Editing Pentatonic scale (section)

== Types ==

=== Hemitonic and anhemitonic ===
{{Main|Anhemitonic scale}}
[[File:Min'yō scale.png|thumb|300px|''Minyō'' scale on D,<ref>Susan Miyo Asai (1999). ''Nōmai Dance Drama'', p.&nbsp;126. {{ISBN|978-0-313-30698-3}}.</ref> equivalent to ''yo'' scale on C,<ref>Minoru Miki, Marty Regan, Philip Flavin (2008). ''Composing for Japanese instruments'', p.&nbsp;2. {{ISBN|978-1-58046-273-0}}.</ref> with brackets on fourths[[File:Min'yō scale.mid]]]]
[[File:Miyako-bushi scale.png|thumb|300px|''Miyako-bushi'' scale on D, equivalent to ''in'' scale on D, with brackets on fourths<ref>{{cite book |author=Jeff Todd Titon |title=Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples, Shorter Version |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWsHAAAAQBAJ |year=1996 |publisher=Cengage Learning |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-02-872612-0}} p. 373.</ref>[[File:Miyako-bushi scale.mid]]]]

[[Musicology]] commonly classifies pentatonic scales as either ''hemitonic'' or ''anhemitonic''. Hemitonic scales contain one or more [[semitone]]s and anhemitonic scales do not contain semitones. (For example, in Japanese music the anhemitonic [[yo scale|''yo'' scale]] is contrasted with the hemitonic [[in scale|''in'' scale]].) Hemitonic pentatonic scales are also called "ditonic scales", because the largest interval in them is the [[ditone]] (e.g., in the scale C–E–F–G–B–C, the interval found between C–E and G–B).<ref>Anon., "Ditonus", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]] (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001); [[Bence Szabolcsi]], "Five-Tone Scales and Civilization", ''Acta Musicologica'' 15, nos. 1–4 (January–December 1943): pp.&nbsp;24–34, citation on p.&nbsp;25.</ref> (This should not be confused with the [[Ditonic scale|identical term]] also used by musicologists to describe a scale including only two notes.)

=== Major pentatonic scale ===
Anhemitonic pentatonic scales can be constructed in many ways. The major pentatonic scale may be thought of as a gapped or incomplete major scale, using scale tones 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of the major scale.<ref name="B&S" /> One construction takes five consecutive pitches from the [[circle of fifths]];<ref>[[Paul Cooper (composer)|Paul Cooper]], ''Perspectives in Music Theory: An Historical-Analytical Approach''(New York: Dodd, Mead, 1973), p.&nbsp;18. . {{ISBN|0-396-06752-2}}.</ref> starting on C, these are C, G, D, A, and E. Rearranging the pitches to fit into one [[octave]] creates the major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G, A.

:<score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c' {
  \time 5/4
  c d e g a c
} }
</score>
Another construction works backward: It omits two pitches from a [[diatonic scale]]. If one were to begin with a C [[major scale]], for example, one might omit the fourth and the seventh [[scale degree]]s, F and B. The remaining notes then make up the major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G, and A.

Omitting the third and seventh degrees of the C major scale obtains the notes for another transpositionally equivalent anhemitonic pentatonic scale: F, G, A, C, D. Omitting the first and fourth degrees of the C major scale gives a third anhemitonic pentatonic scale: G, A, B, D, E.

The black keys on a piano keyboard comprise a G-flat (or equivalently, F-sharp) major pentatonic scale: G-flat, A-flat, B-flat, D-flat, and E-flat, which is exploited in [[Chopin]]'s [[Étude Op. 10, No. 5 (Chopin)|black key étude]].

:<score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c'' {
  \time 5/4
  ges aes bes des ees ges
} }

</score>

=== Minor pentatonic scale ===
Although various hemitonic pentatonic scales might be called ''minor'', the term is most commonly applied to the '''relative minor pentatonic''' derived from the major pentatonic, using scale tones 1, {{music|b}}3, 4, 5, and {{music|b}}7 of the [[natural minor scale]].<ref name="B&S" /> (It may also be considered a gapped [[blues scale]].)<ref>{{cite book |author=Steve Khan |title=Pentatonic Khancepts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oPnBp74IN8UC |year=2002 |publisher=Alfred Music Publishing |isbn=978-0-7579-9447-0}} p. 12.</ref> The C minor pentatonic scale, the relative minor of the E-flat pentatonic scale, is C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat. The A minor pentatonic, the relative minor of C pentatonic, comprises the same tones as the C major pentatonic, starting on A, giving A, C, D, E, G. This minor pentatonic contains all three tones of an A minor triad.

:<score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c'' {
  \time 5/4
  a4 c d e g | a
} }

</score>

The standard tuning of a [[guitar]] uses the notes of an E minor pentatonic scale: E–A–D–G–B–E, contributing to its frequency in popular music.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Serna |first1=Desi |title=Guitar Theory for Dummies |date=2013 |publisher=Wiley |location=Hoboken, New Jersey|isbn=978-1-118-64677-9 |page=168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I5dtAwAAQBAJ}}</ref> [[Stevie Wonder]] employed the minor pentatonic for the [[funky]] [[clavinet]] riff on the track "[[Superstition (song)|Superstition]]" (1972).<ref>{{cite book |last=Perone |first=James E. |date=2006 |title=The Sound of Stevie Wonder: His Words and Music |location=Westport, CT |publisher=Praeger Publishers |isbn=027598723X |page=17}}</ref>

=== Japanese scale ===
{{Main|Japanese mode}}

The Japanese mode is based on the [[Phrygian mode]], but uses scale tones 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 instead of scale tones 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7.

:<score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c' {
  \time 5/4
  e f a b c | e
} }

</score>