Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale
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- Опубліковано 22 лип 2009
- Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus". Watch the full program here: • Notes and Neurons: In ...
The World Science Festival gathers great minds in science and the arts to produce live and digital content that allows a broad general audience to engage with scientific discoveries. Our mission is to cultivate a general public informed by science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future.
Original Program Date: June 12, 2009
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What instrument do you play?
Bobby: "The crowd"
lololololol!!!!
People
He's been playing "people" for 30 years.
XD
ROFL
The last crowdbender
twiinapocalyp2e2 underrated comment 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Everything changed when the flower nation attacked. With pollen
Right next to Freddie Mercury
lmao
the best part is that the audience doesn't even realise they're in a pentatonic scale. When Bobby went down below the tonic, the audience still knew which note to sing instinctively, and the fact that the scale is imprinted in our minds is honestly so cool.
I agree! I'd add... notes imprinted in our minds after being tuned out there
Amazing
I completely disagree. The audience was singing in C# Major. It was Bobby who indicated an A#. Had he not done so, the crowd would have sang a B# as the leading tone.
@@mattrobertson1974 Thanks for highlighting that. Incredible that combination of frequencies that when tuned in a group are synchronized as closely as possible to given physical measurements, that collective auditory memory, that ability to coordinate dozens of parts of our body that concatenated produce melodious sounds, that appreciation for an artistic action without immediate benefits related to survival, that psychological delight of attuning to a purpose that rises above differences, among other things.
@@mattrobertson1974 That's definitely part of it, a lot of the audience would have gone to the 7th of the scale but since he gave them the 6th they went to the 6th. The thing is the audience knew instinctively to skip the 4th and make a pentatonic scale, which was never given to them. They just did it.
What Bobby is doing here is transcendent. He gives an audience four notes of a five note scale, with no context, with no explanation, and the audience is intuitively able to grasp what the 5th note of the scale is. Not only that, the audience is able to intuitively understand the way the scale continues, above and below the range they were given. The fact that Bobby says this works with audience anywhere in the world speaks to a deep cross-cultural piece of the human experience and how we understand music and ourselves. Something is happening at the fundamental level here and I think it's lost on some people how truly profound this is.
music is one of the most fundamental parts of us
You are one word smith I can tell you that 😎
Yes! The reason this is so significant is that it has traditionally been believed that music is an outgrowth of language. People point to the radically different musical scales and tastes in different cultures and connect them to the language structures
This wasn’t supposed to happen!
For me, it's magical.
@@tomryan9827 I would posit that music predates language. I suspect our almost monkey-like ancestors were beating on rocks and trees to make rhythms long before they developed the words to sing along to them. I'm no scientist, but it seems to me that such "traditional" beliefs are probably biased in the direction of language. heh
"Congratulations, you just played yourselves."
Good one 😂
Lol
Did they come
You win the internet! Lol
I see what you did there😂
I have to confess... I used this in my own choir classroom, and it worked like a charm! The kids were astounded!
Planning to do this!
My band teacher showed us this today and I was so impressed I came to find the video myself. I even downloaded it!
Dude, you just spread the joy and knowledge. It was the least you could do=)))
I want to be a music teacher, all I do is give ppl private guitar lessons
You should get the science teachers at your school involved - the subject is really interesting, and students would find themselves very engaged in the science of it after being involved in such a demonstration.
Years later I still love this clip. I heard at the end one of the speakers ask if Bobby "wanted a job in neuroscience" and my first thought was "Sir, he is a musician. He already has a job in neuroscience."
thank you
Bravo
Got a poster in my class that says, “Music is what feelings sound like”. It comes with the territory.
Jeff Baxter, the guitar player for the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan is a missile defense contractor for the CIA and has 9 top secret clearance levels. He studied rocketry as a hobby and mailed his dissertation into the pentagon, got a call from them and they flew him to Langley. No college education. Look up "Jeff Baxter non linear thinking Ted talk".
Brilliant.
This is made more amazing after realizing he’s moving left to right in the traditional low to high pitches in the audience perspective, but contrary to his own. In other words, as he moves to HIS left, the “notes” raise in pitch, but this is to the right in the audience perspective, so he’s switching it in his own mind.
