One O'Clock Daily - Bobby McFerrin and the Pentatonic Scale

Wolfgang sent in a tip to today's One O'Clock Daily, so sit back, turn up the volume or put on your headphones, and press play on the video below:

That is, as you may have gathered, Bobby McFerrin, singer of "Don't Worry, Be Happy", demonstrating the deep connection between the pentatonic scale and the human brain.

Frankly, this is amazing.  Think about it, a scale represents a series of frequency jumps.  If you play an instrument, you're probably used to thinking about frequency jumps in terms of half steps between notes.

Major scales, with the C-Major scale as our example, have the following half-step progression, where the final note is the same base note an octave higher:

Base Note,  BN + 2 half steps, BN + 4, BN + 5, BN + 7, BN + 9, BN + 11, BN + 12

Minor scales, with the A-minor scale as our example, have the following two different half-step progressions, depending on whether you're talking about the natural or harmonic minor scale:

Natural - BN, BN + 2, BN + 3, BN + 5, BN + 7, BN + 8, BN + 10, BN + 12

Harmonic - BN, BN + 2, BN + 3, BN + 5, BN + 7, BN + 8, BN + 11, BN + 12

A pentatonic scale, however, is very different, having only five notes per octave rather than the seven of the major and minor scales.  These notes have the following two different half-step progressions, depending on whether you're talking about the major or minor pentatonic scales

Major - BN, BN + 2, BN + 4, BN + 7, BN + 9, BN + 12

Minor - BN, BN + 3, BN + 5, BN + 7, BN + 10, BN + 12

 

Now, the question is, what's so special about the pentatonic scale?  Why is it that Bobby McFerrin can go anywhere in the world, jump around on a stage, and have the entire audience not only follow along, but anticipate new notes in perfect harmony?

If we continue thinking in terms of half note progressions, we can analyze the way Bobby McFerrin "teaches" the audience how to sing along.  He starts by defining a base note: jumping up and down while repeating a single note until the audience gets it.  Then Bobby moves up to the next note, and defines that one as two half-steps above the base note.  Now, if we're just choosing between the scales we've discussed above, then we know that we must be in either the major scale, the minor scale, or the major pentatonic scale--the minor pentatonic scale is eliminated because it has a three half-step jump from its base note to the next higher note.

But then Bobby jumps somewhere unexpected.  He goes further up the stage, to a position of higher pitch that he hasn't defined, and the audience follows along perfectly.  The new position is two half steps above the previous one, and four half steps above the base note.  Interestingly, this didn't have to be so.  Out of the three choices the audience had (major scale, minor scale, and major pentatonic scale), two of them (the major scale, and the major pentatonic scale) have a third note at four half steps above the base note, while the minor scale has a third note at three half steps above the base note.  Here is clear evidence of the entire audience making the same particular choice all at once.

Now the audience is singing along in either the major scale or the major pentatonic scale, and we can't be sure which one it is, because the first three notes of each are identical.  So to break the uncertainty, Bobby defines a fourth note: the note below the base note, as being three half steps below the base note in pitch.  Now there isn't any more uncertainty.  Only the major pentatonic scale has such a half note progression (in the regular major scale, the note below the base note is only one half step below in pitch).  And the audience sings along, anticipating note after note both higher and lower than any Bobby had defined.

Clearly, the audience didn't magically assume they were going to be singing the major pentatonic scale from the very first note.  Otherwise Bobby could have defined one note, and just started jumping around the stage to an anticipatory audience.  No, the audience needed some prodding in the right direction before they were able to grasp the pattern.  Remarkably, though, they needed very little prodding.  The process of elimination I've described above is well and good if you are an expert in music theory and you can spare some mental clock cycles to analyze the notes as Bobby is defining them, but most of the audience, and most of his audiences around the world, are just following along by instinct.  This implies that they instinctively know the difference between the different muscial scales.  And that is a strange and interesting concept.

What do you all think about this?  Do you know any other good examples of instinctive musical ability?

Comments

[Sharon]

Very interesting, and I was glad to see this posted after the video today. Your brief analysis has piqued my interest even more. Somewhere in my apartment I have a book or two with theories about music and the brain. I'm going to dig around and see if they mention the pentatonic scale.

[Adam]

Wait, according to what you said he only left his audience the choice of the minor scale or the major pentatonic scale. Considering the minor scale contains accidentals and major pentatonic only contains naturals, isn't it *NATURAL* that they choose pentatonic?

