September 14, 2006
Preparing for the New Pentatonic Book

More background about the pentatonic kalimba/pentatonic scale from the Learn How section of this site.

We say farewell to the karimba tips for a while, and say hello to the pentatonic kalimba. The pentatonic scale has five unique notes. For example, the G major pentatonic scale has G, A, B, D, E. It skips C and F#. Usually, you play one more note at the top, or G, the octave of the root, to make six notes. The Hugh Tracey pentatonic kalimbas cover exactly two octaves, so they have eleven notes. They come from Africa tuned to the G major pentatonic scale: from bottom to top: G, A, B, D, E, G, A, B, D, E, G.

One of the most popular pentatonic instruments is the Native American Flute, or NAF. In fact, some variety of the pentatonic scale is used in many ancient or primitive musics, in Africa, North America, Indonesia, China and Japan. Pentatonic is universal, though everyone seems to have used a slightly different pentatonic scale.

It makes sense to also tune to the minor pentatonic scale. From bottom to top: G, Bb, C, D, F, G, Bb, C, D, F, G.

Yesterday, I presented a tuning for the Treble kalimba in D minor, and earlier I stated that this D minor Treble worked well with the G minor pentatonic. How does that work? Look at the notes in the G minor pentatonic scale: G, Bb, C, D, F. Now look at the notes in the D minor scale: D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C, D. Every note in the G minor pentatonic scale is in D minor, so there will be no clashing notes.

Another way to interpret the D minor scale is in terms of a different G minor scale. If you tune the kalimba to D minor and start on G, you have something called the G dorian scale: G A Bb C D E F G. It differs from a straight G minor in that it has an E natural instead of E flat. This note is the major 6th, and it gives the scale a sort of jazzy sound. This is Jerry Garcia's "Dark Star" scale. Note that the G minor pentatonic has no E at all, or no 6th. The minor pentatonic is noncomittal on the 6, so it will work with either E or E flat.

If you are interested in seeing the Native American Flute and the pentatonic kalimba in action together, check out the new CD by SchaZangAway.