Jump to content
HAPPY NEW YEAR, TO ALL OUR HARMONY CENTRAL FORUMITES AND GUESTS!! ×

Pentatonics


simeon

Recommended Posts

  • Members
Posted

i found a load of documents on my hard drive about theory that i wrote ages ago for a friend - i thought i post them up here for general edification....

 

here's something about pentatonics...

 

Y

  • Members
Posted

 

Originally posted by simeon

... see if you can figure out which pents to use to play over the following jazzy sequence

  • Members
Posted

yeah - there are loads of options, obviously!

 

i chose that example because it uses the same minor pentatonic (the one we all know) moving in ascending chromatic steps - a very simple solution to what at first seems like a complicated chord sequence...!

 

cheers

 

sim

  • Members
Posted

 

Originally posted by simeon

i chose that example because it uses the same minor pentatonic (the one we all know) moving in ascending chromatic steps - a very simple solution to what at first seems like a complicated chord sequence...!

 

 

I know. I love it. It's brilliant.

  • Members
Posted

I recently purchased Don Mock's video "Blues from Rock to Jazz" and he has a section on this very topic, although not as comprehensive. The main idea I got from this was that you could play the I, IV, and V major pentatonics in whichever key you were in. For example, in the key of F, the I, IV, and V major pentatonics would be as follows:

 

I-F major pentatonic (D minor)

IV-Bb major pentatonic (G minor)

V-C major pentatonic (A minor)

 

The corresponding minor penatonic scales are the ii, iii, and vi of the major scale.

 

Has anyone mapped all of the combinations? Is it possible to approximate all scales using this pentatonic approach? Time permitting, I may work out the combinations myself. Nothing beats doing something like this for understanding...

  • Members
Posted

yes, you can use this method with any scale that produces a pentatonic

 

frank gambale has done an excellent book about this - he breaks down soloing into diads. triads, arpeggios, pentatonics etc and lists all possible pentatonics to use with all common and altered chords

 

if you use pentatonics over every chord in a sequence, it can sound pretty boring, but used tastefully, they can sound pretty cool

 

because pentatonics have a very recognisable sound and an obvious "root", you can use them to imply polytonalities - e.g, using a Cm pent over an A altered chord, kinda implies 2 tonal centres...C and A

 

cheers

 

sim

  • Members
Posted

Simeon: Thanks for the tip on the Gambale book. Could you provide a title so that I can obtain a copy?

 

I have begun to do this myself by taking the G harmonized scale (G maj 7, A min 7, etc...) and superimposing a simple pentatonic lick over each chord. In other words, the first example is a G minor pentatonic scale over each chord of the G Harmonized scale. Basically, the example superimposes this G minor pentatonic lick over each chord.

 

I have a Power Tab file that illustrates this concept but it's a file type that wont post..:(

 

I'm also currently working on superimposing the other pentatonic scales over this progression and will be happy to post the files (if possible) once I'm done.

  • Members
Posted

I contacted HC support and they are now allowing Power Tab files to be attached to messages. I'm attaching the G Pentatonic minor over the G harmonized scale exercise described earlier and will work on the other superimpositions as time permits.

 

Please post comments and corrections...Thanks :)

  • Members
Posted

I visited Frank Gambale's website www.frankgambale.com and saw that he has three different books: Technique Book 1 & 2 and the new one Improvisation Made Easy...

 

Has anyone done a comparison of the two books? Any recommendations on which ones to purchase?

 

Thanks again...More Power Tabs soon :)

  • Members
Posted

As promised, I have completed the project of superimposing different pentationic scales over the G harmonized scale. Each file contains a different pentatonic scale superimposed over the G major chords, i.e. G pentatonic minor over these chords, G# pentatonic minor, etc. For simplicity, each lick is the same in each key and some sound good (to me) while others will stretch the ears. The file names are self-explanatory and any additions, corrections, or comments would be appreciated.

  • Members
Posted

Ecodude

 

I looked at your power tab files. I'm not sure what your point is. You can match any scale with any chord on paper, but unless it makes musical sense there's not much sense in doing it. You might be better off with a search for things that work well, rather than an shotgun approach that tries to do everything at once.

  • Members
Posted

bassmantele: I agree with you 100% but the point was that the original post included some information about superimposing pentatonics over various chords to see what the sound would be like and I just wanted to show that in various Power Tab files to show others what they would sound like.

  • Members
Posted

there is a logic to it though - the pentatonics i included in my post imply a certain sound or scale - you can superimpose any pentatonic over any chord - the trick is to make sense of it - for example, playing a Cm pentatonic over an A altered chord works because all the notes of the Cm pent are contained in the A altered scale - so it's not really "outside" at all, in fact it's completely "in", but the minor pentatonic "sound" that's easily recognisable is also present

 

but if you played a Cm pent over an Aminor chord, then you're implying A altered and creating a polytonality - this would be useful if the chord sequence went from Am to Dm - you could play the Cm pent for the last bar of Am, which would create a tension that would resolve to the Dm...

 

so if you superimpose a pent over a chord, you need to work out what's being implied by the superimposition - so if you play a Dm pent over an Em chord, you're implying Em11b9b13...

 

i havn't looked at your powertab files Ecodude, cos i can't see them on my computer, but you should definitely state what's being implied by each superimposition so that each combination is given a context and a funtion - why not post a list of possible combinations as a spreadsheet? you wouldn't need to list every possible combination - only those ones that imply sounds that are musically "useful"!

 

cheers

 

sim

  • Members
Posted

The Power Tab editor is available free from the Power Tab website, which is available at http://www.power-tab.net/ and my files can be downloaded from my post.

 

I would go through each example and see what sounds are implied but I thought I'd let others who are better versed in theory do that. To me, some of the obvious combinations sound really nice while others are horrible.

 

I started to list the intervals implied by each scale but since there are many combinations, it may take a while. I definetly will need someone to check my work, but I will seriously consider your suggestion and I would encourage you to take a look at the files...nothing genius brand, but possibly useful.

  • Members
Posted

ok dude - i'll try downloading the powertab editor / reader and have a look!

 

it might not be worth doing the whole lot, as frank gambale has kinda done the work already, but it might make a good learning excersise!

 

cheers

 

sim

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...