[Frank McDonald]

Michael,

I really enjoyed your article, however, I must point out a few errors. First of all, when listing the minor scales, you've missed one. It's the melodic minor scale. I'm surprised you chose to include the harmonic as opposed to the melodic minor scale because harmonic minor is used primarily to add a leading tone in the chordal structure of harmonies, whereas melodic minor adds the same leading tone on the way up, but on the way back down makes the 7th scale degree natural. In any case, this is not a very important mistake.

Second of all, you used the term "base note" several times in your article. This is both misspelled and incorrect. It should be referred to as a "Bass" note (still pronounced "base,") however, it wouldn't be called a bass note in this situation. One might refer to it as such if it were included in a chord. This would mean that it would need to be voiced by any instrument. The lowest sounding note is called the bass note. For example, if you have a 1st Inversion C Major Triad (E-G-C), the E would be the bass while the C is the root of the chord.

You might want to use the word "root," as well, but that would still be wrong. The correct word to use here is "tonic," as it is the only one I've mentioned that actually refers to the key. This happens to be a very common mistake, so don't feel bad--just a pet peeve of mine.

All in all, I really enjoyed your article. I think for non-music people, this appears to be some sort of magic trick, while in reality it's merely the power of suggestion. I think it was pretty clear that the audience would choose a major third above the tonic for the third note. Sure, they had the option to make it minor, but that's not nearly as common in our culture. We're so used to the "Do, Re, Mi" that it would be ridiculous to expect someone to sing a minor third. I also believe that most people thought they were singing a major scale, because that's what they know. No one knows what a pentatonic scale is. That's why he had to give the fourth note. Then people changed and went with it.

Still, a very interesting topic.

Frank

[Tristan]

While not terribly instinctive, Ben Folds does a lot of audience participation in his shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40aqIbcc59c

That's probably the best example I could find in 3 minutes. He DOES give the audience the parts of the song to sing. Be in the brass in "Army" or the harmony in "Not The Same". But the trick, at least I know for my tone deaf friends, is hearing where you are once the participation kicks in as it's usually a couple minutes into the song.

[Richard]

This was a very interesting read, thank you for sharing it with us.

@Michael
Your assumption of base vs bass could be quite incorrect. There is more than one mode of thinking, and in how I read the lines, it was used appropriately. Specifically, that Bobby started at a "base" note, indicating a place where you branch out from, both up and down.

[Edgar Matias]

Cool stuff.

BTW, for people who do cannot read music, the following article does a good job of visualizing how the different scales relate to each other...

http://edgarmatias.com/papers/music

Removing the tritone component from the C Major (or Minor) scale gives you the basic pattern of the Pentatonic scales...

C Major/Minor:

http://edgarmatias.com/papers/music/f20.gif

Pentatonics:

http://edgarmatias.com/papers/music/f30.gif

Like I said, pretty cool stuff...

Edgar

[SJ]

He was actually right in using the word base, in that he meant the note that the scale was rooted around. Not a note in the bass clef or low enough that it could be played by a bass instrument.

[Michael Woods]

@Sharon - That would be awesome, I'd love to hear what you find out!

@Frank - Thanks for the pointers. I'm not really a big music person myself, so please excuse some mistakes. I was trying to use the term "base note" to refer to the starting note of a scale, (e.g. C for the C-major scale, etc). I always had the impression that the term "tonic" referred to a particular type of chord. I guess that's not true?

@Richard - I was trying to use the term "base note" to identify the starting note of a scale (like I mention above).

@Edgar - Thanks for the pointers to those papers. That's quite cool stuff. It looks like you've studied these concepts in some detail... care to share some other interesting things with us?

@SJ - Ok, now I'm quite curious about what the exact music term is for the note I was referring to. You've got the correct interpretation of my writing, but there's enough debate in the comments to spark my interest.

[Frank McDonald]

@Everyone who replied to me about the "Base vs. Bass" - Yes, one could use the word base as place to start, however, it's too confusing. It would be much more appropriate to use the word "tonic." This refers to the starting note of a scale. Since "base" is a homophone of "bass," it just adds to the confusion if the person knows only a little bit about music.

@Michael - I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so harsh in my comment. This is really an exhilarating topic for me, it's just a pet peeve when people confuse the terminology. No harm, no foul. An excellent article.

[Jay Levitt]

@Michael's question: Yes, the "tonic" can also mean the tonic chord, which is the chord whose root is the tonic note - aka "the I chord". (To add to the confusion: That's Roman numeral I. The one chord.) And the root, or base, of the I chord is usually played by the bass, whether you're listening to roots rock, Romantic symphonies, symphonic rock or the Romantics.

This must be what William Safire feels like.

