pentatonic Hear it!

pentatonic Definition

penta·tonic (pen′tə tän′ik)

adjective

designating or of a musical scale having five tones to the octave

Etymology: see penta- & tonic

pentatonic Usage Examples

Adjective modifier

  • minor: It introduces patterns characteristic of the idiom, such as modes, , the blues scale and the minor pentatonic.

Modifies a noun

  • scale: Play your minor pentatonic scale with the first finger up at the 5th fret.
  • melody: His Black Key Etude with its pentatonic melodies enjoys special popularity among the Chinese people.
  • mode: Based on eerie Ethiopian pentatonic modes, their harmonies float in mid-air, building a sweet suspense that is never quite released.

Modifying Another Word

  • basically: Secondly, folk music consisted of simple short forms, a basically pentatonic scale, and simple language.