pentatonic

American  

[pen-tuh-tahn-ik] / ˌpɛn təˈtɑn ɪk /

adjective

1. Music. (of a scale) having five tones to an octave, such as the black keys on a piano.

---

Other Word Forms

• pentatonicism noun
• pentatonics noun

Example Sentences

It was a nod to his musical heritage and the Ethiopian pentatonic scale that gives his sound its unique flavour when combined with other jazz traditions from around the world.

From BBC

Built on a pentatonic scale, “Summertime” gathers within its modest frame the sound world of black folk tradition.

From The Wall Street Journal

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory created what they call “music of the spheres” for the TOI 178 system by associating a sound on a pentatonic scale to each of the five planets.

From Salon

Jordan taught his students “River Niger,” and regardless of level, beginner or advanced, each student had an important role — whether playing the pentatonic scale according to his conduction or taking solo or collective free improvisations.

From New York Times

His modal vocabulary, flecked with pentatonic and other outré accents, could be profoundly ambiguous — sometimes stark, as in “Job,” a ballet in all but name, and sometimes discomforting, as in the otherworldly Sixth.

From New York Times