In this short video, from the 2009 World Science Festival, Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power and universality of the pentatonic scale. Using his audience as an "instrument", McFerrin dances across a giant, imaginary keyboard...
Read MoreGeorge Gershwin employed the pentatonic scale in a number of his works, most notably in Summertime, as John Goldsby writes below. And, while Summertime is based entirely on the the pentatonic scale - except for one note in measure 7 - Gershwin also makes use of the emotional directness of the pentatonic in pieces such as Someone to Watch Over Me.
Read MoreBy the end of the 19th Century, composers, in search of new ways to organize the harmonic content of their music, composers stumbled onto an ancient solution; the pentatonic scale. Pianist and writer Marius Nordal describes the effect that hearing the pentatonic for the first time had on the French composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy.
Read MoreCharles Limb, a surgeon and research scientist at the University of California, San Fransisco, (as well as an accomplished jazz saxophonist) demonstrated in a 2008 study that musical improvisation produces a neural state that is "uncannily similar to REM sleep", a time when the brain is at it's creative peak.
Read MoreImprovisation is at the heart of how we create and how we learn. Recent studies suggest that improvising musicians are more likely than others to use divergent thinking - a reliable measure of creativity - in problem solving situations.
Read MoreMozart, who was renowned for his spontaneity and invention at the keyboard, improvised a thirty minute encore at the premiere of his Prague Symphony in 1787...
Read MoreJohann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest musical improvisers of all time. Here is Charles Rosen's account of the day Bach improvised a six part fugue for the king of Prussia!
Read MoreClassical music, which, in our time, focuses on the interpretation of great compositions of the past, was once a thriving scene of world class improvisors.
Read MoreThe pentatonic scale, which fossil evidence suggests is over 40,000 years old, is found in traditional music all over the world and remains at the heart of music we love today. Jazz, Blues, Rock, Soul, R&B, Folk, Gospel, Bluegrass and many other genres. Bone flutes have been found in China, South America, and Africa, but the flute made from a griffin bone, discovered in the the Hohle Fels cave in Germany, is the oldest known intact pitched instrument. Tom Service, writing for the Guardian observes...
Read MoreWe know from the fossil evidence that bone flutes from the neolithic era, when replicated, can play the pentatonic scale, a scale used around the world today. Why might this be so?
Read MoreCharlie Pennel is a piano teacher in Jamaica Plain, MA. Charlie teaches in his studio and offers in-home piano lessons in JP, Brookline, Cambridge, Boston and nearby communities. Charlie's current project, Improvilirium! The Beginning Pianist's Guide to the Joyful Art of Improvisation is a unique resource for beginning pianists of all ages. Distilling insights and strategies from master improvisers and featuring over 300 original songs, etudes, and exercises. Imrpovilirium! teaches students to trust their ears "think" with their hands. and play from the heart.
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Songs from Improvilirium: An Audio Gallery 2024 Fall Semester Calendar
Charlie Pennel 9 Woodman Street No.3, Jamaica Plain, MA 01230 Email: charlie@charliepennel.com Phone: (617) 365-9232
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