Tuesday, May 9th, 2023.
Hey, it’s TJ Miller, “you want some game?” Let's #tipundathehat!
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The Pentatonic, now what is that?? - Let’s go -
It felt so good talking about real music and the study thereof, I thought I’d stick with it again for this week. I know for a fact that some of my readers are music teachers and I know they are smiling at this. 😊 I know some of you just want to be stars make music and make money so why is all this music theory needed? Remember last week also I introduced you to Mr. Maurice Perry (RIP) long-time owner of Mr. Blues Records and Tapes in Dallas Texas who said “A man that won’t study his craft if a fool.” Well, I’m trying to give you some tools to study so you can get musically better. The Pentatonic scale will especially benefit the jazz, blues, pop and gospel cats. However, for you producers and beat makers who tune in every week, it would be cool to know what you are sampling right? Right! So the Pentatonic scale is one of the most commonly used and recognized scales out there. You hear it in everything pretty much. Technically, any scale with 5 notes is considered a Pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale can be either major or minor, but depending on who you ask, the major is more popular. Now normally a scale has 7 different notes and the 8th note is an octave higher from the first note, often called the root or the one.
Ooooh boy I’m getting deep in here 😆but the Pentatonic which takes its name from the root word penta (meaning five) only has five notes. Remember the solfège scale which works on Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do? Well imagine taking out the Fa and the Ti (which are half steps) and you have the pentatonic scale. I would love to say that jazz musicians play the pentatonic because of how versatile it is without having those pesky half steps in there. But the reality is the pentatonic is easy to learn and beginners to seasoned vets can make it sound great when improvising. But I won’t say it’s for jazz musicians only. It’s a scale very often used by a number of players, even pop guys. All types of hit songs have been totally built using the five notes of the Pentatonic. Songs like Amazing Grace, Billy Jean by Michael Jackson, Sir Duke Stevie Wonder, Shape of you by Ed Sheeran, Wake me up by Avicii, Hold On, We’re coming home by Drake and soooo many more. Needless to say that songs made up of the Pentatonic scale can be easily matched to rap voices making them great for samples.
When you think of the Pentatonic scale, think of the KISS principle, “Keep Its Simply Simple.” Yeah I improvised on that meaning not wanting to call anyone “stupid.” This great way to play music, to write and improvise is a great way to show your chops off and not get too complicated at the same time. More than that you can use the word Pentatonic scale in a sentence and sound like you really know your stuff. Just to show you how simple it is I’m going to leave you with one of my favorite artists Bobby McFerrin getting an entire audience to not only follow along but to anticipate the next notes.
Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale
This week's #IAOTW - Independent Artists Of The Week is - Ruby Camille (Happy Mother’s Day y’all). We are going to take a step back and revisit Ruby Camille’s Mother’s Day anthem called “Call Us Queens.” I hope that yu are taking care of your Queens out there this Mother’s Day. Click on her name link, scroll down to her picture, then click and support. Your mother will love this song, so get it for her and play it all day Sunday.
For more information on this or to hire Unda The Hat as your brand or label consultant send a message via undathehat.com. See you next week!!