Music

Curriculum Statement

The Music department is committed to giving students the broadest experience of music possible. Through a rich in skills and diverse curriculum, we aim to ignite curiosity and channel creativity, as well as develop the students’ self-confidence and perseverance. The three main skills of Performing, Composing and Listening & Appraising, are embedded in every scheme of learning, and through these the students are given the opportunity to be ambitious and achieve their musical potential. 

 

KS3

The schemes of work across all 3 years of KS3 have been sequenced to give students the opportunity to study many different styles of music from Baroque Ground Bass to Blues to Minimalism. The Musical Elements, Composing Skills, Performing Skills, Programme Music and Song Writing, are all developed as students move through the Key Stage, from year 7 into years 8 and 9. The range of topics is taken from the requirements at GCSE which subsequently allows students to transition more seamlessly into KS4.

 

Year 7

Terms 1 & 2 begin with an ‘Introduction to the Musical Elements’, introducing the key building blocks of music which are the foundation for learning throughout all three key stages. Within this topic, the students begin learning the keyboard and explore the different sections of the orchestra. The development of singing also starts in the first term of Year 7, where students begin by singing as part of an ensemble during class lessons. This foundational experience helps them understand how to use their voice, the basics of vocal harmony and group performance.

Terms 3 & 4 in each year of KS3 is a composing skills topic which begins in year 7 with the Waltz. Following exploration of the stylistic features of a Waltz, the students learn how to compose their own rhythms and melodies to build their own stylistic composition. Depending on the rooming of the teacher, either at the beginning of this topic or the end, there is also a short three week performing skills unit, allowing students to continue to build their keyboard skills, but also access the ukulele, guitar.

Terms 5 & 6 in both years 7 and 8 are built from Programme Music and Song Writing. Programme Music develops the students’ use of MAD TSHIRT to analyse a piece of music, while planning and composing their own piece to showcase an animal and its characteristics. This is done in conjunction with studying Saint-Saen’s Carnival of the Animals. Song Writing again, takes the concept of creating melodies but adds lyrics as well, to increase difficulty and development from the waltz topic.

 

Year 8

Terms 1 & 2 begin with developing the students’ knowledge of the Musical Elements. This is done in conjunction with the topics of Blues music and Indian Classical Music. These two topics also involve the introduction of improvisation for the first time. New scales and new keys are introduced to show increased development from the musical elements learned in year 7.

Terms 3 & 4 in each year of KS3 is a composing skills topic which continues in year 8 with Minimalism. Following exploration of the stylistic features of Minimalist music, the students learn how to compose their own cells and develop them using the various minimalist techniques. Depending on the rooming of the teacher, either at the beginning of this topic or the end, there is also a short three week performing skills unit, where students explore Samba drumming and ensemble music making as a class.

Terms 5 & 6 in both years 7 and 8 are built from Programme Music and Song Writing. Programme Music develops the students’ use of MAD TSHIRT to analyse a piece of music, while planning and composing their own piece to showcase the planet Mars and its characteristics. This is done in conjunction with studying Holst’s Mars: the Bringer of War. Song Writing build from the year 7 version by introducing  compound time, more progressive chord progressions and decoration of melodies.

 

Year 9

Terms 1 & 2 begin with extending the students’ knowledge of the Musical Elements. This is done in conjunction with the topics of Film music and Song Writing. In Film Music, the students learn how Music can be used as an underscore to a film. They learn some of the key themes to James Bond and then create their own underscore to a James Bond film trailer. Song writing carries on from year 8, cementing the musical elements ready for the final big composing topic in terms 3 & 4.

Terms 3 & 4 in each year of KS3 is a composing skills topic which continues in year 9 with Ground Bass. Following exploration of the stylistic features of Ground Bass and Baroque music, the students learn how to compose their own bass line and then create various decorative melodies above to create a stylistic baroque piece. Depending on the rooming of the teacher, either at the beginning of this topic or the end, there is also a short three week performing skills unit, allowing students to continue to build their keyboard, guitar and ukulele skills.

Terms 5 & 6 in year 9 are built from Dance Remix and Cover Versions. Dance Remix allows the students to take a popular song, and arrange it into their own version, with more advanced editing techniques on GarageBand. Cover Versions, gives the students freedom to create bands and produce their own version of a popular song, using any of the instruments studied during key stage 3.

 

Years 10 & 11

Students in Years 10 and 11 study the GCSE course set by Edexcel (1MU0), and the full specification can be found here. Students complete performance coursework (30%), composition coursework (30%) and a listening exam (40%) to achieve their Music GCSE. To prepare students for these 3 components, students will have had experience at KS3 (see Year 7, 8 & 9 overviews) and the curriculum follows this knowledge rich and wholesome approach at KS4.

Students study 8 set works of various musical styles, from a Bach Brandenburg concerto to Afro Celt Sound System’s Release, and analyse them using the musical elements and the ‘MAD T SHIRT’ acronym learned at KS3, completing both a workbook and annotation of a score. Both of these provide the students with an excellent resource and knowledge base.

For the composition element, the students are set a series of tasks as an introduction to composing at GCSE and then use these skills to build their two coursework composition submissions. With the musical elements introduced and explored at KS3, we build on this firm basis, giving students the confidence to write about music more effectively and with more technical vocabulary.

 

Years 12 & 13

Students in Years 12 and 13 study the A-Level course set by AQA (7272), and the full specification can be found here. Students complete performance coursework (35%), composition coursework (25%) and a listening exam (40%) to achieve their music A Level.

The performing coursework takes the form of a 10-minute performance, which can be made of up of different pieces and can be recorded separately. The composition component requires students to submit two chorales in the style of Bach as well as a free composition, which can take the form of anything from a baroque concerto to a film score or a musical theatre song. In their listening and appraising work, students explore the baroque solo concerto and works by Purcell, Vivaldi and Bach, as well as the romantic piano music of Chopin, Brahms and Grieg.

In what is an exciting and wide-ranging curriculum, students then get a choice for their other areas of study from topics such as music for media, music for theatre, pop music and jazz. Students are taught how to do in-depth analysis of a score and be able to write authoritatively about music for the extended answer questions in the listening exam.