Playing with black keys only??

[jopy]

It's Gb or F# major pentatonic, which has the Eb or D# minor pentatonic as a relative. Play a lot of the lowest note in the group of three black keys to get a major sound, or play the highest note in the group of two black keys to get a major sound. The conventional blue note is an A, which is the white key between the middle and the highest black note in the group of three.

"Play a lot of the lowest note in the group of three black keys to get a major sound, or play the highest note in the group of two black keys to get a major sound."

I bet one of those "majors" was supposed to be a "minor."

ach, ja, whoops!

[jancivil]

ANY of these five notes can be taken as the root note.

EG: Begun on C#, you happen to lack a third, which doesn't mean it isn't a 'pentatonic scale'.

Interesting. And it's kinda fun if you try to make the blue note the root.

there are oodles of ragas and other musics with a more or less penatonic basis using the intervallic structure (given as # of semitones):

1 3 6 8 10
C# D# F# G# A#

now if you were to do a lot of F# below that C#, it tends to become the default root to your ear.

[Foxwolfen]

The black keys are often used in a minor scale which tends to lend drama and emotion, while being a bit darker in mood than the happy go lucky white keys.

It can be challenging to use the black keys exclusively and maintain melodic interest, but when used as a pad, which is more or less just a fill and or harmonic counterpoint, the main structure does not need to be carried by them, just the accent. So in many ways, when used as a pad, it can be seen as an enhanced/diminished chordal structure.

Cheers
Shad

[VicDiesel]

Was it this keyboard?

You come across reversed colours quite often in harpsichords and old church organs.

Btw, Nicolas Slonimsky apparently played the "black keys etude" by Chopin on the Johnny Carson show by rolling an orange over the (black) keys. That piece is in Gb; the left hand does play white keys.

Victor.

[james0tucson]

Even using all WHITE keys is better, because at least that comprises two different FULL scales.

.

it's actually 7 different scales (ionian,dorian,phrygian etc.)

Or are those various "modes" of the same scale?