Quick Win #17

The World of Pentatonic and the Connection to the Equivalents

Here's a quick summary of the main takeaways from this Quick Win!

  • the Pentatonic Major scale is a succession of 7s; 7+7+7+7 and the first note in that sequence becomes the root tone
  • the Pentatonic Minor scale is a succession of 5s; 5+5+5+5 and the second note in that sequence becomes the root
  • the Lydian Dominant Pentatonic scale is a succession of 2s; 2+2+2+2 and also the second note in that sequence becomes the root

Advice

This knowledge lets you compose with those successions of equivalents freely and put it into harmonic context later by picking the proper root. You don't have to start the music in a key or on a scale even. If you like the sound of Pentatonic, pick the equivalents and begin to compose!