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Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I have no piece of music in mind, it’s a pure theory question. I understand a lot of theory btw.
Kelpbeds is asking the sort of questions I’m looking for... 6 vs b7 and indeed 2 and 3 vs b3 and 4.
Major Pent = 1 2 3 5 6
Minor Pent = 1 b3 4 5 b7
How do these two scales compare ? Isn’t the Minor Pent much brighter and is this important ? I’m starting to think it might be ...
For blues:
- you could play an em penta because blues is comfortable with major/minor ambiguity.
-or bm penta because that gives you the 7,
You can play the bm penta / D penta as above, or just to be extra spicy you could play gm pentatonic (or Eb major penta) which takes getting used to but uses notes from the E altered scale.
same as blues but not the em penta or G major penta.
——————-
if your E is in Tonic position and you’re playing something like the first chord in Purple Haze or whatever, then em penta or bm penta.
That is why my question was important, as I’m sure you know, as you understand theory. The theory is there to explain why and how the music works, in a certain context. Music theory doesn’t work without context. That’s just maths.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I don’t understand how you can say the Minor Pent is less bright than the Major. Just look at the intervals.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
DesWalker, maybe what’s confusing you is you’re looking at the fretted notes for each scale and seeing that the minor penta has lower notes, like-for-like, than the major penta.
But as I’m sure you know, those notes shouldn’t be compared like-for-like up the scale ladder. The minor 3rd in minor penta isn’t to be compared to the major 2nd in major penta, it’s to be compared against the major 3rd in major penta. The minor contains notes 1 m3 4 5 m7 8. And the major contains 1 M2 M3 5 M6 8. The minor penta doesn’t even contain a 2nd to be compared against the M2 in major penta.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Major Pent = 1 2 3 5 6
Minor Pent = 1 b3 4 5 b7
Three of the Minor Pent’s notes are a semitone brighter than their Major counterparts.
A related question might be to ask if it is possible to play pure Lydian over a Mixolydian chord progression because it is two steps brighter. Five of the notes will match the chord tones with the other two notes rising above the chord tones. None will sit beneath the chords.
Will Lydian over Mixolydian chords sound better than Mixolydian over Lydian chords ?
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Hi viz,
Sorry missed your post.
Of course I agree with you when the full diatonic scales are compared. But we’re comparing Pentatonics and no matter how you cut it Minor Pent is much brighter than Major and I think that is very important. Think about it, or even better play it and listen....
Des
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I totally agree that the Dominant Pent (9th arpeggio) is correct over Dominant chords. It’s got the chord tones and tritone.
But the Minor Pent is still brighter than the Dominant Pent. Maybe it’s not quite as correct to use the Minor Pent but maybe it’s even better....
Viz,
I know you’re a theory nerd. So am I and I’ve been on a mega research binge based around modal brightness ideas applied to pentatonics.
I strongly believe different types of pentatonic are the key to understanding which scales are correct over diatonic and non-diatonic progressions like the Blues.
Personally I think a Major Pentatonic over a Dominant chord sounds garbage. The 6 sinks beneath the chord.
Des
As for which pentatonic sounds better over a particular chord - surely better is subjective term. Depends on the context, the relationship between that chord and the key you’re in, what you’re hoping to achieve, etc. IMHO there is no definitive right answer.