Pentatonic Diary 14-07-21
Composing Springboard

Here's a major pentatonic "composing at the keyboard" texture.

Version One

Identify these features, either in the music, or by listening, or by playing.

• The left hand (LH) plays an eight-note rising-and-falling next-door G pentatonic major scale figure.
• In between every other pair of LH notes (1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and so on), the right hand (RH) plays a run of four next-door pentatonic scale-tones.
• These RH runs are rising as the LH rises and falling as the LH falls; they start or finish a pentatonic step above the LH note.

The pattern repeats in D

For an ending, notes 2 and 3 of the RH runs swap places, so the run becomes a zigzag; otherwise, it's in the same place.

The last RH run extends zigzag-wise up to D to finish.

Version Two

The second riffs adopts the 'zigzag variant' wholesale.

The right hand covers the four G major pentatonic scale-tones (PSTs) immediately above the left hand note (as before), but plays them skip up, step down, skip up - a 'zigzag' shape.

Otherwise, the riff is the same.

Versions Three and Four

Although the first two riffs start on the chord of G, they are in fact in D - the final chord - as you can see from the key signature.

Version Three is actually in G, so the first chord is C, the subdominant (IV) of G.

• The first line is not repeated, and the left hand in the second chord (G) rises only as far as the sixth before descending.
• The right hand as before resorts to zigzag for an ending.

The video covers two versions, the second of which (Version Four) adopts the zigzag shape in the right hand throughout.

Version Five

Starting to mix it up a bit...

• The left hand rises up the G major pentatonic scale but descends the C major pentatonic scale (bars 1 and 2).
• The right hand is zigzag throughout.

Version Six

More non-standard variations develop what could charitably be called 'a piece', short as it is.

• The right hand is a mixture of plain runs and zigzag figures.
• Some of the RH figures are ascending where they 'should be' descending.
• The harmonic rhythm (rate of chord change) differs in the second line of the music.
• In bar 4, there's a non-standard C6 chord run instead of pure pentatonic, and
• The left hand plays G pentatonic notes under the C chord.

Going on from here

The demonstrations above are pure MIDI, with no artistic dimension at all. On a good piano, and bringing your artistic intention to the performance, any and all of these versions will sound ten times better.

Also, this Musicarta lesson is billed as a 'composing springboard', meaning that you will hopefully 'take it on from here' and use the keyboard texture in your own improvisations.

All you have to do is meander around in a major pentatonic scale in the left hand and put decorative runs in with the right hand.

Complexity can be impressive, but it is not what most listeners are seeking, in the first instance. The performer's love of and enjoyment in what they are doing more often furnishes the magic ingredient - for both parties.