Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale

A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five tones. Pentatonic scales are very common and are found all over the world, including African music, Celtic folk music, native American music, popular Chinese, Japanese and Siam music. It was also known in the ancient civilizations of Mexico and Peru. Based on antique instruments it can be traced back even to 2800 years prior to BC. The appearance of pentatonic scale is so comprehensive that initiate you to think if there is something fundamental in connection with it.

One of the interesting circumstance is that it removes the semitones, which are normally found in diatonic scale (major, minor scale) and it only consists of the  entire interval of degrees. The exact significance of these facts are difficult to determine, but we get the very clear impression that the pentatonic scale, which is so widely used in such diverse cultures, must represent an earlier stage of development that precedes the other scales and it is easier to be identified by majority of people.That is also the reason everyone in this video sings the same next tone even when Bobby doesn`t sing along.