What is pentatonic scale?

Pentatonic scale question?

• Answer:

  The pentatonic scale can sound major or minor depending entirely on how you use the notes in a melody. Raising or lowering any degree (by a semitone) would make it no longer a pentatonic scale. The pentatonic degrees, in diatonic numbering, are 1-2-3-5-6 repeated cyclically, 1-2-3 separated by major seconds, and "minor thirds" at 3:5 and 6:1. Note there is no "7th" to raise. Raising the 2nd to a major third would be a double-sharp--two semitones. Awkward. Degree 3 is already the major third above 1. For example, "Amazing Grace" is pentatonic, with compass 5-5' low-to-high (dominant), and tonic on 1. This "word-order grammar" makes it sound major because the third above the tonic is major. On the other hand, "(I'm Just a Poor) Wayfaring Stranger," pentatonic also, with compass 5-6', tonic on 6, dominant on 3. This makes a minor tonality, because the third above the tonic (6:1) is minor. Like English, diatonic grammar (pentatonic included) is mainly a word-order grammar, unlike Latin, where inflections (word endings) carry more of the meaning. You can compare inflections to the accidentals of harmonic and melodic minor and those that make augmented seconds in Byzantine and Semitic scales. Pentatonic uses no inflected grammar.