Myths about teaching can hold you back
- Year 6
Improvisation and the minor pentatonic scale
I can play the minor pentatonic scale and know this scale can be used as the basis for jazz improvisation.
- Year 6
Improvisation and the minor pentatonic scale
I can play the minor pentatonic scale and know this scale can be used as the basis for jazz improvisation.
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- The minor pentatonic scale is a scale often used in musical genres such as jazz and Blues.
- The minor pentatonic scale is made up of five notes and has a different tonality to the major pentatonic scale.
- The minor pentatonic scale uses la, do, re, mi, so. In the D minor pentatonic scale this is D, F, G, A, C.
- Improvisation is creative, in-the-moment musical composition.
Keywords
Minor pentatonic scale - the five tones, la, do, re, mi and so arranged in an ascending or descending order
Jazz - a musical genre that emerged from African-American communities in New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterised by improvisation
Improvisation - creative, in-the-moment musical composition
Genre - music belonging to a shared tradition or style
Common misconception
All music is worked out beforehand and can’t be made up on the spot.
Improvisation is the spontaneous creation of musical melodies and rhythms during a live performance. These musical ideas are made up on the spot and not written down so it is very hard to exactly recreate them a second time.
To help you plan your year 6 music lesson on: Improvisation and the minor pentatonic scale, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 6 music lesson on: Improvisation and the minor pentatonic scale, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 music lessons from the Compose and rehearse: improvising with the minor pentatonic scale unit, dive into the full primary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
Pitched percussion with the notes D, F, G, A, C, ideally one-between-two.
Licence
Lesson video
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