Year 3 - Music
Playing a dotted rhythm 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 sing and play a major pentatonic melody that uses dotted rhythms (Ta-mi).
Key Notes
- The notes of the major pentatonic scale can be used to form melodies in folk songs.
- The notes of the major pentatonic scale are do, re, mi, so, la.
- Ta-mi is a one-beat rhythm pattern consisting of a longer duration note followed by a shorter duration note.
- The Ta-mi rhythm pattern has a slight galloping feel to it.
Vocabulary To Learn
- rhythm: the pattern of sounds and silences that we play and sing
- pitched percussion: an instrument that can play musical notes of one or more pitch when we strike it, for example, a glockenspiel
- major pentatonic scale: the five tones, do, re, mi, so and la arranged in an ascending or descending order
- melody: a combination of notes to make a memorable tune
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Ta-di and Ta-mi are the same because they both have two notes in one beat.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
The notes of the major pentatonic scale can be used to form melodies in folk songs. The notes of the major pentatonic scale are do, re, mi, so, la.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'rhythm'
the pattern of sounds and silences that we play and sing.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Ta-di and Ta-mi are the same because they both have two notes in one beat. Correction: With the Ta-di rhythm both notes divide the beat equally in half. With Ta-mi, the notes are not distributed equally - the first is longer (¾ of a beat) and the second is shorter (¼ of a beat).
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 3 Music guide library.