Amazing man.
He's playing left handed
you mean he just envisioned a giant keyboard laying in front of him facing the audience instead of facing him? I could never do that /s
Maybe he's like me we with left and right 😂
Oh wow; I didn’t think of that -even more amazing!
@@billyclub56 It's not like with the guitar, hey don't sell reverse keyboards for left-handed people
I don't know why, but I always end up smiling like an idiot each time I watch this video. Music is really amazing.
Me too! It's amazing. I'll always listen to this when I'm having a bad day
I love how music is the great equalizer: regardless of age, color, religion, culture; anything that can divide human beings; is trumped by music.
Rubén Medellín And Bobby McFerrin is amazing too
Not Islam unfortunately. Music is haram (forbidden) Only singing is allowed and only if it's about Allah or Mohammed. Sad.
Not in all the Islam. There are many musicians in the Arab tradition and outside. The great drummer Art Blakey converted to Islam under the name of Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, and he kept playing like a beast.
*when you realize the audience is actually applauding at themselves*
Who wouldn’t be proud of themselves after that
Being human, and musical, should be applauded, as automatically as this was performed.
egotistical bastards
they're applauding the conductor
They earned it. They and the conductor.
I love how the panelists at first just smiled seeing this is kinda fun, then Bobby moved to the 3rd note and everyone were in awe
👍🏾
I showed this to a colleague of mine at a music school we teach earlier today. Told her to follow what Bobby McFerrin does. She followed the two notes he gave the audience, and as soon as he jumped to the third, she got the exact note. You should've seen the astonishment on her face.
A good material for teaching
@@semp224 Better than just teaching it by rote.
Good teacher alert
This is just genius. Got me smiling like a fool. Lol
I laughed even Lol
I know right!!! I watch this weekly!!!
Same for me, lol.
B A L D
Same Oh My god this was amazing!
This is probably my favourite video in the whole internet, it's just amazing to see a group of brains decipher this scale and emitting vocal notes accordingly without any previous rule.
He gave them the rule with the two first notes. One direction is lower, the other one higher.
@@kristiankarhunen7624 true but its not quite a simple as that - they are singing a Bb minor pentatonic scale, which means 1 jump left or right is not always higher or lower by the same amount
@@mikeblow3781 my ear is not that good. this is not a tampered scale?
Mine too. One of my favorite videos ever. Bobby is brilliant and is such a deep and wise soul.
This video gives me hope 😌
This was deeply emotional for me. He just demonstrated how we are all one.
Tell it
i used to watch&sing it with my mom when I was a child and now that I came back to it after years it hits me even stronger, because as I child I didn't really understand what the video is about, and now my newfound understanding mixes with warm memories from my childhood and nostalgia haha
🙄 would be so nice
We are one. Everything is, afterall, just
one.
Linguists searching for universal grammar have paid attention.
Music class:
“Bobby, time to pick your instrument!”
“Are people an instrument?”
“No silly kiddo, you can’t play people.”
Decades later:
hold my beer
Bobby: Hold my humans
the world is a mere piano where all humanity is the keys and bobby mcferrin is the pianist. i am okay with this.
every choir director plays people
Me: is mayonnaise an instrument?
2009, UA-cam: "He won't be interested in watching this"
2019, UA-cam: "Now he will"
"He's ready"
& IN 2020 IM NOMINATING THIS FOR BEST COMMENT ON UA-cam AWARD
Try 2021 recommendations ha
The guy who makes the Neuroscience comment at 2:51 is Daniel Levitin, who coined and documented the Levitin effect: that people tend to remember songs in the correct key.
Jared Christensen interesting. ..
He wrote an excellent book called This is Your Brain on Music.
and many other excellent books :)
What?! Is that true?
What does he mean by the "correct key"?
He came to my University in 2001, and he just . . . he can turn everything on its head, surprise the heck out of everyone, and still be so down to earth.
He doesn't challenge your assumptions affrontingly: he makes YOU challenge your own through subtle guidance.
Legitimately genius.
I don’t know why but when I watch this it made me cry. I think it just shows how easy it is for people to work together and yet we don’t really do it. It’s like we’re all the same man mind blowing.
