Playing the Piano Using Pentatonic Creativity

What if a person only had five notes to use when learning to play the piano? Would it stifle or promote creativity? Would it encourage technical prowess or inhibit technique? Would it develop the melodic and harmonic relationship? Would it help develop listening skills or promote only rote learning? Would it be satisfying to an adult learner or not stimulating enough?
Using the pentatonic method, the beginning pianist has only five notes to choose from. Those five notes based on a whole and half step relationship make up what is known as the pentatonic scale. In the piano world, those five notes correspond exactly to the five black keys on the piano. Conveniently amazing.
Equally amazing is that a beginner needs only those five notes to make beautiful music, develop technical skills, promote listening and play-back skills and encourage boundless creativity. Learning to play the piano using the pentatonic method is also immensely satisfying to the adult novice pianist because this method encourages from day one playing recognizable well-known and loved melodies with accompaniment patterns.
The pentatonic method takes away many of the layers of music-making and refines it to the simplest possible denominator - the physical attributes of playing the piano. Before a person can make music, that person needs to be able to move their fingers and hands.
The pentatonic method, because it uses rote learning, emphasizes hand position and finger movement. It allows the learner to concentrate fully on moving their fingers and developing a proficient technique before adding the other layers of learning the language of music. Technical prowess becomes an attribute of students of this method.
The pentatonic method not only allows but promotes playing with two hands from the onset of the course. Because of the nature of the pentatonic scale, melodic and harmonic relationships are consonant and every combination of notes sounds pleasing. Thus, melodic and harmonic relationships are effortlessly explored. The variation of accompaniment patterns using only the five black keys is endless and hindered only by the player's imagination.
The pentatonic method in its use of melody and accompaniment from the very early stages develops listening skills. Students discover how changing an accompaniment pattern can change the character of the piece they are playing. By moving from a blocked fifth accompaniment pattern to a cross-hand chord cluster accompaniment pattern, the melody takes on a new flavor. The same melody can go from a jaunty Irish dance to a dreamy lullaby in the matter of a few quick note changes in the left hand all while staying on only the black keys.
The pentatonic method is immediately satisfying to an adult pianist. The student makes swift progress and is playing music immediately. Best of all, the learner is not merely a learner but an explorer. Basic patterns are presented but because of the nature of the pentatonic scale, the inventive learner can take this method in many different directions.
Playing the piano using pentatonic creativity is a process of limitless joy and music-making.

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Pentatonic Scales Explained Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4134954

Pentatonic scales are one of the most widely used scales in music and are common to many different musical cultures including European Folk, Celtic, Asian and African. In modern western music, they are usually associated with blues. When it comes to guitar, a knowledge of pentatonics is essential in learning blues melody and soloing. To consider pentatonics as a purely blues scale though would be incorrect as they are used all over the world, including in classical music. French composer Claude Debussy frequently used the Pentatonic Scale in his compositions.
The basic concept of pentatonics is that they consist of 5 notes and differ from the 7 note Major and Minor Diatonic Scales in that they omit degrees from those scales. These 5 note scales can be seen as major foundations upon which further notes can actually be added to. More of this later.
As a starting point let's look at the C Natural Major Scale. The major scales consist of 7 notes separated by Semi-Tones except between the 3rd and 4th Degrees and also between the 7th and 8th where the difference is a Tone.
C - D - E - F - G - A - B
In the C Pentatonic Major Scale, the F and B notes are omitted. This results in the distance between all the notes being a Tone, except between the E and G, and again between the A and C where it is a Tone Plus a Semi-tone:
C - D - E - G - A
If you then look at the C Natural Minor scale, this differs from the C Natural Major scale in that the 3rd, 6th and 7th degrees of the scale are flattened:
C - D - bE - F - G - bA - bB
The Pentatonic Minor Scale differs from this scale in that the 2nd and 6th (notes D and Ab) Degrees of the scale are omitted:
C - bE - F - G - bB
Pentatonics are the most widely used non diatonic scale. They consist of a strong melodic feel and are great for improvisation, especially with styles such as jazz, rock and blues. Pentatonic scales are also versatile and act like a framework upon which additional melodic flavor can be added. It is extremely common for the basic pentatonic scales shown above to have extra notes added. As an example, the Minor Pentatonic scale can be extended in the following ways:
1. The addition of the flattened fifth. This gives what is generally known as the "blue note" sound. This flattened fifth is added between the perfect fourth and perfect fifth.
2. Another option is when there is the addition of the Major third. This comes from combining major harmony with the minor scale.
3. Adding a major sixth as well as a major second. This results in a full seven note scale, and allows a greater range of tonal color across 12 bar blues progressions.

