sing together
September 23, 2021 4:10 AM   Subscribe

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the universal power of the pentatonic scale. Apropos of absolutely nothing except sometimes it's good to be reminded, every 10 years or so, that it exists (previously and previouslier).
posted by fight or flight (21 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
Reminded it exists? After 40 years, I still struggle to break out of it.
posted by 2N2222 at 4:47 AM on September 23, 2021 [12 favorites]


I still remember the year (33 years ago. sigh) where he pretty much dominated the Grammys. And though he continued to work and make music, he more or less disappeared from pop culture at large as suddenly as he appeared. It's good to see him pop up now and again so we're reminded how awesome he is.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:52 AM on September 23, 2021 [3 favorites]


I saw him live many years ago, when he had just become well-known, after his first album and before DWBH. The big surprise was that he seemed to be playing air bass along with his singing, when he wasn't thumping on his chest or the like.
posted by thelonius at 5:17 AM on September 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


This made me tear up a bit, so starved for things we can all agree on.
posted by Freyja at 5:21 AM on September 23, 2021 [14 favorites]


....struggle to break out of it

Well, if you can't, you can at least play different pentatonic scales over a chord, like over Em you can also play a B minor or F# minor pentatonic scale, you don't have to play one starting on E until the end of time. As shown here. For E major, B major pentatonic also works (Jaco Pastorius was fond of this, it's all over "Continuum" and "Havona"), and, if you have a Emaj#11 chord (like in Havona), F# major pentatonic would also work.
posted by thelonius at 5:32 AM on September 23, 2021 [5 favorites]


McFerrin did some wonderful singing on Laurie Anderson's "Strange Angels." Not her best album, IMO, but has some really powerful stuff on it.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:47 AM on September 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


I love that pentatonic scale clip, but this is the one that always gets me.
posted by emelenjr at 6:06 AM on September 23, 2021 [10 favorites]


@Freyja — me too. So, in case you didn’t see this one (yes, I rabbit holed), Freyja, I give this to you. :) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pO_LV-yInc8
posted by Silvery Fish at 6:12 AM on September 23, 2021 [4 favorites]


I, for one, welcome our new pentatonic overlord.
posted by brachiopod at 7:09 AM on September 23, 2021 [3 favorites]


I knew that 85% of known worlds in the galaxy had invented a drink called Jynnan Tonnyx (or some variant thereof), but now you're telling me Pennta Tonnyx is universal as well? mind=blown
posted by xedrik at 7:20 AM on September 23, 2021 [9 favorites]


That is a truly wonderful demonstration. Pure happiness, a nice thing to wake up to. Thanks.
posted by Nelson at 7:43 AM on September 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


I'll take this opportunity to link to another one of my favorite Bobby McFerrin things, his cover of Another Night In Tunesia with the Manhattan Transfer.
posted by PussKillian at 10:09 AM on September 23, 2021 [3 favorites]


I just started playing one of his Circlesongs for my baby! They're the perfect combination of interesting but relaxing.
posted by Emmy Rae at 10:57 AM on September 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


I feel it should be eight notes to the octave or five notes to the pentave and nothing is going to shake me.
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:53 PM on September 23, 2021 [4 favorites]


From emelnjr's link: Oy vey Maria
posted by Ickster at 1:30 PM on September 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


Similarly great crowd strumming.
posted by klausman at 2:23 PM on September 23, 2021


I love his gracious acknowledgment of the audience once he sits down.
posted by humbug at 5:24 PM on September 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


Back when I was in college getting my degree in poetry, I took a bunch of independent studies in music to get access to the synth lab (ironically to get my hands on the decrepit and neglected Moog modular and the Fairlight CMI, both of which were disappointing and mostly ignored while the leading edge of the department was Csound-heavy and obsessed with granular synthesis), but my complete stupidity about conventional music theory was a roadblock (I'm self-taught as a musician, which is always problematic). My response, triggered by the life-changing brilliance of Wendy Carlos' Beauty In The Beast, was to dive into the tuning tables in my sampler and use nothing but "alternative" tunings, which short-circuited traditional guidelines about composition so that I could happily just do my own thing without having to resolve to a tonic note or whatever they were going on about. Aside from the deliciously exotic sounds of 5TET and 7TET, there were a series of Korean pentatonic scales that I swear were magical, because any sequence or combination of notes sounded automatically gorgeous.
posted by sonascope at 5:43 AM on September 24, 2021 [2 favorites]


I also like that his entire set up is "talking about expectations" - and then he does this whole thing.
posted by Emmy Rae at 3:19 PM on September 24, 2021 [2 favorites]


For the longest time I was trying to find out who did the duet with Bobby McFerrin on Turtle Shoes

Finally it hit me like a bolt from the blue that it wasn't a duet
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:59 PM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


I finally got a chance to watch this, pretty cool! Though I assume that an audience for a panel about music and the brain probably leaned more towards musical people than average, does it work as well with totally random audiences?
posted by tavella at 5:07 PM on September 26, 2021


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