Modal Pentatonics
(25 Aug 05)
Further explanation
Indeed, pentatonic versions of all our modes. And in my opinion, those pentatonics bring out the sound of the respective mode a bit better than the whole mode played with all notes included. Let me explain:
Take Dorian (and we'll stick to the key of C major for all these examples).
D Dorian is a mode of C major. The notes are D E F G A B C D.
If we take out the 2nd and 6th note, we get something we can refer to as "D Dorian pentatonic".
The notes that are left are D F G A C D
WAIT A MINUTE...
Yes, you're correct, those are the same notes as the D minor pentatonic (obviously, as the only difference between the D minor scale and the D Dorian Scale is that D Dorian has a Bb instead of a B, on the 6th degree. And we took out the 6th degree in both cases).
Although that is some valuable information, it's not that much of a big deal yet... after all, many of us have tried to use the D min pentatonic over a C major scale progression (or a D Dorian one, but I'll get to that later)
The same happens when we look at the next mode of C major: E Phrygian.
E F G A B C D E
If we take out the 2nd and 6th tone, we get E G A B D E .
Which is... a pentatonic with the same notes as the E minor pentatonic.
Again, valuable information if you are currently getting into modal improvisation ("Hey, over an E Phrygian chord progression, I can simply use the E minor pentatonic...").
But now let's get to the real interesting stuff: the next mode, which is F Lydian....
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