Pentatonic scale with a sharpened 2nd note, any name?

Question

I was messing with the A minor pentatonic scale and discovered that if I sharpen the 2nd note of the scale, it sounds very interesting to my ears, even more than the original scale.

Does this already have a name, maybe a mode or something? And I am sure I know quite a few songs using this interval, but couldn't remember where I heard it! I would like to know if you remember any.

It looks like this ;

A C# D E G

Thanks

Answer 1

We could call this an A7add11 arpeggio. (Or, more accurately, the notes from an A7add11 chord.)

Although this is still a set of five pitches, it is no longer a pentatonic scale in the traditional sense; one feature of the related diatonic major and minor pentatonic scales, which are in common usage, is that they do not contain any semitone intervals. (There is some information about the difference between pentatonic scales with and without semitone intervals here.)

In fact, as pentatonic scales have only five notes, they can often be thought of as being mid-way between common arpeggios (eg. major and minor triads which have three notes) and common scales (eg. diatonic modes and harmonic/melodic minor scales which have seven notes). For this reason, the simplest way to describe the notes you present here (A C# D E G) is as an A7 chord with an added D. We could call this an A7add11 chord (not a suspension, as there is also the third, C#, and not an add4 as the inclusion of a third implies that the D is interpreted as an 11th, using tertian harmony). And, when considering these notes 'as a scale' (i.e. one at a time) you are simply considering them as an arpeggiated chord, rather than as a chord where all the pitches are played simultaneously.

Of course, this is somewhat unreliable; depending upon which note you choose to consider to be the root, you could interpret this to be a number of different chords, although in this case four of the notes outline an A7 chord, so this seems preferable. Sometimes though, sets of pitches don't seem to be so easy to describe in terms of traditional harmony. At this point Pitch Class Set Theory can help. This allows a rigorous way to describe any set of pitches. Putting your pitches into this PC Set Calculator returns the PC Set 5-29. Then, looking up PC Set 5-29 on this table we can see that your pitches can be described as a Kumoi Pentachord (and no, I'd never heard of one either…!)

Answer 2

It doesn't seem have an agreed upon name . It's sometimes called "sus penatonic" or "mixolydian pentatonic" but other scales are called with the same names too.

Beatles song "Within You Without You" starts with a short passage in this scale. You can hear more examples in Indian and fusion music. Try googling C E F G Bb for some more examples and discussion.

You can play it over dominant seventh chords (just like the mixolydian which it's a subset of) for added exotic flavor.

Here is an instance where it's called "sus pentatonic".

Here where it's called "mixolydian pentatonic.

I openly pointed out that this scale does not have an agreed upon name and that these names are also used for other scales

Answer 3

Technically there's no name for a scale that goes like A C# D E G. Cyco130 showed us this link where it is called "sus pentatonic", and this link where it is called "mixolydian pentatonic". However, both these names are also frequently used for slightly different scales, so the terminology is not completely clear.

From a keys' point of view, it seems like you're simply turning the minor key into a major one, where the G is a seventh note. Sevenths are very common in major keys, so what you are doing is perfectly acceptable. Basically, you've just found one of the many ways to subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) change the key of what you're playing. By simply sharpening that C, your key moves from Am to A. Personally I like to do that particular key switch for the very last chord of a song; if the song is in A minor, ending with an A major chord makes your song sound like the sad (minor) mood has an unexpected happy (major) ending.