Steve, what is that R&R you were interested in as a teenager?
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Pentatonic scales are found in Chinese, Celtic, Eskimo and African music, and may date back to Neolithic times. So says a book I have (The black keys on a piano.) 5 notes. From Greek pente.
I have this most wonderful "Book of Music", compiled by a team of experts from various musical backgrounds, illustrated too. It has EVERYTHING.
I got it a lifetime ago, so it is probably not available anymore, and these days you can google everything.
Anyway, yes I am interested in music, have a lot of instruments and have played them all from time to time, but these days it is the harp, recorder and mouth organs. Hehe, and sometimes the Irish Penny whistle. With a small group, and we play all sorts, but I think we prefer Celtic.
Two of us have compiled some of our own compositions in a book we got printed. I was rapt when I found out about the latest computer programs which let you write music easily, hear it played back and you can print it.
At the beginning of this millennium I first got a computer, then a cumbersome music program, which I never got to understand. But when I got this one, I was in Heaven.
Back to Pentatonic. As a child, when I learnt the tune to "Auld Lang syne" I was like transported to a far away "place" and sang it over and over. Maybe that place is the Stone Age? Of course I must have lived during the Stone Age. Where? Was I a Druid? Could be anything. I know a person, who always gets carried away when Pentatonic music is played and starts singing. A person with learning difficulties.
Auld Lang syne is easily played on the black piano keys. D# - F# F# F# - A# and so on.
What IS it about those 5 notes, both in major and minor keys, which is so haunting? Pythagoras is supposed to be the one who put in the extra notes to make our Western scales.
The number 5 is also mysterious in geometry.
I am a bit of a fan of number 5, you could say.
If you play the black notes on a piano and start on F# and go on to G# A# C# D# and down again, then you played the F# Pentatonic major scale.
Similarly, if starting on D# instead of, playing up and down, well, then you have played the relative minor scale of D#. They are relatives in that they have the same notes, but start on a different one. Minor scales always have a somewhat more "sad" feel to them.
The white-note scale of Pentatonic major C goes C D E G A and down again.
( no F orB),
and it's relative minor scale goes A C D E G and down.
Of course there are all the other Pentatonic scales as well, but there you have to mix white and black keys (on the piano).
Pianos are so handy, all is laid out to see straight away. However, for old ears it can be a bit harsh and result in ringing, or tinnitus.
A harp is ideal for older ears, and mine is a cross-strung, so it is similar to a piano.
The "white" strings go one way, the black ones (literally all of them black) go the other, crossing each other, without touching. Wouldn't be a good harp if they touched!
The piano developed from the harp. And the harp probably from the bow and arrow. Some smart hunter went twang, twang while tightening his bow and thought, hmm, that was interesting, maybe I could have more than one string to my bow? - and the harp, or lyre, was born. I think I might have been that hunter!!!
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There, I have answered you!
Pentatonic.
