Pentatonic Scales
Senior 2 · Music
Pentatonic Scales
Lesson 4 of 4
20 min
Rwanda's traditional music is heard at weddings, ceremonies and storytelling, and it is taught in amatorero, the traditional music and dance troupes found across the country. Performances of dances such as ikinimba may be accompanied by drums (ingoma), the ikembe, the fiddle iningiri, the musical bow umuduri and the inanga. Two of these instruments, the inanga and the ikembe, show clearly how a five-note scale can be built into an instrument. This lesson links what you have learned about pentatonic scales with music you can hear at home.
The inanga is played in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a kind of zither: a stringed instrument whose strings run across a board. The inanga's board is slightly hollowed and framed by a thick rim with notches cut into both ends. It usually seems to have six to eight strings, but in fact they are one very long string, threaded back and forth through the notches and fastened to a wooden peg.
The player sits and rests the inanga against the lap, plucking the strings with the fingers, and usually sings at the same time in a soft, whispery voice. The songs tell of history, folklore, personal experience and everyday events. The inanga is one of Rwanda's most respected instruments; well-known players include Thomas Kirusu, Jules Sentore and Sophie Nzayisenga.
How the inanga uses a pentatonic scale. The inanga follows a pentatonic scale: its strings are tuned to five different notes. The player tunes it by tightening or loosening the string. An inanga with eight lengths of string but only five different notes must repeat some of them, for example an octave higher or lower. The diagram below is a simple classroom model of that idea, using the notes of C major pentatonic. It is not the tuning of a real inanga: real tunings are set by ear, not from a piano, so the exact pitches can vary from one player to another and need not match the piano's keys.
The ikembe belongs to the lamellophone family. A lamellophone makes its sound with thin tongues of metal or wood (lamellae), each fixed at one end: the player presses the free end and lets it slip off, and the tongue vibrates. The ikembe has several iron tongues fixed over a rectangular wooden sound box. It is common in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it is related to the mbira and kalimba, which are sometimes called "thumb pianos".
How the ikembe is tuned. Each tongue gives one note. A shorter vibrating length gives a higher note, so the player tunes a tongue by sliding it to make its free end longer or shorter. On many African lamellophones the lowest notes are in the middle and the notes rise towards both sides, so that each thumb can reach them easily. As with the inanga, the tuning is set by ear to suit the songs. Five-note (and six-note) scales are very common in African music, but a community may tune one kind of instrument to a five-note scale and another kind to a different scale. Traditional lamellophone tunings, like those of the mbira, often do not match the piano's keys exactly.
You can explore the sound of a five-note tuning without an inanga or ikembe. On a keyboard, xylophone or recorder, use only the notes of C major pentatonic (C D E G A), or only the black keys.
This activity is a classroom model of how a pentatonic accompaniment works; it is not a copy of any real inanga or ikembe piece. To hear the real thing, listen to recordings or live performances by Rwandan inanga and ikembe players and notice how few different notes they use.
Tip
More strings than notes means repeats. A five-note scale spread over six to eight strings, or over a row of ikembe tongues, must repeat some notes in another octave. Traditional tunings are set by ear, so a staff or keyboard can only give an approximation of them.
Try each question first, then check the worked solution underneath.
An inanga has eight lengths of string tuned to a five-note scale. Explain why some notes must be repeated.
Solution: There are more strings (8) than different notes (5), so at least three strings must sound notes already used, usually an octave higher or lower.
To which family of instruments does the ikembe belong, and how does it make its sound?
Solution: The lamellophones. A thin iron tongue, fixed at one end, is pressed and released, and it vibrates.
An ikembe player wants one tongue to sound higher. What should the player do?
Solution: Slide the tongue so that its vibrating (free) part is shorter. A shorter tongue gives a higher note.
How is the string of an inanga arranged?
Solution: It is one long string threaded back and forth through notches in the rim, giving six to eight lengths across the board, and it is fastened to a wooden peg.
Write a four-note ostinato using only the notes of G major pentatonic.
Solution: Model answer: G D E D. Any four notes chosen from G A B D E are correct.
Remember
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
