Music

Where words fail music speaks

Our Music curriculum intends to:

Unlock musical potential in every young person to be creative and curious about music.

Challenge pupils to think musically, enabling them to acquire and develop a deep understanding of how music works.

Develop an appreciation of music styles and cultures, over time.

Why Learn Music?

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education will engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress they develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.

Music is constantly evolving, inspiring creativity and expression in a way that no other subject can. Our course offers pupils the chance to study a wide range of musical genres, with more opportunities for practical learning.Music is constantly evolving, inspiring creativity and expression in a way that no other subject can. Our course offers pupils the chance to study a wide range of musical genres, with more opportunities for practical learning.

Music development plan summary

Planned around half-termly topics, the curriculum provides pupils with the opportunity to learn subject-specific knowledge and understanding and explore links across subject areas.

Additional to topics, our curriculum includes discrete teaching in Music subject specialists from Year 3. Year 3 pupils will receive an instrument for the year to practice on and are encouraged to support their in class learning with additional peripatetic lessons and home learning.

Key stage 1 course content

Pupils will be taught to:

Use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes.
Play tuned and untuned instruments musically.
Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music.
Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music-

Planned around half-termly topics, the curriculum provides pupils with the opportunity to learn subject-specific knowledge and understanding and explore links across subject areas.

Key stage 2 course content

Pupils will be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They will be taught to develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.

Pupils will be taught to:

Play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression.
Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music.
Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory.
Use and understand staff and other musical notations.
Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians.
Develop an understanding of the history of music.

Long Term Plan:

Music

Course Content:

In Year 7 pupils explore units of enquiry:

Building Bricks – exploring the Elements of Music creating variations on Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
Keyboard Skills - exploring effective keyboards skills, reading staff notation, sharps, flats and chords.
Choir Skills – exploring the song ‘Touch the Sky’ for the Cathedral Carol Concert.
I’ve Got Rhythm - exploring pulse, beat, rhythm, ostinato and note durations.
Form and Structure – exploring musical structures, question and answer phrases, binary, ternary and rondo form.
Sonority City – exploring instruments of the orchestra, the conductor, beating time and ensemble performance.
Folk Music – exploring folk tradition, harmony and accompaniment, drone, ostinato and chord patterns.

In Year 8 pupils explore units of enquiry:

Hooks and Riffs - exploring repeated musical patterns through Eurhythmics' ‘Sweet Dreams’ and Ravel’s ‘Bolero’.
Offbeat --exploring Reggae, syncopation, texture, chords, reggae lyrics and arrangements.
Variations – exploring ways to develop ideas through changing and adding to a theme using ground bass variations.
All that Jazz – exploring chord and chord patterns, improvisation, the 12-bar blues, blues scale, swing and big band jazz.
All about that Bass – exploring bass clef reading and notation, bass instruments, bass lines, riffs, walking bass and pedals.
Saharan Sounds – exploring African singing and drumming, polyrhythms, syncopation, call and response, cyclic rhythms and grid notation.

Course Skills

Listening and Analysing: pupils listen to a range of music, identifying dimensions and devices and comparing music.

Composing: pupils participate in practical activities and collaborate with others in pairs and group ensembles.

Exploring and Rehearsing: Pupils explore practical music-making and refine musical items to include dimensions.

Performing: Pupils perform and communicate musical intentions to peers, the class or their teacher. They share vocal, percussive or instrumental skills, showing understanding of genre or tradition.

Evaluating: Pupils Identify and reflect upon strengths and improvements and share responses. (We refer to this as Strength – Improvement – Response or SIR).

Extra-curricular learning:

We offer the largest range of musical opportunities of any school in Hampshire with a significant number of pupils participating in extra-curricular music. In Year 7 all pupils sing together at Winchester Cathedral for our popular Christmas concert and many participate with more established musicians as they develop their skills.

During Year 9 pupils will be given the opportunity to consider in greater depth the practical and theoretical aspects of this wonderful subject so that in Year 10 they can then begin the GCSE syllabus.

Course content:

Pupils study the three key areas: musical listening and appraising; performance both solo and ensemble; composing.
Pupils will study key areas of music including Music for stage, Song writing, Samba and Afro-fusion. Through this pupils will develop skills of musical analysis using subject specific language and a basic knowledge of music theory.
The course includes regular opportunities to perform on their main study (instrument or voice) as well accessing music technology, new instruments and developing keyboard and percussion skills.
Composition tasks will be completed both individually and in groups, sometimes using music technology. Pupils will spend time developing the use of a variety of devices to develop musical ideas to fit both a genre and a musical structure.

Assessment:

The course contains an assessment at the end of each term (or genre studied). This will include a mix of assessed performances (both ensemble and solo), assessed compositions (live performance or realised using music technology) and listening and appraising questions.

There will also be an individual composition in the summer term based on a set brief and a performance on their main study.This mirrors the GCSE composing and performance-controlled assessment requirements.

Course content (skills):

Pupils study the three key areas: musical analysis; performance both solo and ensemble; arranging and composing.
Pupils will study a variety of musical genres from Jazz, dance music, film music and a selection of world music. Through this work pupils will develop skills of music analysis using musical language and a basic knowledge of music theory.
The course includes regular opportunities to perform on their main study (instrument or voice) as well trying new instruments and developing existing keyboard and percussion skills from KS3.
Composition tasks will be completed both individually and in groups. Pupils will spend time developing the use of a variety of compositional devices to develop musical ideas to fit both a genre and a musical structure.

Course content (genres):

Jazz
Song writing (Pop)
Reggae
Dance music
My instrument

Assessment:

The course contains an assessment at the end of each term (or genre studied). This will include assessed performances (both ensemble and solo), assessed compositions (live performance or realised using music technology) and analysis questions.
There will also be an individual composition in the summer term based on a set brief and a performance on their main study.

Home Learning:

This is set weekly and ranges from research style activities, written tasks, composing preparation, practice both individual and as an ensemble that consolidates and extends learning in the classroom.

Pupils in addition to this home learning are expected to participate in an ensemble weekly either in or out of school. Weekly practice as part of their instrument lessons is also an expectation and will continue through the GCSE course in Years 10 and 11 if chosen.

Exam Board: OCR – J536B