Biwa music is based on a pentatonic scale (sometimes referred to as a five-tone or five-note scale), meaning that each octave contains five notes.

Much folk and art music focuses on a pentatonic, or five-note scale, including Beijing Opera, the folk music of Hungary, and the musical traditions of Japan.

The song melody uses four notes of the five-note pentatonic scale, first rising, then falling.

Its sound, relying on a tranquil five-note scale, evokes a pure, quiet mood.

The gamelan uses a five-note scale as opposed to the seven-note western scale.

It is based primarily on two five-note musical scales with auxiliary tones, and employs a third scale that combines the other two.

In the hands of a skillful player, a full five-note pentatonic scale could be drawn from the simple instrument.

Their album Pentatonica (2007) transcends genre limitations in a recording based on the five-note pentatonic scale.

Strong traces of China, Japan and India are heard in the instruments and in the five-note melodic scales.

Ms. Traore sang in Bamanan, the language she grew up speaking in southern Mali, and her melody lines used traditional five-note scales.