Page 1 of 1

Pentatonic Harmonica

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 11:57 pm
by ShamMcCoy
I read or heard somewhere that nothing sounds bad in a pentatonic scale? How true is this?

And if this is true can one have a diatonic set up with a pentatonic scale in first position? And would it still sound bluesy?

Or am I getting the pentatonic scale mix up with the blues scale?

Re: Pentatonic Harmonica

Posted: Tue May 02, 2017 12:17 am
by CrawfordEs
Google pentabender and Fourkey.
Pentabender uses 5 holes per octave.
The blow holes make one pentatonic scale.
The draw holes another.
And the 5 draw bends another. With those bends all 12 notes are available.
I just got a Lucky Thirteen, and am thinking of retuning it to pentabender.
Fourkey is similar, but there are only 2 bends needed for fully chromatic play.
Gnarley may chip in, he is excellent with these.
Pentabender:
Notes between slashes share a hole, capital letters are blow notes, small are draw.
/Cd/De/Fg/Ga/Ab/Cd/....

Re: Pentatonic Harmonica

Posted: Thu May 04, 2017 5:43 am
by Brendan
The Pentatonic scale is a lot of fun. The minor pentatonic uses the same notes as the major but starts on the sixth note of the scale. In 1st position it could look like this::

CD. EG. AB. CD. EG. AB. Repeat up the harp

Essentially my Paddy Richter bottom end repeated in all octaves. It's not strictly pentatonic because it has the Maj 7th (B) but it makes it good for 1st and 2nd position pentatonic playing. I like this tuning and have used it on X-Reed harps.

Strict 1st Position Pentatonic would be:

CD. EG. AC. CD. EG. AC. etc