Year 3 - Music
Improvising a major pentatonic melody
Compose and Create: major pentatonic melodies
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
Pupils discover the power and versatility of the pentatonic scale. Pupils learn that pentatonic music is found around the world and sing pentatonic songs from every continent. A three-line simplified stave is used for notation. Pupils play and compose pentatonic melodies on tuned percussion.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to create stylistic improvisations using the major pentatonic scale and dotted rhythms (Ta-mi).
Key Notes
- Improvising is creating music in the moment, alone or with others.
- We can improvise actions to songs, new lyrics and responses, rhythms and melodies.
- Improvising allows us to freely explore and try out musical ideas, and to respond to these in the moment.
- The notes of the major pentatonic scale are do, re, mi, so, la.
- Ta-mi is a one-beat dotted pattern that consisting of a longer duration note followed by a shorter duration note.
Vocabulary To Learn
- folk song: a song that originates from a particular country, culture or people that is usually passed down orally
- note: a single sound in music
- major pentatonic scale: the five tones, do, re, mi, so and la arranged in an ascending or descending order
- improvise: to create music in the moment, using the voice or instruments, alone or with others
- melody: a combination of notes to make a memorable tune
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Improvising is music created solely on the spot.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Improvising is creating music in the moment, alone or with others. We can improvise actions to songs, new lyrics and responses, rhythms and melodies.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'folk song'
a song that originates from a particular country, culture or people that is usually passed down orally.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Improvising is music created solely on the spot. Correction: Musicians might not know exactly what they are going to do, but they are building on and working from a bank of known ideas and motifs that they can draw upon, use and adapt.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 3 Music guide library.