pentatonic scale fingerings?

[Bob]

Have any?

[kriskicksass]

A pentatonic scale is only five notes, so a special fingering isn't needed unless you want to play it up and down the piano, which isn't practical anyways due to the skip of a minor 3rd between the fifth and first degrees.

[ted]

Going straight up and down I think I would play them with all five fingers and jump, at least at speed. I just tried it and, of the five possible positions in each key, most of them are very easy and compatible with this grip. Usually I wouldn't play them straight up and down of course, it lacks musical interest, but if I did, that is how I would do it. This grip would also lend itself to playing them in double notes and other ways without either struggle or thought.

[Bob]

Yes, I meant up and down like a regular scale.

Are there "standard" fingerings?

[Bob]

(coughs) ahem!....


Ok, let's pretend you have a two octave or four octave passage of a straight pentatonic scale.... in every key then... major and minor.... what fingering would you use? 

I''m not sure about Ted's 12345 for everything idea.  I don't like the idea of leaping that much.

I thought there were pianists out there who also knew all the pentatonic scales.  Hmm...

[Bob]

Pentatonic scale fingering

C Major
RH  123 12(4)
                   123  12 (4)

LH 321  (321)
              21 321  (321)

That's for  1 8ve with the second 8ve below.  The ()'s are for 'rounding' off the end.  So if you start on the bottom and go up and back down, the rounded off fingerings make the end cleaner, as opposed to being able to go on up another octave.  Just like major and minor scales.

The left hand has the tricky part in it.  If your hand is used to just doing that one octave, then you get messed up when you start doing two octaves.  That happens a few times in the pentatonic scale fingerings I came up with. 

-----------------------
7-19 thinking...
[]'s to round off on the bottom.
()'s to round off on the top.

C Major Pentatonic
RH  123 12(4)
                   123  12 (4)

LH 321  (321)
   [543]   21 321  (321)


Db/C# Major Pentatonic
RH
23 1 2(3 1)
       1 23 1 2 (34)



LH
321 (32 1)
     21 321 (321)

The RH and LH do cross again and on a black key.
----------------------
D Major Pentatonic

RH
Same as C Major.
123 12 (4)
         123 12 (4)
LH
543 21 2
       21 3 21 2
LH3 always on F#.  LH2 always on D.

------------------
Eb Major Pentatonic
RH
[2] 12 31 3
          3 12 31 3
RH does a 1-3 crab walk with the black notes and the first white key a whole step above.

LH
321 31 3
       321 31 3
------------------
E Major Pentatonic
RH
123 1 3(5)
        123 13(5)

LH
543 13 1
       143 13 1
------------------
F Major Pentatonic
RH
Same as C Major.
123 12 (4)
         123 12 (4)

LH [543] 21 (2)
            321 321
                21 321 to keep going
      21 321
This is the messed up part.  Part of my confusion. 
I'll come back to this later.
----------------------
F# Major/Gb Major Pentatonic
RH
Ditto C Major
LH
still that problem
--------------------
G Major
Ditto C Major.

I think the trick was to keep the LH thumb on the top note of each cluster of keys.  I remember the RH did something similar, RH thumb on the bottom note of the cluster of keys.

[Bob]

(Bob bumps the thread so he'll type up the rest of the fingerings.)

[Bob]

G Major
note:  RH 1 always on lower note in cluster of notes.

RH
123  12 (4)
            123 12 (4)

LH
[543] 21  321 (321)
                     21  321
========================
Ab Major
RH
231  31 (3)
            2 31   31(3)

LH
321   31 3(or2?)
                 321 313
========================
A Major
RH
123 1 3 (5)
             123 13(5)

LH
[5] 43   1 3 1
                 1 4 3 1 3 1
==================
Bb Major
RH
2 1 2  1 2 4
              4 2 1 2 1 2

LH
321  2 1 (2)
             321 21(2)
===================
B Major
RH
121    23 (5)
               121 23(5)
[Yes, RH 121<--- That thumb is on a black key.]

LH
[321] 321
           121 321
[Yes, LH 321<-- That thumb is on a black key.]

So for B Major, thumbs go on D#.

===================
More notes from summer 08...

C Major RH
RH thumb is always on lower note of cluster.
LH thumb is always on highest note of cluster, with top and bottom rounded off.


Db
LH top
321 (321)


Trick on C Major
On the way up, focus on LH 2 on lower note of clusters.
On the way down, focus on RH2 on the upper note of clusters.



Then it's on to the minors when I type them up.

[Bob]

One more....

c minor
RH
1 3 1 2 3 (5)
              1 3 1 3 (5)

LH
532 1 3 (2... or 1 maybe?)
            1 3 2 1 3 (2/1?)


Or two more..


c# minor
RH
2 1 2 3 1 3
             3 1 2 3 1

LH
2 1 321(2... or3up,2on way down?)
           2 1 3 2 1

[Bob]

dminor
RH
[1234] 12
           2 123 12

2's on d

LH
[54] 321 2
             2 1 321 2
... but [54] seems awkward.



eb minor
RH
[1234] 12
            2 123 12

LH
54321 2
         2 1 3212

[Bob]

e minor
RH
[1234] 12
           2 123 12

I have notes from July I'm typing up here.  I'm not quite following this, but I'm sure it will make more sense later on.
"Might be more like Majors?  Much jazzier."
" ( 1 uh 16th-16th-8th  3 uh triplet ./.repeat ) "

(Bob continues typing to himself...)
LH
[54] 321 12
              2 1 3 212

"2's on Do"
============
f minor
RH
123 13 (5)
            1crossedout?  23 1 3 (5)

LH
54 2 1 2(3?) 1
                  1 321 2 1
[I don't think I'm following my own notation style here.]
=================
f# minor
RH
3(2?) 123 13

LH
321 13 1 3(2?)

LH
3 1 4312

[? ? ?]

===============
g minor
RH
[1 2(3?)] 1245
                  2 3 1245

LH
532121
        1 321 21
==================
ab minor
RH
[2(3?)] 1 2 [345]
                 123  12[345]

LH -- both ok?
21 21 32
          21 321 2
LH
31 321 2
          2 132 12
=====================
a minor
RH -- ditto d minor
1 234 21
          1 23 21

LH
54321 2
         2 132 12
==============
bb minor
RH -- yes, odd
123 12 (3)
           1 23 12 (3)

Thumbs together.
LH
[4] 321(32)
           21 321 (32)
==============
b minor
RH
[1234] 12
           2 123 12
RH -- if not going anywhere
[12(1234)]

LH
[4] 21 321
             1 21 321



That's it.  I need to clean this thread up.  I can't believe that took me... six months to type up.