Pentatonic musical instruments for children: memorable, harmonious and easy to play

• 02 Aug 2019
• Isabelle Keck

In his hit "Billie Jean" is it also due the pentatonic, that it became an unforgettable catchy tune.

Many other children's songs, as well as folk songs, contain phrases of pentatonic music. Some music historians also claim,that pentatonic was the nucleus of melodic music.

Also in the music pedagogy pentatonic music and instruments are used, because they cause, so to say, no failures experiences, as pieces are easy to learn and play and the sound sequences always sound harmonious.

Carl Orff also composed pentatonic children songs

In the twentieth century, Carl Orff developed his own musical instrumentation for children for pentatonic improvisation and a corresponding repertoire, including the playbook for xylophone.

Not only to introduce children to the inner and outer sound worlds of music, but also to adults, who always hit the right note: with pentatonic instruments, direct and immediate access to one's own rhythm and sound vibration opens up as an entry into free music.

History and application of pentatonic

The pentatonic is characteristic of East Asian music and spread throughout Asia from India to Japan. It probably goes back to a common origin, but today can no longer be tracked exactly.

However, pentatonic music is also used in rock music and is usually one of the first scales, that a music student learns, because it is very easy to "understand". The Mollpentatonik also forms the basis for the Blues scale.