[Andrew Carter]

This is interesting, but maybe not so remarkable. I have to disagree with the "instinct" conclusion. I would say that anyone singing along has previously heard 12-bar blues or rock music in a major key (and probably tens of thousands of times). And since, in most popular music, the pentatonic scales are over-used I would argue that people already know what to expect because they have heard it already. Besides, there are only five notes.

Also, from my experience in teaching music, when I show people how to play the pentatonic scale, there are many students who do not realize when they are playing the wrong notes -- even after I play the scale for them. So, there are many people for whom the Major Pentatonic is definitely not "instinctive".

I think music is a learned ability, that we are trained to remember the notes that we name (A, Bb, C etc.) and the intervals between them. Harmony and rhythm have been developed over hundreds of years by tens of thousands of musicians and even more compositions; not instinctively understood without any a priori knowledge.

[Sean]

This article is good and well but if the trick was done with people outside of Western musical tradition, I don't think they're going to sing a major pentatonic scale, or any of the minor scales for that matter.

For example some traditional oriental scales are closer to the equal pentatonic scale (aka 5 tone equal temperament) than the Western pentatonic scales. Bobby said the result was the same in each place he tried it, but surely if this performance were done in Bali or some remote part of China they wouldn't be singing a Western pentatonic scale!

It would be great if there were more recordings available with other audiences for comparison.

[Phil Pierre-Louis]

What a discussion!!

I think there are two things that make Mr. McFerrin's demonstration work.

First, he does an excellent job of demonstrating where the tonal center is in relation to the other pitches in the pentatonic scale. His movement allows him assign pitches to the different points on the stage. It also gives the audience physical connection to where the pitches are in relation to each other. Masterful teaching!!

Second, whether they are aware of it or not, the audience has heard these tonal relationships throughout the course of their lives. As school children they've heard those relationships in nursery rhymes and other children's song. As older children and through adulthood they've heard these relationship in more sophisticated forms and context; such as jazz, blues, and pop music. It was in their ears whether they knew it or not.

@Sean I think Mr. Mc Ferrin would enjoy success where ever he attempted this exercise as a result of his supreme musicianship and the audiences life experience.

[Sean]

Phil, I don't agree he'd enjoy that same success everywhere. I was specifically talking about audiences who aren't familiar with Western pentatonic scales. For example isolated tribes in Africa or Asia. These people could either know a different kind of pentatonic scale or not be familiar with one at all. I'd like to see Bobby McFerrin demonstrate on _them_.

The bold fact that it demonstrates a "deep connection between the pentatonic scale and the human brain" using an audience who are _already familiar_ with the pentatonic scale prior to the demonstration is highly suspect.

Hey it was a fun video to watch but I don't buy that it was anything more than a sing along with a familiar scale, supreme musicianship or not. :D

[Robin]

One thing that confuses me about this video and related comments is the suggestion that the audience is 'pre-empting' the pentatonic scale. While they certainly do pre-empt the major third, which is fascinating in itself (and i suspect there are myriad theories as to why this happens, both cultural and physical), all other notes in the pentatonic scale are introduced by Bobby first, before the audience sings them. Therefore, the audience is merely replicating the notes on demand, and in different octave registers, so I fail to see how this demonstration shows the "deep connection between the pentatonic scale and the human brain"

Also, Sean's comment re: different pentatonic scales in the global regions rings true - the western pentatonic is very different (and would sound very artificial to) the music of other particular cultures.

[steve]

Some years back, some scholar published an article about how crowds at basketball games always sing the "air ball" chant on the same pitches (which I believe are F and D). Dave Barry mentioned it in his column. I immediately remembered this while watching McFerrin's demonstration. It's amazing to me that a large audience can collectively arrive at the same notes without prompting.

[Bryce]

@ Sean. Complete agreement.

Maybe it's my lack of musical theory showing here, but would it not be the same case were he to say, hop out a C Major Scale? Or any other scale in the West for a Western Culture?

If he gave two notes, the audience can evolve the others due to the fact that those notes have been around them their whole lives. Of course they can. They've agreed on those notes time and again.

Where as in the oriental scales, you find different notes, different scales, different sounds, unaccepted or "agreed with" in the West, or at least not commonly so.

We in the west might enjoy the sound of a shamisen, but it will always seem exotic and difficult to follow what sound will come next.

They can predict because of the prior agreement ingrained in their minds.

[Ray]

When I was in grade school, in band class, I also felt there were too many notes in the major scale. 5 is just right. Thanks for the detailed analysis that perfectly complements Bobby's demo.

[Margaret]

@Sean, I think McFerrin himself makes the point that it doesn't matter to where he travels (and he does travel internationally), audiences react in a pentatonic scale.