About Pentatonic Scale

2020-06-13_000138

I would like to discuss it
If I choose pentatonic scale, 1 2 3 5 6
Is it in normal mode, perform mode or monophonic mode? There is no 4,7
All singles are 1 2 3 5 6

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Not sure I understand you but that is correct. A pentatonic scale only has the ā€˜safestā€™ notes of a major or minor scale:

A major pentatonic (five note scale) is formed by choosing the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th notes of a major scale. So therefore, the C major pentatonic or five note scale includes the keys of C, D, E, G, A. The minor pentatonic includes the same notes of a major pentatonic.

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Just been looking at the major pentatonic scale in Scaler2 and am slightly confised by the scale presented in section C.

I thought that the pentatonic scale consisted of 5 scale notes:in C major these are C D E G Aā€¦
In the C major pentatonic scale these would give the chords C, Dmin, Emin, G, A

But as you can see from the screenshot there are six chords (Cmaj, D5, Emin(no5), Amin (no 5), and Amin) which are not what I expected.

Am I wroing or is this some other scale?

I note that in the mode column Sclaer is reporting Major pentatonic 1st: I am not sure what this means.

That would certainly be my understanding, If you click on the microscopic little 2 point ā€˜iā€™ to the left of ā€œPositive, Folk, World Musicā€, it does show just those notes.

Section B shows the harmonisation, so you would expect to see 5 chords. In fact the chords shown are the same as for a Major Blues Hexatonic Scale, so their might be a snafu here (???).

The issue of harmonising the pentatonic is that there are missing thirds when building the chord on each degree so, I think the rule is to pick a degree below or aboveā€¦ However, that wouldnā€™t explain the Amin(no5) appearing out of sequence, nor the correspondence to the harmonisation of the Hexatonic scale. A clue is in the degree shown under the chord name; it shows Im / ii(5) / iii m(no5) / vi m(no5) / V5 / vim. The 4th chord is clearly out of place, and is anomalous.

Well spotted ā€¦ ā€¦ perhaps @Ed1 can maybe confirm this is a small glitch ?

Following your suggestion, Yorkerman, I have clicked on the little ā€œiā€ and yes it does indeed show those notes. I then clicked n the play icon next to it and Scaler 2 played 6 notes! C3, D3, E3, A3, G3, and C4!

So I think that the chords are Scaler2 harmonising these six chords. Having exported the midi from the scale I have found the chords are Cmaj, D(no3), E(no3), Amin(no5 1st inversion), G(no3) and A,min.

Scaler2 C major penatonic.mid (226 Bytes)

But I still donā€™t think the Amin(no5) should be occurring between the G and the Amin.

Checking the web, one reference gives an example of pentatonic harmonisation, noting that the absence of thirds means that some chords will be sus chords. It does in fact give an example of C maj Pentatonic, giving 2 alternatives

C / D sus4 / Am/E / G sus4 / A sus4
or

C sus2 / D sus2 / C/E / D sus2 / Am

So this is one of those cases about mapping notes to chords with missing information.

Iā€™ll look at the Scale harmonisation again. but the Amin (no5) looks out of place. I hesitate to say ā€˜wrongā€™ when itā€™s Scaler.

Like you, Yorkerman, I hesitate to suggest there is anything wrong, and my question really stems from my limited knowledge: am I wrong in my understanding of the pentatonic scale?

Iā€™ve uploaded a saved Scaler state showing the pentatonic scale asI understand it.

Pentatonic State.xml (10.7 KB)

Having said this just playing the bass notes on a pattern based on the first three and last two chords (i.e. omitting the Amin(no5)) is the C major pentatonic.