Pentatonic
scales are hugely versatile creatures, often lending themselves very
easily to the fretboard. The minor pentatonic is pretty much every
guitarist's first scale for improvising, and it's not normally long
before he or she learns the “3 frets back” rule and is able to
access the sound of the major pentatonic.
However,
that's usually where they leave things – the next step tends to be
onto the major scale and modes, learning three note per string ideas,
before introducing arpeggios and so on. By this point, pentatonics
are usually overlooked and dismissed as “novice stuff”. This is
a shame because there are a great many pentatonic scales,
particularly those that originate from Oriental cultures, that can
access wildly exotic sounds and still be relatively straightforward
to play, and this month's Kumoi pentatonic is one of them.
Firstly,
it's necessary to pin down exactly what this scale is, as there seems
to be some confusion on the internet! The Kumoi, or to give it it's
full name, the Hon
Kumoi Shiouzhi scale , has an
exotic, quintessentially Japanese sound, and is built from the
following intervals:
R b2 4 5 b6
In the key of E, that gives the notes
of E F A B C (contrast to E G A B D from a regular minor pentatonic
scale) – notice the lack of 3rd, the sinister quality of
the sound is down to the b2 and b6 intervals
As always when learning a new scale, a
great way to work it in to your regular playing is to take a basic
minor pentatonic lick and “Kumoi-ify” it – as I've done here:
Then try it with the “2 bars on, 2
bars off” approach (two bars rhythm, two bars of improvisation, not
stopping for mistakes, keeping the rhythm going) – I've found that
it suits darker, heavier blues/ rock and metal tunes, and works very
well in something like “Voodoo Child” for an off-the-wall
psychedelic feel!
Normally, discussions of an exotic
scale would end there. But as my readers and students will be aware,
I have something of an obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to
learning scales – I want to know EVERYTHING this scale can do! So
let's begin by looking at it from a modal perspective:
Kumoi:
R b2 4 5 b6
E F A B C
Starting from the F, this gives us:
R 3 #4 5 7
F A B C E – this strongly implies the
Lydian mode of the major scale ( R 2 3 #4 5 6 7)
R 2 b3 5 b6
A B C E F – this points to the
Aeolian mode (or natural minor scale) – R 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7
R b2 4 b5 b7
B C E F A – this outlines the
Locrian mode – R b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7
R 3 4 6 7
C E F A B – this implies the Ionian
mode, or major scale – R 2 3 4 5 6 7
So, play the E Kumoi over an F and
you've got yourself a pretty solid Lydian sound, play it over an Am
and you'll get an interesting take on A Aelian, and so on.
This brings me to my next topic –
chords. We can derive some pretty interesting and idiomatic chord
sequences by harmonising this scale in 3rds (or as close as we can to
3rds).
Basic triads contained within the
scale:
E A B – Esus4
F A C – F
A C E – Am
B E A – B7sus4 (implied – no 5th)
C E A – C6 (implied – no 5th )
Changing this up to 4 note chords gets
us even more fun stuff to play with:
F A C E – Fmaj 7
A B C E – Amadd9
C E B A – C maj 13 (implied – no
5th)
and my personal favourite:
F B C E – Fmaj7sus#4! Now that's a
spicy meatball...
So my next challenge to myself is to
write something using this scale... stay tuned!
See you next month for a progress
report on this year's #TUNEICEF project, and more!
