In Deep With.. The Kumoi Pentatonic Scale

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 3^rd, 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 5^th)

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!