Notating a dotted rhythm major pentatonic melody
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Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can sing, play, read and notate a major pentatonic melody that uses dotted rhythms (Ta-mi).
Key learning points
- Hand signs can help us hear, feel and understand the melodic shape of a song.
- Music can be notated to be shared and remembered for another day
- Stick notation is one way that music can be notated. There are many more ways still.
- We can decode the major pentatonic folk songs we learn and write these using stick notation.
- Stick notation can help us to read rhythms and melodies quickly and easily.
Keywords
Pitch - how high or low a note is
Major pentatonic scale - the five tones, do, re, mi, so and la arranged in an ascending or descending order
Phrase - a musical thought, like a sentence in a story
Rhythm - the pattern of sounds and silences that we play and sing
Stick notation - a way of writing music down
Common misconception
Ta-di and Ta-mi are the same because they both have two notes in one beat.
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).
Teacher tip
Do not underestimate the difficulty in drawing stick notation accurately and neatly. For an accurate performance, neat notation is extremely helpful as we tend to read the space between notes in music. Allow plenty of time for pupils to practise drawing notation.
Equipment
pitched percussion instruments, ideally one each or one-between two e.g. xylophones, glockenspiels or chime bars with the notes C, D, E, G, A.
Licence
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