A New Take on The Naming of Pentatonics.

Most people would call CDE GA a major pentatonic, but this does not make sense to me.

Firstly, it is just one of the modes of the A minor pentatonic, A CDE GA.

More importantly, it doesn't conform to the usual convention of defining a major tonality as having both major third and major seventh.

This leads me to say that what we call C major pentatonic should be C EFG BC

Following from that:-

C EFG BbC would be called "dominant pentatonic," (major third, minor seventh)

C EbFG BbC, "minor pentaonic," (minor third, minor seventh)

C EbFG BC, "harmonic minor pentatonic", (minor third, major seventh).

In other words, we could standardise the naming of pentatonics by using only one template (1 345 7), and altering the modal tones (third and seventh) just as we do with our usual diatonic scales. This would make the relationships between diatonic and pentatonic scales much clearer.

Graham Clark 23/10/10