- Home
- /
- Playlist
- /
- Weekly Schedule
- /
- Weather & News
- /
- Hosts
- /
- Programs
- Artists in Residence™
- Carnegie Hall Live
- Choral Music
- Classical Live™
- Composer's Datebook®
- Flicks in Five™
- Friday Favorites
- From the Top
- Learning to Listen
- The Metropolitan Opera
- Minnesota Orchestra
- Minnesota Varsity
- Music with Minnesotans®
- New Classical Tracks™
- Performance Today®
- Pipedreams®
- Play it Forward
- A Prairie Home Companion®
- Roll Credits™
- Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
- SymphonyCast™
- Top Score®
- /
- Stations
On Now
Listen to the Stream 
You can now listen to Classical and Choral Music on your iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) or Android device.
Blog Archive
| August 2009 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | |||||
Master Archive
Recent Entries
Categories
- Artists in Residence
- Awards & Accomplishments
- Choral Music
- Composers
- Concerts
- Events
- Frederic Chopin
- Fun finds
- In the media
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Musical philosophy
- Musician stories
- On the air
- Parker Quartet
- Piano eComp
- Programs
- Roll Credits
- Rose Ensemble Audio Postcards
- The blog
- The Short Version
Contact Us
- Questions about the playlist?
Contact MPR's Member Benefits Team.
Purchase the Music
- Buy the music you've heard on-air! Your purchase helps support our classical service.
ArkivMusic
Services
Classical Notes: August 11, 2009 Archive
This is Your Brain on the Pentatonic Scale
Posted at 10:55 AM on August 11, 2009
by Gillian Martin
(2 Comments)
Filed under: Fun finds, Musical philosophy
The pentatonic (five note) scale (e.g., just the black notes on a piano) shows up in indigenous folk music from all over the world, from the British Isles to West Africa to Asia.
The scale seems to be hard-wired into the human brain--or so this video suggests. It features Bobby McFerrin, former Creative Chair for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, at this summer's World Science Festival in New York City.
World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.
Thanks to my friend N. Jeanne Burns and her friend Elliot for the tip.
- Become a Member
- Member Connect Accounts
- Leadership Circle
- Sustaining Members
- Member Discounts
- Become a Sponsor
- Tax Information
- Planned Giving
- Vehicle Donation
- Donate Stock