Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Pentatonic Canon is Inversion

If you invert a major pentatonic scale from its tonic, the result is a major pentatonic with a tonic pitch a major third lower.

To be more precise: the result is another pentatonic set a major 3rd lower but the intervals are inverted.

Major pentatonic -- M2 M2 m3 M2 m3 -- Ascending

from C -- C D E G A C --C major pentatonic.

to invert we use the same intervals descending:

from C -- C Bb Ab F Eb C

If we rearrange these pitches to start on Ab, you'll see that we have an Ab major pentatonic scale:

Ab Bb C Eb F Ab

I used this material for the canon today -- the common tone of C is used as the tonic.

(click on image to enlarge)

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