Pentatonics Workbook
Practice Pattern PPSTPP 20-12-15

This is an ideal one-stop practice pattern which covers both major and minor pentatonic scales in two keys –  four  pentatonic scales per starting tone.

Patterns like these are useful when you have just a little time to practise and want to keep up your familiarity with the keyboard right away without hunting round for music.

The written-out pattern in your workbook shows

• Major pentatonic in C (first, upper key);
• Major pentatonic in A (lower key – a minor third below);
• Minor pentatonic in the upper key,
• Minor pentatonic in the lower key (= same piano keys as the first scale).

Here's the MidiPiano performance.

Here’s the pattern in pentatonic shorthand for the major patterns with the scale tones given. All movements are steps – no skips.

Ideally, you will be able to look at the table above, hum any tonic note, and hum the pattern using the pentatonic shorthand and up/down arrows.

When you come to the minor patterns, the up/down pattern is exactly the same, but the scale tones will be the minor pentatonic T, m3, 4, 5 and m7. Here is the pattern with just the T-for-tonic and the up/down steps shown.

Here are the pattern keys and scales for different starting notes.

Use the 'adj' figures to transpose the MIDI C pattern in MidiPiano on your desktop if required.

Four your convenience, the MidiPiano performances starting on F, G and D are shown below.

 PPSTPP 20-12-15 in F

 PPSTPP 20-12-15 in G

 PPSTPP 20-12-15 in D

The pairs of chords and order of major and minor scales were decided on sound alone. Feel free to devise a different combination, perhaps using a different scale pattern.