Pentatonic Music

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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