Have you heard of the pentatonic scale? The pentatonic scale consists of five notes, namely, I-II-III-V-VI. You can create all kinds of beautiful music using the pentatonic scale.

Following is a video that highlights the use of the pentatonic scale. One of my students, Miriam Tierno from New York, created this beautiful video. She started composing by using the pentatonic scale after learning this technique from our Definitive Piano Improvisation course. With her permission, I am sharing with you her music video that uses the pentatonic notes blended with open chord voicing.

I am sure that you’ll enjoy this video as much as I did. She put real effort into combining her music with beautiful pictures of nature. Furthermore, she used a music synthesizer to highlight certain instrumental effects. Kudos to Miriam.

Pentatonic scales are very common and are found all over the world including Celtic folk music, Hungarian folk music, West African music, African-American spirituals, American folk music, Jazz, American blues music and rock music, Asian music etc.

Frédéric Chopin wrote the right hand piano part of his Etude Op. 10 no. 5 in the major G-flat pentatonic scale, and therefore, the melody is played using only the black keys. Antonín Dvorák, inspired by the native American music and African-American spirituals he heard in America, made extensive use of pentatonic themes in his “New World” Symphony and his “American” Quartet.

Are you finding the pentatonic scale interesting now? Please feel free to leave your comments on the section below!