A SMALL CATALOG OF USEFUL PENTATONICS By BUZZ KIMBALL There were a number of sources consulted, however, all interpretations are entirely my own. Several authorities contradict each other and also, in a few cases, themselves. However, this is not a work of theory as much as practical information in the tuning of nearly a dozen useful, interesting, historical or worldwide five- and seven-limit just-intonation pentatonics. (Note: There are four variant scales with only a one note difference.) Major Pentatonic "human song" 1/1 9/8 5/4 3/2 5/3 2/1 Minor Pentatonic "bible scale" 1/1 6/5 4/3 3/2 9/5 2/1 " " " " 5/3 " senarius 3-4-5-6 " " " " 8/5 " minor ptolamic pentad "major" 1/1 5/4 4/3 3/2 15/8 2/1 " " " " 5/3 " major ptolemic pentad Olympus/koto 1/1 9/8 6/5 3/2 8/5 2/1 "korean" 1/1 9/8 4/3 3/2 9/5 2/1 " " " " 16/9 " ancient Chinese pentatonic Ptolmaic (7 limit) 4-5-6-8 1/1 8/7 5/4 3/2 7/4 2/1 Series 5-10 1/1 10/9 5/4 10/7 5/3 2/1 Series 6-12 1/1 6/5 4/3 3/2 12/7 2/1 Series 7-14 1/1 7/6 7/5 14/9 7/4 2/1 I like the minor pentatonic quite a bit, as well as the ancient Chinese pentatonic. The seven limit pentatonics seem from my experience to be a bit more 'equidistant', or perhaps, 'more stable', Or even 'less quirky'. Very harmonic if not quite as spicy melodically. Now, you might be wondering how to go about tuning and hearing these wonderful little scales. And, the first problem is procuring or building a suitable instrument. At one point in time, I recycled my 54 string Amplifying harmonic kannon, because it always 'hurt my back' tuning it up, and bought a very traditional zheng (Chinese koto), and much to my early dismay found it nearly impossible to escape the pentatonic arrangement. But, it was not long till I swallowed my pride and began a long fruitful journey collecting Information and experimenting. However, the zheng can be slightly tedious to re-tune, but not hopeless. Further in time, as I developed a strong affininty to the minor pentatonic, and running across some references to early historical instruments, I considered purchasing a pentatonic harp, sometimes called a King David's Lyre. But, instead opted to build my own. Actually, the first version made its way into the woodstove, being a bit bulky and heavy, and rather annoying to re-tune the ordinary tuning pins. However, the second version with guitar gears, while a bit difficult to build, has been very delightful. A third possibility, is an ordinary diatonic psaltery or even a santoor or similar. Since, it is quite common in ethnic tuning practice to tune an extra string to a 'unison', or an existing note for practical reasons... And in a few instances, on a retunable keyboard I have put such pentatonic scales on the black keys and some diatonic scale on the white keys. Probably one important thing to get is a chromatic tuner. One that has calibrations for +/- 50 cents. Korg has a tolerable one for as low as $20. I personally don't expect a whole lot of precision. It is even possible to see the pitch on a string go high upon plucking and low on decay, with the $20 tuner. While, not per se, a desirable tolerance, many strings can go "off" as much as +/- 20 cents on occasion. And even when getting it 'dead on' sometimes a small adjusment by ear just makes 'something' sound better. However, I don't have a laboratory or a big fat grant, and even less interest in keeping detailed notes and measurements. But, after decades of daily experience, my only recommendation is to take all the talk of impossible theoretical precision and other tuning fantasies with a grain of salt. Lou Harrison's MUSIC PRIMER; C.F. Peters: NY, 1971, got me interested in pentatonics and is still a useful resource. I also relied upon Siemen Terpstra's A SORT-LIST OF MUSICAL-COSMOLOGICAL MONOCHORDS; Amsterdam, 1993 and his AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MONOCHORD; VOL 2. Journal of the Western Cosmological Tradition; Phanes Press, 1993 (c) 2003 Buzz Kimball