‘Pentatonic’ in music indicates a set of 5 notes. A pentatonic scale is made up of 5 notes that match the first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth steps of a standard ‘major’ scale:
Do – Re – Fa – So – la
This means we miss out the third and seventh steps (Mi and Ti).
An easy way to explore these notes are to use the black notes on a piano keyboard:
We can see a pattern. These keys are grouped in pairs (2 together) or threes (three together).
By numbering them we can start to explore their sound:
- Can you find all the ones? The twos? The fives?
- What tune starts like this: 3 3 3 1 2 2 1? Can you work out the rest?
Minecraft uses this set of notes for the game! Try this: 5 4 2 3 5 4 2 1 (repeat).
Try it on the higher keys. Which do you prefer? Can you play it at the same time as another person?
Try playing along with a video:
Old MacDonald:
3 3 3 1 2 2 1 5 5 4 4 3
3 3 3 1 2 2 1 5 5 4 4 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 1 2 2 1 5 5 4 4 3