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Chris Higgins
Bobby McFerrin Makes a Keyboard…Out of People
by Chris Higgins - November 19, 2009 - 2:50 PM

On June 12, 2009, vocalist Bobby McFerrin participated in a panel discussion called “Notes & Neurons: In Search of a Common Chorus” at the World Science Festival. As part of the discussion, he performed an amazing feat — he trained an audience, in mere seconds, to become a sort of human keyboard. In the video below, McFerrin points to the floor, sings a note, then makes the audience sing it. He steps to one side and sings the next note, and again, the audience sings it. The audience proceeds to sing notes as a sort of gigantic human keyboard/chorus as McFerrin jumps back and forth on stage.

McFerrin then says: “Now, what’s interesting to me about that is, regardless of where I am — anywhere — every audience gets that. It’s just that the pentatonic scale, for some reason….” One of the scientists on the panel raises the question: “Just to phrase the question scientifically, Larry, what the hell just happened here?” Just watch this. It’s neat and it’s short:

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

For the entire program (including “what this has to do with science”), check out the Notes & Neurons site, which has a five-part video series showing the full discussion. Note: Part Four has the bit with McFerrin’s pentatonic scale demonstration and the subsequent discussion.

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Comments (6)

  1. so fun!

    posted by Mangesh on 11-19-2009 at 4:04 pm

  2. i was singing along myself!

    posted by the creature on 11-19-2009 at 5:32 pm

  3. I can’t wait to go home and see this video. Bobby McFerrin is greatly underappreciated. Several years ago, my local paper wrote a review of a show he did, conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It sounded so wonderful that my parents and I went to see his show that night. We were absolutely blown away. He conducted several traditional pieces, then took requests from the audience (not something you see often with an orchestra). He also performed several things on his own, including The Wizard of Oz using only his voice and body. During his solo work, we could see members of the orchestra watching from the wings. They seemed to be enjoying him as much as we were. I always wanted to try to get to St. Paul to see him conducting the orchestra there but it never worked out. I’m going to continue to watch for his performances in the area, though. He is inspiring.

    posted by Barbara on 11-19-2009 at 6:06 pm

  4. How cool! I have to admit I had no idea that Bobby had so much musical talent – “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” didn’t really do him justice. Thanks for sharing!

    posted by Lynley on 11-19-2009 at 11:42 pm

  5. So cool. The pentatonic scale is built on notes that occur naturally in the harmonic series… which is essentially defined by the laws of physics… how air molecules vibrate and resonate. So the audience “guessing” which notes are next comes from the fact that every sound we hear has built in harmonic content that our ears get accustomed to. As long as a starting pitch is given (as Bobby McFerrin does at the beginning of the demo), our ears naturally grab the “other” notes and expect them. Leonard Bernstein had a great lecture on this subject in his Harvard lectures.

    posted by Jeff on 11-20-2009 at 1:28 pm

  6. Awe. Some.

    posted by Steve from San Diego on 11-20-2009 at 6:53 pm

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