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Lesson 3 of 6
  • Year 3

Playing a dotted rhythm major pentatonic melody

I can sing and play a major pentatonic melody that uses dotted rhythms (Ta-mi).

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View unit
Lesson 3 of 6
New
New
  • Year 3

Playing a dotted rhythm major pentatonic melody

I can sing and play a major pentatonic melody that uses dotted rhythms (Ta-mi).

Download all

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. The notes of the major pentatonic scale can be used to form melodies in folk songs.
  2. The notes of the major pentatonic scale are do, re, mi, so, la.
  3. Ta-mi is a one-beat rhythm pattern consisting of a longer duration note followed by a shorter duration note.
  4. The Ta-mi rhythm pattern has a slight galloping feel to it.

Keywords

  • 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 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).


To help you plan your year 3 music lesson on: Playing a dotted rhythm major pentatonic melody, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Understanding the maths behind a rhythm doesn’t guarantee a pupil’s ability to perform the rhythm accurately. If pupils have had many opportunities to practise Ta and Ta-di then they are more likely to be able to grasp Ta-mi as they will feel and understand where the middle of the beat lies.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Pitched percussion instruments that have the notes C, D, E, G and A. One-between-two would work well.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
Why is it important to be able to play a steady beat?

An image in a quiz
So we can choose a suitable instrument.
So we can work out how loud we need to play.
Correct answer: So we can play and sing successfully together.

Q2.
A instrument is one played by striking, shaking or scraping.

Correct Answer: percussion, Percussion

Q3.
Which statement is true?

Notation is the only way to learn and remember new music.
Correct answer: Notation can help us to learn and remember new music.
We can only learn new music by reading notation.

Q4.
Order the notes of the major pentatonic scale, from lowest to highest.

1 - do
2 - re
3 - mi
4 - so
5 - la

Assessment exit quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
How many notes are there in a pentatonic scale?

Correct Answer: five, 5, Five

Q2.
What do we call this rhythm?

An image in a quiz
Taka
Correct answer: Ta-mi
Ta-di

Q3.
True or false? Ta-di and Ta-mi are the same rhythms.

Correct Answer: false, False, untrue, Untrue

Q4.
List the notes of the major pentatonic scale in descending order (highest to lowest).

1 - la
2 - so
3 - mi
4 - re
5 - do