The harmonic properties of the minor Blues allow us to introduce a new concept, that of Pentatonic scales. And it enables us to generate new voice information and explore them while improvising. One of the main characteristics of Pentatonic's is the absence of semitones from the pitch structure. This characteristic removes any traces of harmonic tension from the pitch structure. When you listen to the sound of major or Minor Pentatonics, you can see that on the screen. You can hear that they sound neutral, tranquil and without any immediately noticeable tonal associations. So, let me play some games with you. I like to play a Major Pentatonic. [MUSIC] Major second. [MUSIC] Major second. [MUSIC] Minor third. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Major second. [MUSIC] You can see there are two notes missing from the pentatonic, four and five have created the trident that very corrects that pungent interval that is present in major scales, but it's totally absent from the pentatonic,so see what happens. I mentioned earlier that there are not immediately noticeable traces of, tall traces in the collection,. Of course you can hear it as a major. [MUSIC] But if I play a different rote, [MUSIC] It sounds all of a sudden this is minor. [MUSIC] If I play yet another root. [MUSIC] It has a completely different status. [MUSIC] So, I can experiment with different routes while using the same pitch collection. This characteristic will be very important to kind of kill a few birds with one stone, so to speak. Now, the structure of Minor Pentatonic. [MUSIC] And again, it doesn't have any semi tones. The sound is totally neutral. Sounds like a minor. [MUSIC] Sounds like major. [MUSIC] Sounds like extended minor. [MUSIC] Sounds like dominant. [MUSIC] So, it has a lot of potential applications. Now, the pitch structure of dominant and suspended pentatonics is also shown on the screen. And the main difference between the two is the absence of major 3rd from the suspended pentatonic. The invervolic structure of pentatonic is less predictable than that of other scales. That feature renders them ideal for modal harmony, and modal improvisation. So, here's the structure of Dominant Pentatonic. [MUSIC] Right, so here you have that triton because the dominant is ultimately associated with the interval triton. [MUSIC] And the suspended pentatonic replaces one note. The third is replaced by the four. Let's talk about pentatonic or modal voicings. Pentatonic skills, and by the way there are far more pentatonics than our major, minor, dominant, and suspended. And in fact as you learn in later lectures, any five-note collection can be classified, qualified as pentatonic. And pentatonic collections are extremely useful for the generation of the so-called Quartal Harmonies or Quartal Voicing. They are called Quartal, because the main intervolic characteristic of these voicings, is the interval of the fourth. So, the first thing, we will do, while creating modal, or quartal voicings, is to verticalize, all the notes form the underlying pentatonic collection. In such a way, that the initial voicing projects strong quartal characteristics. So, it has more force in its structure than other intervals. So, if we, let's take, for instance, our minor pentatonic. [MUSIC] And we are going to verticalize this linear collection in this minor. [MUSIC] You can see on the screen, there are fourths out the bottom, fourth, perfect fourth, and major third, so there are three fourths and one third to kind of provide a nice balance. [MUSIC] So, there overwhelming a presence of the fourth. So, what we are going to do while generating quartal voicings or model voicings, we're going to use that scale unfolding in the bass. [MUSIC] And think of it as five note voicing that moves to the next note from the underlying minor pentatonic collection. So, when we transfer these voicings up we're going to have five unique pentatonic. [MUSIC] Let me play. [MUSIC] So again, the process of generating this voice is very logical. And would be simple, we generate the opening voicing and we move to the next note of the pentatonic skill and fold it in a base in each line, each note gets to the next note from the pentatonic collection. And as a result, we have this wonderful collection of five voicings that can function as substitutes for your C minor harmony. So, we have five different voicing and I'm playing the bass note. So, you can hear that, right? [MUSIC] And they are considerably different from voicing that we've discussed earlier. The presence of the fourth gives each voicing that kind of natural character which offers a lot of potential applications, harmonica applications. Given the Dorian Pentatonic shown on the screen. [MUSIC] The reason why this particular collection is called Dorian Pentatonic. That is because first of all it is minor, and the Dorian mode is minor. And the main characteristic of the Dorian mode is the presence of the natural 6th, a beauty mark we kind of call it, right. A natural sixth, so that pentatonic collection utilizes the most important bridges from pentatonic, from the Dorian mode. So, we will use that pentatonic to generate yet another collection of voicing that we can use in conjunction with our minor pentatonic voicing. So, we do the same thing, the Dorian Pentatonic unfolds in the base, in the lowest voice. But unlike our earlier examples, we're going to provide the remaining notes from the Dorian mode, from the 7th note, from the Heptatonic scale. And the reason why I want to do that is to show you kind of iconic voicing from the 1959 Miles Davis recording Kind of Blue voicing that bel eves make immortal. [MUSIC] So, these are the so called so what voicings, so now, again our scale unfolds in a bass and we are kind of generating out opening sonority which uses more folds than other intervals. And we basically move to the next note from the Dorian scale, seven note scale. [MUSIC] And again, just listen to the sound of this. [MUSIC] All of these voicings can be used are substitutes of one another. And there's two voicings [MUSIC] In that order or in the original key. [MUSIC] Okay, so now, let's look at the pitch structure of the dominant pentatonic, because what we're doing now, we're kind of generating voicings Muggle voicings that we can use, to realize our minor blues progression that we are working on. So now, we have to take care of the dominant harmonies, right. So, let's look at the pitch structure of the Dominant Pentatonic on G. And, in order to provide, harmonic support in measures nine and ten, alright. So, here is your Dominant Pentatonic, on G, and here is your Dominant Pentatonic on A flat. So again, in keeping with our methodology of generating quartal voicings, just making sure that we have some kind of attractive structure, right? [MUSIC] Right, and one more time. [MUSIC] And A flat. [MUSIC] Again, we have like five, different voicings that we can freely use, as substitutes of one another. All right. So, since we have covered all the harmonies, of the minor blues, along with their pentatonic formations, let's put them to practical use and realize the entire, progress. First of all, we have to realize that there are a lot of options for different harmonic realizations. Remember that each voicing from a pentatonic collection, and there are five in total, can be implemented as a possible harmonic formation. So, on the screen you can see on of the many possible realizations so for C minor we'll use- [MUSIC] And then, on C seven, we'll use voicings from the C seven pentatonic. Same thing, we'll have to transpose our voices to F, F minor. [MUSIC] And C minor with our voicings. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] And A flat, G and C minor. [MUSIC] So now, when I play it with a metronome and use some liberties as far as rythmic placement and implementing some of the fifths in my left hand. I can make it sound highly idiomatic. One, two, one two three four. [MUSIC]
