MUSIC

The new Music course for Years 7 and 8 has six components, with half of a term allocated to each one. 

In Year 7 pupils study Key Skills, Jazz, Instruments of the Orchestra, Chords and Arranging, Keyboard and Listening, African Music. 

For Year 8 the components are:Key Skills, Chords and Arranging, Jazz, Indian Music, Keyboard Performance and Listening, Reggae.  Working both on their own and in groups, they learn about melody, rhythm and basic musical vocabulary.  They experience composing and performing, first by using their voices and a selection of percussion, then by playing the keyboard using chords and improvisation. They make arrangements from Western musical styles, practise jazz and Indian melodies and produce an advertising jingle. The study of jazz introduces a historical context, while the Indian component promotes the understanding of music from a different culture.  Assessment takes place through group and individual performances, written and listening tests, and evaluations produced by the pupils themselves.

In Year 9, pupils spend the first term studying Theme & Variation and Ground Bass.  They are now involved in a new national initiative called “Musical Futures”.  This is a project designed to promote independent learning through performance.  Pupils take part in four tasks.  First, they form groups and choose a song they want to perform.  They then learn the song by listening to its constituent parts and playing what they hear.  The teacher is a facilitator whose role it is to provide instruments and help when needed.  Final performances are recorded and evaluated.  This model is then repeated three more times, but each time the focus is different: in the second task the teacher gives each group the same piece of music, in the third task pupils return to a piece of their choice, and in the final task they use classical music.  Further details can be obtained from the project’s website, www.musicalfutures.org.