That's the beauty of life. Not all are fortunate enough to realise it.
Same
Truly amazing! ... one of the best audience-participation music vids i'd ever seen! Bobby McFerrin is a vocal/musical genius!
Truly bs!!!!
Nahhhh Freddy Mercury at live aid is the best
Watch Jacob collier involving audience
@@samkingsly1636 Or vulfpeck playing back pocket at madison square garden :)
yes he is
Bobby McFerrin might be the only person who actively plays the audience like an instrument. I love the guy!
+Boogieforme He is amazing! Search about Hermeto Pascoal live.
+Boogieforme I've seen Frank Zappa "play the audience" too. Some people are just born to teach and lead...
obbor4 Oh, cool! Do you know if there is any footage of that?
w
Ben Folds.
I absolutely love that tune. When Bobby kicks in, it is one of my top 10 favourite tunes ever composed. It is brilliance. The intelligence of it, and yet, simplicity of it being the pentatonic scale.. sheer genius. He is a legend
What is the tune he is singing?
@@nicolasarkinyou got it yet?
Absolutely agree. It incredibly simple and yet so not.
@@nicolasarkin he is playing around with notes that harmonise with the pentatonic scale. He is that good musically that he can simply blend music together in perfect harmony
for some reason this makes me cry, man the connectedness you feel.
Every freakin time lol
So pure and beautiful. The true visualization of happiness, I think.
Same here it gets to me every time.
What’s truly hard to imagine is that, since he’s facing the crowd, he’s doing everything backwards: he moves right for lows; left for highs.
Exactly! Like a choreographer. He's a freaking genius! Check out his Wizard of Oz.....Peace.
Hadn't even thought of that.
It's only hard if you played piano
@@hansdietrich83 Hm... fair.
@@hansdietrich83 For right handed (majority) string instrumentalists left means low
That was pretty awesome crowd control.
The Post Modern Guy he would be a really good support
Too op, pls nerf
good cc^^
TIL bobby = brig
I'm 11 years too late... Magic!!!!
Right on time!
You're never too late when it comes to appreciating Bobby McFerrin. He is a musical genius.
You are God damn right Chiguau ;)
!
2021 says 12 years late this coming july.... based on upload date which means the actual stage event happened before that.
This made me feel like...so god damn tribal in a way I can’t really explain
struck me in a way I can't really communicate as well.
The first ever uses of the pentatonic scale were in African tribal music. That may be a reason
It’s because humans are great actually and we get happy when we can come together this way
@@Udontkno7 I'm glad someone said it :)
@@Udontkno7 exactly. We are a race of love in our nature. What we have become. Been made to be, is not really us. We all. Want. Love.
Thats what this is. We love, love. ❤ 🤍 💙
When Bobby did the splits it went from Baa Baa Baa to "Waaaa?".
+David Hughes he had a lot of faith in the crowd, but found out he was asking too much
+nfinitiduck No, he was just adding a bit of humour.
lol
I think he was going for a major 3rd intervall.
nah i think he was just trying to be funny
THEY PLAYED LIKE US LIKE A DAMN FIDDLE!
excellent
Its an instrument to surpass metal flute!
Don't jump on your fiddles please.
Don't worry the Empire will once more rule the stars Londo.
Leave the first "like" out and you have it.
I have probably watched this a total of 1000 times since 2009 and it STILL gives me goosebumps. Every. Damn. Time.
Who coming again and again years after to see/hear this, and warm-smiling every time like the first?...Human kind and their genius. Long live to Bobby, he is always heartwarming.
0:20 "what you learn"
0:57 *The Test*
Jajajaja
Congratulations, you made me breathe hard out my nose. That was funny!
ahahah yes
😂😂
Best comment
He's playing an instrument made of people
Well put Faith
Big deal, I've been playing my skin flute since I was 4.
***** As one of the very few men large enough to do it, I'm comfortable agreeing with this statement.
Actually, human voice was always an instrument. Just ask any composer ;)
the vocal cords is the best instrument. :)
Bro created a whole jazz masterpiece with just jumping and crowd skill, *crazy*
This is one of those videos that the "Like" button isn't enough, this video deserves an "everybody needs to watch this" button.
If aliens ever land here in front of the world, I hope they send him to communicate. They might just spare us.
Lololol you made me smile. Thanks
For sure man! Good point.
That’s literally “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”
totally
I think that actually, sort of, happened. At least it happened in the fictional world called Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Which I think should've been called "Interstellar Jam Session".
I get the chills everytime I watch this.
+Dan Wiberg same here the first time i watched i had a tear roll out no joke. humans are amazing. we take our connection for granted.
+Danielle Eder
what are you talking about? what connection? the knowing of the pentatonic scale. read more, and forget the paranormal, frequency gaia thing.
+zodiacmx preach.
hated how through the wormhole promoted that global consciousness crap
+zodiacmx Well, there is, empirically speaking, nothing that is not connected, or more accurately there is nothing that is not the same thing as every other thing in existence. We know for a fact that differentiation is a psychological trick that helps certain organisms survive. I feel you should read a bit more about quantum physics.
+Dan Wiberg and chills also bring tears...stunned into joyous silence.
He really turned that whole crowd into an instrument
I love this so much, I find myself back here often to hear his collective song. There's no getting away from feeling like a connected people when you hear people from India, Africa, Europe, the Americas, we can all sing this together because it's in our core-being as humans.
Well said. The Pentatonic scale is truly the resonance of the human soul.
I watched it for class but I still return and smile just as wide each time.
Single handedly proved why every voice is important in more ways than one. Salute
Amen
Beautiful
I get the chills everytime I watch this.
This made me smile. That was pure beautiful.
Sameeee
😂😂😂
CHILLS YESSS
I don't understand why I was in tears right after he finished! Marvellous!
That's what she said
@@BrandonAB you win the internet today
@@BrandonABlol
This somehow restores faith in humanity for me
A great lesson using very few words...the indication of a great teacher.
2:02 and 2:22 How do the crowd know here what note to sing? Pentatonic scale is so natural, it's like an eternal knowledge. Marvelous
I have read somewhere once before, that the reason that the number five, and by extension 10 are so ingrained in the human psyche, is because of the fact that humans have 5 digits per hand. Therefore 10 digits
Think about how many important concepts or objects or constructs in human psychology are based upon the numbers 5 and 10
Normal numeric notation is in base 10
10 commandments
10 most wanted lists.
The 5 pointed star in modern design (yes it is derived from the movement of Venus in the night sky) .
Because of our 5 digits per hand and.10 digits in total, humans have developed a natural attraction and inclination to psychological concepts based on the numbers 5 and 10.
I imagine that the pentatonic scale is one more concept that is based on the number 5 that we humans are just naturally "wired" (for lack of a better term) to understand.
The guy just show how powerful art is to compliment science.
This was the first video I had ever bothered to save on UA-cam. I have come back to this at-least once in six months over the past decade, and yet, every-time I play/watch it, it moves something inside of me, something very crude and honest. Amazing!
I don't know why but i m smiling continuously after watching this... :)
What Genius!! He makes it look so easy
no
He just showed everyone how music connects each and every one of us on a very fundamental level...and im impressed.
I love seeing artists with genuine appreciation and passion for their creative process. This was beautiful.
Still my favourite video on the Internet :)
+KunamaElgar pretty much yeah
Mine too!!!!!!!!!
Mine too. And it’s not even close.
Top 5 easy
McFerrin is truly a remarkable person, both musically and individually.
One of my all time favorites, too. Music is universal, some music is REALLY universal.
Melts my heart even more than the first time I saw this.
Watched this dozens of times and it never stops amazing me.
This means something. It is important.
WolfCoder it means that we all have music inside of us, music is everything, and everything is music
@Tyler Colby wut
Lol i see you. We just need the hand motions 😁
@@AltairCreedZ i couldnt agree more
Tyler Colby I’ll sell you one if you can sing me a song☺️
McFerrin is a brilliant musician. I like it that he also makes the point that this routine works no matter where he goes. Music is a universal human trait.
Through endless UA-cam videos, you stumble upon such brilliance. Thankyou Gods for filling me with music and happiness.
02:50
"If you're looking for a job in neuroscience . . . "
"Nah, don't want to take the pay cut!"
Neuroscientist here speaking: Me 2009, yeah cool do it. me 2019, oh hells no, don't do it.
The pentatonic scale is definitely one of the most useful things a musician has to learn and master if he wants a chance at being a professional.
AC/DC has based their entire career on it :-)
apply cold watern on the burned area ;)
Because that's totally the point of this video.
+NuclearGrizzly and Pentatonix is literally named after it!
you clever fuck
I keep rewatching this. There's an overwhelming feeling of harmony here. The very essence of life itself.
Still gives me chills every time.
I would have loved to have been apart of this crowd! It's the best feeling of unity there is through music.
This made me cry and I'm not 100% sure why. I have a lot of feelings about this video.
It's sublime the world we live in. So perfectly in-tune with itself. Everything is always balanced from the same fundamental principles everywhere, all the time.
why am i crying
Music and unity are very powerful!
It blows my mind every time
No it didn't
I love this!! As a 6th grade teacher I find this a beautiful way to interract with my students and as excersise before the lessons start or after the lessons. Beautiful and powerful way to impress music this way. 😍❤
It is lovely to hear people playing
This has been and always be my favorite video of all time,simply magical. We are united and can sing as one. Makes a great argument for collective memories.
There is a collective intelligence that we tap into when we act together. It's rather elemental and instinctive, and easy to manipulate, but when it really gets going it can take an act of God to stop it.
I wish they included the conversion before and after. Two of the others had a dry argument about cultural musical inclinations disrupting each other. Then he starts this.
And afterwards they tried to bend his demonstration to prove their points. :(
Then I'm really glad they didn't. Let his demonstration be what gets the attention.
You can see the whole discussion....the video tells you the title of it.
Brandon Pack I hate scientists. They act like they are smarter than anyone but it was always musicians that truly know it all from the start, most of scientists are mentally blind with circumcised heart. They are really dumb fuck
+GUN hee Kim Better stop availing yourself of every device and advantage conferred upon you by science, then. Complaining about scientists on your phone or computer or whatever you used is the height of fucking idiocy.
Are you trolling or just dont know that youre talking just like those scientists that you speak of?
This video basically shows how ingrained the pentatonic scale is in our minds, even if most of the audience in this video don't know what that is. There's no leading tones so there's no tension notes, making every note feel... right. It transcends cultures and languages.
Our minds? I don't know - I think it's primal, an embodied thing that has an effect on our mind, just as our mind has an effect on our physicality
Total goosebumps. Did you see him in the Olympics, in which he had 80,000 spectators singing. Simply amazing.
Every few months I come back to this. It brings tears to my eyes everytime.
Music and Math, the true Universal Languages.
+DeadlyDanDaMan actually music is more or less a mathematical construction
+Andrea Roll noo just because you can explain it with math doesn't make math the constructor. By what you're saying everything is a mathematical construction. Everything can be explained with math because math is based on the fundamental consistencies that govern our reality. Even new discovery's will be converted to math or even found through math but math constructs nothing, only documents it.
+MrChaluliss Nothing is constructed by math at a fundamental level. Everything that is is a result of physics. Math is our tool to describe physics.
Meh. Physics is just applied mathematics. ESPECIALLY in modern physics, the mathematical constructions are actually the basis of our physics.
Music is mathematics
YOOOOOOOOOOO My physics teacher showed this during his class!! I wasn't expecting to be as blown away as I was!! This is so cool and so interesting!!
Hats off to your physics teacher! Now, how she/he presented it to you? Sound waves? Frecuencies?
@@AlejandroIrausquin it was almost a year ago so my memory is hazy but I'm pretty sure we were learning about frequencies and he came with this vid to show us :))
I think it is very interesting that Bobby McFerrin was able to have the crowd play the notes he said perfectly
My heart needed the connection>destruction reminder, I wasn't expecting tears of Hope and joy today 💝. Thank you Bobby McFerrin
there is something magical and divine about music. i wish more people were taught from a young age to play and enjoy music. at least to understand and respect it for what it is. thanks for showing me this is possible im going to use this bit to show people how crazy music is
The thought process that goes into that, the idea of actually wanting your audience to engage and do, to make the subject the focus and give away centre stage.