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Pentatonic Scales For Guitar

We are going to discuss a very alarming misconception amongst guitarists, and come up with a solution to the problem. This problem is a misconception that guitarists seem to have more than any other group of musicians due to the fact that the guitar is a visual instrument. Maybe you have heard somebody say:
"I just use movable shapes and it works"
It's great and all to have an instrument where we can move ideas around visually except when we use the visual aspect in the wrong context. An uninformed context. For some reason guitarists have been infamous for sounding like they were all built in the same factory.
For this reason I decided to take aim to help guitarists by teaching them to play like musicians and composers as opposed to just guitarists. Many have found that this opens up a new sonic territory in their playing and truly takes them to so many different, exciting, and positive territories as an "INSTRUMENTALIST"
That leads me to discuss one of the more common vehicles for rock, blues, and jazz improvisation, and that is the pentatonic scale. Today I would like to discuss a regular 12 bar blues in the key of "A". It seems like most guitarists prefer this key for some reason, so we will use this key. The progression in it's most basic form is 4 bars of A(7,9,13), 2 bars of D(7,9), 2 bars of A(7,9,13), 1 bar of E(7,9), 1 bar of D(7,9), 1 bar of A(7,9,13), and 1 bar of E(7,9) to turnaround back to the tonic.
Now, if I took a poll and asked 100 guitarists which scale they would use to improvise over this scale, I am pretty sure about 90% plus of them would say: A minor pentatonic. This is where we are going to talk about the solution. For A(7,9,13) we would use an A Major Pentatonic Scale. For those of you with any theory background Yes that is the same as an F# minor pentatonic scale.
Over the D(7,9) we could then use the A Minor Pentatonic Scale, and now it actually sounds stunningly good! Over the E(7,9) we would use an E Major Pentatonic Scale. Now, lets take this to the next level. We can play the A Major and A Minor pentatonic scale in the same position, However can you tell me how to play an E Major pentatonic scale within one fret of the first two scales?
Now, what if this discussion is one that you already had "Answers" to? Then let me ask you this: Which Pentatonic Scales would you play over an Amin7b5, and D7#9#5 Chord? Or how does Pat Martino use Pentatonic scales in his guitar architecture?
We will reveal the answers to these questions in our next Ezine articles submission.

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How to Use the Pentatonic Scale in Jazz Improvisation

A very important, and sometimes overlooked scale is the subject of this article. This one is called the pentatonic scale. The word "penta" means five. This is a five note scale. If you take a major scale and use the 1 2 3 5 and 6 of the chord, then you get the pentatonic scale. This scale is very useful because it doesn't contain a 4th or a 7th.
The 4th can be problematic, and the 7th tends to define a chord like dominant 7th has a flat 7 and major has a regular 7. By using the pentatonic scale I avoid these issues. If you want to play pentatonic over a Major scale, just pick the pentatonic that shares the same name.
For C Major, use C pentatonic. If you want to use Pentatonic over C7, then pick the C pentatonic scale. Remember that since it doesn't have the 7th, the same scale works for both major and dominant. Now, playing pentatonic over a Dorian is somewhat different.
Here, you will play the pentatonic based on the 3rd note of the Dorian scale. For example: if I have a D-7 the notes are D E F G A B C D. The 3rd note is F natural. I will build my pentatonic on F, so the scale is F G A C D. I would not want to build it based on the 1 of a Dorian but instead use the 3rd. Keep in mind that this will be a lowered 3rd since dorian already has a lowered third and lowered seventh compared to a major scale.

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