OK, What IS The Pentatonic Scale Anyway?

Listen to the chromatic, diatonic, and pentatonic scales. Note that these recordings were made with the BOX pentatonic, a non-electric instrument with the exact same scale as the electric pentatonic.

The chromatic scale (12 tone scale) has every note on the piano, black or white. Chrom means color, and this scale indicates it has every color, every note there is. You can play absolutely anything in western music (ie, non-micro tonal music) with instruments tuned to this scale. I have heard of chromatic kalimbas, but have never seen one. Listen to the chromatic scale.

The diatonic scale (7 tone scale) is a subset of the chromatic scale: it just has the white notes on the piano ("Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do" -- wait, that's 8 notes isn't it? Oops, that's 7 unique notes: only count one of the "Do"'s, dude). You can probably play 90% of the songs you are interested in on a diatonically tuned instrument (unless you are seriously into Stravinsky or Jazz). Most kalimbas (Hugh Tracey Alto & Treble, 8-note kalimbas, Thumb Fun Kalimbas) are tuned to the diatonic scale.

OK, the pentatonic scale (5 tone scale) uses the same notes as the diatonic scale, but two of the notes have been removed so there are no half-step intervals ("Do-re-mi----sol-la----Do"). You can see that these notes make the same pattern as the black notes on a piano: a cluster of three, a space, a cluster of two, a space. If you start on "Do" and play the next 5 notes up on the this pattern, you have the major pentatonic scale. If you start on "La" and play the next 5 notes up (ie, going around the pattern for a second time), you have the minor pentatonic scale. One scale breathes both hot and cold!

A minor clarification: I have described how to make the diatonic and pentatonic scales on the piano in the key of C. The Hugh Tracey kalimbas come tuned in G (you can change that if you want, but that is a different subject). The intervals are all the same, even though the exact notes are not. OK, so the pentatonic is a simplification of an already simplified scale. What can you play with a pentatonic scale?

It turns out that about 90% of the songs you might think of playing CAN NOT be played on the pentatonic scale. So, if your goal is to play Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring at your sister's wedding, you should NOT get this kalimba. One of the more famous things you CAN play with the pentatonic kalimba is the intro guitar riff from the Motown hit My Girl. But unlike Jesu, you can play this right out of the box.

Here's a clip of solo pentatonic music.

BACK to TOP