Songs Based on the Do Pentatonic Scale (d r m s l)
d r m s l d’ m’ s’ l’
r, m, s, l, d r m s
m, s, l, d r m s l
- Ridin’ of a Goat, Leadin’ of a Sheep
- Shake Them ‘Simmons Down
- Snake Baked a Hoecake
- Swannanoa Town
- Te Uru
- Tennessee
- There Was a Man and He was Mad
- There’s a Hole in the Bucket
- This Old Hammer
- Trot Old Joe
- Wake Me
- Walk and Stop
- Wáng lǎo xiān sheng yǒu kuài de
- What Makes the Wild Cat Wild
- Xtoles
- You Turn for Sugar and Tea
- Jolly Old St. Nicholas
- Just From the Kitchen
- La poulette grise
- Levee Moan
- Little Sally Walker (sitting on a saucer)
- Mama Don’t ‘Low
- Morning Song (Yokut Tachi)
- Oh Won’t You Sit Down
- Old Brass Wagon
- Old McDonald
- One Two Three O’Leary
- Pallet on the Floor
- Peace Like a River
- Peep Squirrel
- Purple Stew
- Ridin’ of a Goat, Leadin’ of a Sheep
l, d r m s l d’ r’
m, s, l, d r m (minor)
m, l, d r m (minor)
m, s, l, d r m s (minor)
s, l, d r m s (minor)
s, l, d r m s l (minor)
s, l, d r m s l d’ (minor)
l, d r m s (minor)
l, d r m s l d’ (minor)
Visuals
(See downloads at bottom of page.)
Other Visuals / Worksheets / Assessments
(Available on song page. Click the image to access.)
See also
YouTube
or purchase here (printables only)
- Printable & Digital Visuals, Worksheet / Assessment
18 thoughts on “Pentatonic Songs”
Thanks for putting so much thought into organizing your songs! I am putting together some resources for a student teacher…coming here was SO much easier than pulling from a million different books! Thanks!!
Oh, I’m so glad to hear that!
Beth, I’m currently working in Mumbai, India without many of my resources. This is helping me model pentatonic songs. A million thanks to you for putting this together! Love your blog!
Hi, I’m working with some kids in Ethiopia. The pentatonic scale is used in all their folk songs. This is a lovely collection! Thank you for your hard work!
Oh my gosh, I just had so much fun going through these pieces of music! I’ve honestly never been that keen on recorders or orff… but some of these are so much fun, and have such great, applicable material to our school system’s incredibly intense curriculum, I just love it!
Thanks for the great song resources – I am studying Music Therapy and these will be so helpful
I was looking for a new so,la, mi song and stumbled across your web page. Thank you so much! I now have the so, la , mi song I need as well as some different pentatonic songs with my target rhythm elements in them.
Awesome! Great to hear that!
Are all of these songs on the website public domain? Can I use them for concert performances for example?
Yes, all of these songs are in the public domain.
Beth this is really great- for cansurvivors making music is part of healing, and I have a thumb piano tuned to a pentatonic scale- it would be wonderful for us on http://www.cansurviving.com if you could register and post your link on the Mind and Spirit section? Wth a little sentence maybe about the deep importance of these old folk tunes? We’d love to have you on thesite- your link was passed on to me by a musical friend- we both used to use Nordoff Robbins songs in classrooms…hope to see you on our international group built site…
Thanks! I’ll look into it!
Right!
Thank you so much for this fantastic collection of songs ! Perfect to use with my pentatonic harp. Manymanymanymany thanks this was exactly what I needed !
You are welcome! I am glad you find this list helpful! 🙂
This is a brilliant resource for me. I play a chalumeau (like a recorder but with a clarinet mouthpiece) which has a range from C4 to D5 … an octave plus a note. These pentatonic tunes suit the range perfectly. I’m really grateful to you for putting this list together.
Do you have any pentatonic songs which do not have ‘do’ as the home note eg Skye Boat song – so home note. I’m looking for re mi and la home note songs.
Many thanks, Jane
Jane, you could look through the minor / modal songs on this page: https://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2012/12/minor-modal-songs.html
Good luck!