People wonder why Scottish music is pentatonic

[GDub]

Scottish folk music, and indeed the bagpipe, is in the pentatonic scale. So is most Native American music. As is Greek, Vietnamese, Hungarian, Ethiopian, and Polish folk music. As an anthropologist who dabbles in ethnomusicology, I have wondered why the pentatonic scale seems so universal in folk and "primitive" music. Well this isn't the answer, but it sure does make you think....

Besides the "universal" appeal (as in the McFerrin clip), perhaps it depends on the instruments being composed on or for...? Seems logical that pipes and/or flute-centric folk music would gravitate towards the pentatonic scale. I "dabble" in Irish trad music (on a not so trad instrument--guitar). Irish tunes in "pure" pentatonic are not nearly so prevalent...

BTW, thanks for the Bobby McFerrin clip! Very cool!

[beloitpiper]

Besides the "universal" appeal (as in the McFerrin clip), perhaps it depends on the instruments being composed on or for...? Seems logical that pipes and/or flute-centric folk music would gravitate towards the pentatonic scale. I "dabble" in Irish trad music (on a not so trad instrument--guitar). Irish tunes in "pure" pentatonic are not nearly so prevalent...

BTW, thanks for the Bobby McFerrin clip! Very cool!

You're right. Like I said, Scottish folk music tends to be pentatonic. Irish folk music has an entirely different flavor.