In this week’s show, Gordon and I will be listening to pentatonic melodies. A pentatonic scale, as the name suggests, consists of 5 notes per octave. There’s a major and minor version, which are rotations of each other. So, for example, in C, the major pentatonic scale would be C-D-E-G-A (missing out the 4th and 7th of the major scale), and the relative minor version would be A-C-D-E-G (missing out the 2nd and 6th of the natural minor scale). Our examples include major pentatonics – Skye Boat Song, Dirty Old Town, Cry, Texas Hold ‘Em, and Better Together – and minor pentatonics – Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Location, and That Don’t Impress Me Much. Most of these vocal melodies are fully pentatonic all the way through (although Beyoncé and Burna Boy slip in the occasional passing note).
A good pentatonic melody can have a timeless simplicity that gives you the feeling you’ve know it all your life. This is perhaps why all of tonight’s songs are so memorable.
Our quiz features instrumental pentatonic hooks, and I make no apology for being a bit guitar-centric with these choices – guitarists love a pentatonic scale!
Our soundslike selection is the much-commented bassline similarity between Start (The Jam, 1980) vs Taxman (The Beatles, 1966). Send your suggestions to Gordon[at]bbc.co.uk or text 85058.
Here’s the earliest sheet music of the Skye Boat Song, as published in 1884 in the collection “Songs Of The North”, courtesy of the IMSLP music library.
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