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Guided listening: The Black Keys Part 1 - “Electric Relaxation”.

Watch and play along with these annotated videos featuring songs that all use scales that feature only the black keys.

“Electric Relaxation”, performed by Badbadnotgood.

Because there are only 5 black keys for each octave on a keyboard, these will be pentatonic scales meaning they are made up of only 5 notes. Curiously, pentatonic scales were developed independently by many different ancient civilizations and commonly used in folk music from many cultures.

Let’s check out an example from Canadian instrumental group BadBadNotGood. In this video they perform a cover of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Electric Relaxation” which is in itself a sample of “Mystic Brew” by jazz organist Ronnie Foster recorded in 1972.

Here’s Electric Relaxation performed by Badbadnotgood - E♭ Minor Pentatonic

Start the video above to begin!

Listening notes will appear here as you move through the track.


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