The 5 note challenge

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LESSON NOTES

Most melodies are built around the pentatonic scale. In fact it seems that the pentatonic scale is ingrained in our human DNA, since it shows up in almost every musical culture around the world – from folk music, to eastern music, to blues, to pop. For this reason, a large part of playing music by ear is learning to spot this distinctive 5 note pattern, which can be heard in 80% of melodies.

Within our key of C major / A minor, the pentatonic scale I’m referring to is C pentatonic scale – C D E G A. So although there are 2 other pentatonic scales which can be found within our key (F pentatonic and G pentatonic scales), I’m specifically referring to the notes of C pentatonic scale – these are the 5 most used notes that most melodies are built from. B and F are used significantly less often.

THE PENTATONIC ‘SHAPE’

So how is this useful to us? Well the pentatonic scale has a distinctive interval pattern – which I call its ‘shape’ – it’s built of whole-steps and minor 3rds.

So if you hear a melody run up 3 notes in a row, each a whole-step apart, it’s very likely to be playing C D E (if we’re playing the song within our chosen key of C major / A minor). Think of melodies like Mary Had a Little Lamb, Summertime, or Amazing Grace – all of which feature this interval pattern at some point.

Or if you heard a melody jump up a minor 3rd, it’s very likely playing A – C or E – G – since within the 5 most used melody notes, these are the only 2 places a minor 3rd exists. And although B – D and D – F are still possibilities within our key, they’re quite unlikely.

PRACTICE TIP

The best way to ingrain the sound of the pentatonic scale is to compose your own pentatonic melodies. If you’re a piano player (or have access to a piano), improvise your own pentatonic melodies in the right hand – using C D E G A.

Play these over a sustained C major chord in the left hand, or an A minor chord – which will set your ear to the key of C major / A minor.

You can go an extra step, and play your pentatonic melodies over the 4 most popular chords – within our key these would be:

C major (I)   –   A minor (vi)   –   G major (V)   –   F major (IV)

Play these chords in any combination you like.

And if you don’t have piano access you can adapt this exercise for your instrument – if you’re a guitarist, you could sing the melody while playing the 4 pop chords – or you could just play the pentatonic melody on its own.

By doing this, you’ll be ingraining the 5 most popular notes to hear in a melody, AND the 4 most popular chords to hear in a chord progression.

As you listen to music, try to spot this pentatonic shape in every melody.