Legend of a man.
This man is *one of the most amazing talents that the world has ever known!*
I would love to see him in concert!
Indeed, given just the first two middle notes, the audience instinctively and almost unanimously figured out the others and expanded the scale along the pentatonic line. Either the pentatonic scale is indeed a very natural scale or the people has somehow got used to it.
he gave them three notes, actually. the lower A.
He actually very cleverly gave them the fourth without them realizing it. At around 1:30, while he's doing a harmony on top of the audience, he has them move up to a Re (2nd degree) while his melody drops down to a Sol (5th degree below them) and he holds it for quite a long time. In this way, he primes the audience with that note, so when he jumps down there for them to sing it (at 1:55) they've already heard it in his melody, and instinctively know what to do.
Which came first: nature, or the scale?
I believe it maybe part of the equation of nature....but I don't know what I'm talking about sometimes..
If you do a 0, 1 Fibonnacci sequence starting on Do, you will get all the notes in the pentatonic scale by the time you reach the 8th number in the sequence. The numbers here would refer to the intervals from Do. (We exclude zero here.) So my theory is that the pentatonic scale is based on the Golden ratio. We see the Golden ratio in nature all the time, so it makes sense that it would appear in music too.
the most amazing demonstration of the power of music I have ever seen.
Still one of my fave Bobby moments. Fun to watch it again, and of course, sing along. ❤❤
I've watched this occasionally, and every time I'm still blown away!
I saw this guy in a live performance in LA. Truly a musical genius without compare.
Wow I would also love to see him live
@@amenamumanahafangideh8502
He was the ONLY performer I've ever seen in my entire life that when the audience was leaving, I saw everyone smiling, laughing, and singing, "Be happy..." I've never witnessed anything like that before, before or since.
Also, I'd never heard of McFerrin before, so when I only saw a single microphone on the stage the Wiltern Theater in LA, I wondered to my friend, "Where's the band??" and he said, "He doesn't need one." His entire body was the band, and what a band it was.
Wow great
Can we get to talk more on Gmail if you don't mind?
This is so wonderful on so many different levels. first it's just so fascinating that humans "get" that scale. Second, the audience playing off of eachother... this group mentality thing (there might be a handful of people that aren't getting parts of it, but they feed off the rest of the audience until it's united). Many other reasons this is fascinating, but lastly: It's just so joyous. It's music, and it's an audience participating with a great musician. With all the bullshit in the world, this is so wonderful. And important. Good job Bobby McFerrin.
Think of a random number between 1 and 10.
95% chance you thought of 7.
Things like this are literally hard-wired into us; and not just us, many mammalian species. We can't ask what scale an elephant prefers, but they do seem to enjoy piano compositions! (There's a channel dedicated to this, from Thailand, on UA-cam. Highly recommend. It's absolutely awe-inspiring to see another intelligent animal moved by music.)
Had this reaction too, about the magic of the crowd. When it went from “okay this is weird but let’s humor this guy” to (when he started a solo line) “wait, we’re a huge choir singing backup to Bobby McFerrin”-so cool!
I've watched this countless times, I learn something new about music almost every time.
Every now and then I come back to this video and it makes me happy
so you're saying you don't worry
I must say, this is one of the most beautiful videos I ever watch
Just here basking in the musical genius. This is a man who found his purpose. Amēn
I hadn't seen this video in so long I completely forgot about it but I'm so happy I got lost on UA-cam again. It brought me the same joy and surprise as it did back then, this is brilliant !
I have never seen a more beautiful display of knowledge in the music science. This melody is so beautiful.
What I love about this is how the audience just knew where they were on the scale as he wasn't always standing in the same place.
Hadn't seen this video in years. And now: happy tears rolling down my face. Magnificent.
Absolutely beautiful and brilliant! I'm sitting here, watching this at home - and applauding!!
This made me smile. That was pure beautiful.
He's playing an instrument made of people
The man is a genius...and he does what he loves. What a brilliant combination. :)
This ages like a fine wine. Gorgeous footage haha.
Once in a while I come back to this. Awesome.
I can't like this enough. It makes me feel happy inside.