We began our new unit of music ‘Global Pentatonics’ by warming up our voices with a call-and-response song that uses the pentatonic scale G-A-B-D-E.
After discussing what a pentatonic scale is, we listened to a number of pieces of music that contain elements of a pentatonic scale (Skye boat song, Om Namah Shivaya, Busy weaving, Desert blues). We discussed each piece, listening to information about the background behind it and then compared the musical features of each piece.
We then used glockenspiels to identify the pentatonic scale C-D-E-G-A and practised playing these notes as a scale ascending and then descending. We tried hard to play in time with the rest of our crew.