Brian May's Far Eastern Pentatonic Licks.

[LordMythology00s]

Brian May's probably my biggest influence on guitar and I've nicked quite a few licks from him. I'm also a big fan of world music so I'm familiar that the music of the Far East revolves heavily around the pentatonic scale and if you listen to his solo on "Brighton Rock", it kind of gives that kinda feeling to me.

So do you guys think this is coincedental or perhaps he was actually influenced by the music of this region?

[A440]

I could be wrong, but the "snake charmer" scales and mid-east influences may be courtesy of Freddie Mercury.

see the following NPR article:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=129476462

(not to take away from Brian May's contributions)

[Gandalf5150]

Chinese music, for example, as you say predominantly uses the 5 note pentatonic scale

This scale just happens to be also widely used in western pop rock music.
Guitarists like Brian May Mark and Knopfler in particular use it a hell of a lot.

I don't think it's intentionally an eastern influence

[LordMythology00s]

Originally Posted by Gandalf5150

Chinese music, for example, as you say predominantly uses the 5 note pentatonic scale

This scale just happens to be also widely used in western pop rock music.
Guitarists like Brian May Mark and Knopfler in particular use it a hell of a lot.

I don't think it's intentionally an eastern influence

Yeah but when others use it they sound bluesy.

[Gandalf5150]

Originally Posted by LordMythology00s

Yeah but when others use it they sound bluesy.

I wouldn't say bluesy myself, but I know what you mean.
Eastern melodies are often much slower and more deliberate, whereas perhaps western guitar players use the scale as a basis for improv.

Also, western players may use a pentatonic lick, then use a different scale in the same piece of music. (in improv at least)
Eastern musicians, well Chinese certainly, very rarely (if ever) use anything else.

Certainly very different ways to use the same group of 5 notes.

[NG7]

The pentatonic scale is used in music in a vast number of places all over the world.

[sabby]

Of course the influence was there. Once upon a time, the sun never set on the British Empire. Eastern influences were there, conscious or not. They could not be avoided.

[LordMythology00s]

Originally Posted by Gandalf5150

I wouldn't say bluesy myself, but I know what you mean.
Eastern melodies are often much slower and more deliberate, whereas perhaps western guitar players use the scale as a basis for improv.

Also, western players may use a pentatonic lick, then use a different scale in the same piece of music. (in improv at least)
Eastern musicians, well Chinese certainly, very rarely (if ever) use anything else.

Certainly very different ways to use the same group of 5 notes.

That's what I love about playing that scale, I can sound bluesy, celtic, folksy, or exotic.

[Flinto2002]

Originally Posted by Gandalf5150

Chinese music, for example, as you say predominantly uses the 5 note pentatonic scale

This scale just happens to be also widely used in western pop rock music.
Guitarists like Brian May Mark and Knopfler in particular use it a hell of a lot.

I don't think it's intentionally an eastern influence

Isn't 5 note Pentatonic superfluous? Penta means 5. All our classic box shapes are 5 note scales.

[55hz]

There are all types of Pentatonic scales that use all kinds of intervals in between the five notes...

So more specificity is needed here.

[loofery]

Maj or min pentatonics can never sound 'exotic' to me because of their intervallic structure. If you use or create a scale that has two notes a minor second apart as well as two (successive) notes a third apart, for example harmonic minor or phyrgian dominant, then you are getting somewhere.

The practical explanation is that the major and minor scales are so omnipresent in western music, and their pentatonics just sound like you're playing the scale but skipping a couple of notes. If you make a scale with notes that lie outside major scale harmony, like a natural 7 on a minor chord, or a b2 on a major chord, it will sound foreign.

You can however, take a mixolydian scale, shave off the 2nd and 6th and you have a sus7 pentatonic scale which sounds somewhat exotic but is actually fully within major scale harmony; the minor second between two notes and the third between two others contributes to this sound.

[Gandalf5150]

Originally Posted by Flinto2002

Isn't 5 note Pentatonic superfluous? Penta means 5. All our classic box shapes are 5 note scales.

Yes of course.
I just figured, never expect everyone to know everything, so perhaps there may be the odd reader who doesn't know that pent is 5 (Greek) or even that a traditional major pentatonic has the 4th and 7th elements of a western 7 note major scale missing. In C maj for ex: that would be CDEGA

That is the pentatonic scale usually associated with Chinese music.
Although I taught this at high school to 7th grade, I only researched enough to cover the syllabus, so if anyone can elucidate?

Originally Posted by 55hz

There are all types of Pentatonic scales that use all kinds of intervals in between the five notes...

So more specificity is needed here.

Can't speak for others, but that's where I was coming from

[dlguitar64]

for an exotic pentatonic sound,flat the 3rd in a major pentatonic scale
ex-C D Eb G A.

[sabby]

Originally Posted by dlguitar64

for an exotic pentatonic sound,flat the 3rd in a major pentatonic scale
ex-C D Eb G A.

Voila! You're in Sahara.

[mesavox]

Originally Posted by loofery

Maj or min pentatonics can never sound 'exotic' to me because of their intervallic structure. If you use or create a scale that has two notes a minor second apart as well as two (successive) notes a third apart, for example harmonic minor or phyrgian dominant, then you are getting somewhere.

The practical explanation is that the major and minor scales are so omnipresent in western music, and their pentatonics just sound like you're playing the scale but skipping a couple of notes. If you make a scale with notes that lie outside major scale harmony, like a natural 7 on a minor chord, or a b2 on a major chord, it will sound foreign.

You can however, take a mixolydian scale, shave off the 2nd and 6th and you have a sus7 pentatonic scale which sounds somewhat exotic but is actually fully within major scale harmony; the minor second between two notes and the third between two others contributes to this sound.

Maj or Min Pentatonic can't sound exotic? That's new to me. Japanese music is largely based on stacked groups of pentatonics. You can even have a modal approach in any given key based on which note you start on. Granted, it's not limited to the scale, but the scale can sound very exotic indeed.

As for Brian May's use of the scale found in Brighton Rock. That scale is largely from his roots as a guitar and banjouke player. The scale in Brighton Rock is a common country scale, and has more of a country flavor than it does an Eastern flavor. Now, his eastern influences on songs like The Prophet's Song and Teo Toriate are from their 1974 trip to Japan.

I'm not too awful sure about Freddie's eastern influences... he spent most of his childhood in British contoled India, and he is pretty much English through and through. Mustapha is a Freddie song, and it is Persian, as was Freddie, so I suspect songs like that are where that really comes out (like the article suggests.) However, just like the lyrics speak of praying to Allah knowing that Freddie's family left their home due to Muslim invasion, Freddie often cited things to speak about things without talking about politics as much as he cited them due to cultural influence. The mixture of conflicting cultural references in a song like Mustapha does speak to his family heritage, but he so very seldomly cited it in his writing when compared to his obvious classical and romantic influences. Over the years, his more, maybe I'd say academic-like writing seems to show more of a love of Dvorak than his Persian roots.