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5.1.2
Major Pentatonic Scale and Formula of the Interval Order

You will find this Pythagorean scale in every major musical culture worldwide. The name pentatonic derives from the fact that it has five intervals, although the scale has six notes, including the prime and the octave.

You can play this scale on your guitar or keyboard starting from any note, as long as you preserve the interval order, like this (the dots indicate the notes; the labels between indicate the type of interval between notes):

Interval order of the major pentatonic musical scale.

Figure 23 clarifies which tones you would select from the chromatic scale to get the major pentatonic scale, and the size of the intervals from tone to tone.

Major pentatonic musical scale showing the five intervals and six notes.

FIGURE 23: Major Pentatonic Scale (5 Intervals, 6 Notes)

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