are familiar to her girls, so they can sing and dance along with her when she plays piano. 

Our little children motivate us to learn lots of new things, so it's no surprise that we may want to improve piano skills when they are young and can enjoy fun family music time. I'm helping Amy learn new songs and start to make piano time part of her life, along with the other musicianship skills from LPM class. I love that she's willing to show her daughters what it is to sit at the piano and practice.  

Actually, I think there is ONE MORE music skill that Dr. West didn't list that always ends up on my list. I have to give a shout-out to my piano teacher, here, too. It's true that my teacher also focused on external skills with me; I never played by ear or composed or improvised or sang.  But something really right happened during my lessons: I learned how to love making music. I learned that sitting at the piano was my relaxing, calm, escape time. Piano was a happy place, and my teacher's gentle love was critical for helping me gain it.

So that's the final skill I want to add to the list, and yes, it's another internal skill: enjoyment. Children become lifelong musicians when they have all of the skills to be complete musicians and they've learned that music is uplifting, inspiring and joyful.

Amy is off to a great start with her children. She wants to play and sing with them, and she's willing to be a role model to show them that sitting at the piano to work (yes, it's work) on a new song is enjoyable. Parents who play music model this for their families.  Don't worry if you don't play piano. Come to music class, learn along with your child, and then be the role model at home.   

If you're ready to help your child gain musical skills, find a teacher near you now!

Have Fun!

-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher