On Friday, I taught you how to look at chords according to the number of notes they have.

This introduced us to names like “tetrads,” “pentads,” “hexads,” “heptads,” and of course, the “triad.” These are names for collection of notes played at the same time (i.e. - “chords”).

Today, I want to talk about the other side of things — the names of collection of notes played one after the other (i.e. - “scales”). And specifically, I want to focus on the tetrachord.

A tetrachord is a series of four notes, usually played one after the other. A major tetrachord is a series of four notes, in ascending order, separated by the following sequence: whole step - whole step - half step.

In other words, if I start at “C” and add a whole step, that gives me “D.”

So far, I have “C - D.”

In following the “tetrachordal” formula, I add another whole step from “D.” That gives me “E.”

So far, I have “C - D - E.”

And lastly, I add a half step since my formula is “whole step - whole step - half step.”

That gives me “F” at the end.

Altogether, “C - D - E - F.”

This may look familiar to many of you. It is the same pattern that starts your major scales!

Recall my little acronym I made up several years ago to help people remember the major scale…

Why Won’t He Wear White When Hot?

W W H W W W H

(This is my way of getting you to memorize the “whole step / half step” relationships that make up the major scale. You won’t find it taught anywhere else like this, I promise…)

If you’re really paying close attention, you may notice not ONE major tetrachord, but TWO!

W W H W W W H

In other words, a major scale is just two major tetrachords separated by a whole step.

[C major tetrachord] - whole step - [G major tetrachord]

So if you know all 12 major tetrachords, this can be another way to remember scales quickly:

C major tetrachord: C D E F
G major tetrachord: G A B C
D major tetrachord: D E F# G
A major tetrachord: A B C# D
E major tetrachord: E F# G# A
B major tetrachord: B C# D# E
F# major tetrachord: F# G# A# B

(switch to flats)

Gb major tetrachord: Gb Ab Bb Cb
Db major tetrachord: Db Eb F Gb
Ab major tetrachord: Ab Bb C Db
Eb major tetrachord: Eb F G Ab
Bb major tetrachord: Bb C D Eb
F major tetrachord: F G A Bb
C major tetrachord: C D E F

Do you see what I see?

Gosh! Where do I start? There’s so many patterns and observations to make.

First off, I was moving in “FIFTHS,” just like the circle of fifths chart below:

Secondly, notice that the next “tetrachord” in line finishes the previous one. So if you actually read the “C major tetrachord” out loud and then the “G major tetrachord,” that’s the entire C major scale.

Same goes for the G and D tetrachords… and the D and A tetrachords — on and on.

Another thing worth pointing out is the first note of one tetrachord is always the last note of the next tetrachord (when moving in fifths like I did above). So two tetrachords joined by a whole step always equal an octave.

Fourthly, it further proves how related major keys are on the circle of fifths chart. Now you know that they also share tetrachords!

Fifthly, it points out how ANYTHING can be broken down to smaller parts. Maybe you’ve mastered major scales already but if you look at other unfamiliar scales this way, it should be much easier.

For example, I haven’t talked about trichords yet but as the name implies, it’s a series of 3 notes just like a tetrachord is a series of 4 notes.

2 trichords separated by a whole step create a minor pentatonic scale. Check it out…

A trichord:
A - C - D

E trichord:
E - G - A

Together, “A - C - D - E - G - A.”

And, since minor and major are related, you can easily start this scale from C to get a regular pentatonic scale (i.e. - “major pentatonic”).

A - C - D - E - G - A - C - D - E - G - A

(Just like we can take a C major pentatonic scale and play the same notes from “A” to “A,” we can take the minor pentatonic scale and play the same notes from “C” to “C” to get a C major pentatonic scale.)

And it doesn’t stop there…

There are pentachords, hexachords, and others. I’ll talk about those in other posts.

For now, I hope this helps to give you another perspective.

Until next time —

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I’ve received a lot of questions about the pentatonic scale lately so I wanted to reserve some time to break it down.

