What do the song “Amazing Grace”, the big ET music scene from the movie “Close Encounters”, Ancient Celtic folk music and the chanting “OM”Chakra scale have in common? They are all expressions and variations of the Pentatonic musical scale.
The Pentatonic scale is perhaps the most ancient and universal scale we know of:
It’s based on 5 notes (pent = ancient greek for 5 and tonic= tone). Its use in music is wide ranging from ancient to modern times. Heres a quote from Wiki:
Pentatonic scales occur in Celtic folk music, German folk music, Nordic folk music, Hungarian folk music, West African music, African-American spirituals, Gospel music, Bluegrass music, American folk music, Jazz, American blues music, rock music, Sami joik singing, children’s song, the music of ancient Greeceand the Greek traditional music and songs from Epirus, Northwest Greece, music of Southern Albania, folk songs of peoples of the Middle Volga area (such as the Mari, the Chuvash and Tatars), the tuning of the Ethiopian krar and the Indonesian gamelan, Philippine kulintang, Native American music, melodies of China, Korea, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, and Vietnam (including the folk music of these countries), the Andean music, the Afro-Caribbean tradition, Polish highlanders from the Tatra Mountains, and Western Impressionistic composers such as French composer Claude Debussy. Examples of its use include Chopin’s Etude in G-flat major, op. 10, no. 5, the “Black Key” etude, in the major pentatonic.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale )
As you can see it’s all pervasive…and that’s for a lot of very good reasons: It’s a set of harmonic vibrations that are conducive to human wellbeing, rituals, rites of passage, prayer, shamanic initiation, dance and ascension practises. As I see it, the Pentatonic scale rises up from the very roots of the world tree.
At One Mind Live we share a deep connection with ancient and universal wisdom cultures.
When it comes to making music for Naomi Janzen’s Tapping process and Naomi Carling’s guided meditations, it’s my job to create spacious, evocative and authentic harmonic vibrations that are in accord with tried and true human universalities. I am also partly synesthetic – which means I see music and hear colour, just to mention a couple of combinations. In addition, I feel musical notes affecting parts of my body and see shapes and colours when tuning into the spoken word. So, when it comes to the preparation of sonic journeys for the healing guidance of the “two Naomis”,
I am literally pulling from a range of intuitive, ancient and technical source points.
Not all the music composed for One Mind Live is Pentatonic. I also use Pythagorean tuning as well as ancient Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian tetrachordal modes…but that’s for another time…
Stephen Fearnley is an award-winning filmmaker, artist and composer. He composes transformational soundscapes for the meditation journeys guided by Naomi Carling and facilitated by Naomi Janzen for One Mind Live – a unique worldwide online group meditation community. To sample One Mind Live, go HERE