Like a pentagon, which has 5 sides, pentatonic scales have 5 notes.

“Pentatonic” doesn’t mean one type of scale though, as some might think. There is a most common one that I’ll talk about below, but the truth is, there are tons of pentatonic scales and they vary widely depending on where you are in the world.

So for now, pentatonic scales have 5 notes. That’s my first point.

(You may find it useful to know that a heptatonic scale, like a heptagon, which has 7 sides, subsequently has 7 notes. The most common heptatonic scale is a major scale. The blues scale is an example of a hexatonic scale, which has 6 notes. Heck, there’s even an octatonic scale… a diminished scale).

So, just take your favorite shapes, count their sides, find out the prefix that correlates to that number (i.e. - “hexa” vs “penta” vs “hepta”) and add “tonic” to the end, and you’ll sound like a music theory pro! By attaching one of these prefixes, it’s just a fast way to characterize scales by the number of notes they have.

I’ll do a separate post on all of them at a later time.

Ok, back on topic…

Let’s talk about the major pentatonic scale.

I’m going to show you two ways to create this scale. One will be drop dead easy and the other will be a little more involved so that you can get a little more understanding of how music works.

Drop dead easy way

To play a major pentatonic scale, take any major scale and remove the fourth and seventh tones.

So let’s apply this to C major:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The 4th is “F”
The 7th is “B”

Play this scale without those notes:

C D E G A

5 notes! 5 notes = pentatonic.

And this specifically is a C major pentatonic scale.

It sounds really good going all the way up your piano. Try this:

C D E G A C D E G A C D E G A C

Maybe you heard this in the hit song “My Girl.”

C D E G A C! (Play it in rhythm and you’ll hear the melody line I’m talking about). Click here for an example.

The more involved approach

Remember the circle of fifths from other lessons?

Well, if you start at any given point on the circle and go clockwise until you’ve included 5 total notes, that’ll give you a pentatonic scale (you’ll just need to add one more step to make it usable).

For example, if you start at C and move clockwise 4 more tones… C to G to D to A to E… bammmmmmm! That’ll give you the notes of the C major pentatonic scale.

Obviously, you can’t play the pentatonic scale like this: C G D A E. You have to rearrange the notes to be within one octave. That is, from one “C” to the very next “C,” eight notes up.

So how do you take the notes C, G, D, A, and E and rearrange to fit into an octave?

Simple!

Start at C…

Just move to the right asking yourself if you have the next note in line…

C… ok do I have a D? Yup!

So C and D are in place so far.

Do I have an E? Yup!

So C, D, and E are in place so far.

Do I have an F? No. F is not a part of the C pentatonic scale.

Do I have a G? Yes! Put G in place.

C D E G

Well, since pentatonic means 5 notes and I already have 4, then it’s obvious that the “A” goes on the end.

C D E G A

There’s my scale!

—-

So Jermaine, why would I go through all that trouble when I can use your simple way, which takes the C major scale and removes the 4th and 7th tones?

Because, I’m a big proponent for using the circle of fifths as much as you can. The circle of fifths pretty much describes in ONE picture how music works! When you start seeing the relationships the keys have to one another and how those relationships lead to other things you thought were random before, then many things start making sense.

Just like you took 5 neighboring notes going clockwise on the circle, if you took 5 neighboring notes going counter-clockwise, that would give you one of the most commonly played chord progressions in music. Heck, taking only 3 neighboring notes and going counter-clockwise gives you the famous “2-5-1″ chord progression in any key! Don’t believe me… what’s C to F to Bb? Those are the keynotes of a “2-5-1″ in the key of Bb. Add a minor to the “C” keynote, a dominant chord to the “F” keynote, and a major chord to the “Bb” keynote and you’ve got yourself a basic chord progression!

(Also another lesson in and of itself).

So when I give you harder ways to do the same thing, usually those are the methods that pay off the most because they lead to understanding something BIGGER than the situation at hand.

Until next time!

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