Year 7:
Term
Autumn 1
Autumn 2
Spring 1
Spring 2
Summer 1
Summer 2
Topic title
Whole Class singing / Rhythm 1: London Underground
Whole Class singing / Rhythm 2: African Drumming.
Pitch and Melody: Keyboard Skills.
The Orchestra.
Roots: Calypso / Reggae / Samba.
Knowledge & Skills
· Keeping a pulse.
· Aural skills – rhythmic repetition.
· Rhythm notation.
· Rhythmic and melodic composition.
· Group work.
· Rhythm techniques, e.g. Polyrhythms.
· Cultural understanding.
· More independent group work.
· Identifying polyrhythm, unison, call & response.
· Leadership skills.
· Reading notation – treble clef (bass clef HPA).
· Learning a melody.
· Exploring different sonorities.
· Study of tonality.
· Understanding the layout of the orchestra.
· Identifying and analysing.
· Learning chords and playing in a reggae style.
· Creating a riff.
· Band work.
· Background – Caribbean Music.
· Advanced rhythm – syncopation.
· Whole-class work, including call & response, groove and break.
Homework
· Rhythm composition.
· Cultural research.
· Layout of the orchestra.
· Listening-based homework.
Year 8:
Blues 1
Blues 2
Keyboard Skills 2
Musical Letters
Theme and Variation
World Music
· History of The Blues.
· Analysis and application: Blues lyrics.
· 12 Bar Blues – keyboard. Chord structure.
· Improvisation.
· Band work and independent roles.
· Learning and understanding the bass clef and / or ensemble skills.
· Coordinating treble and bass clef lines.
· Writing and performing a bass line.
· Literacy; writing a letter as a voiceover.
· Studying use of musical elements to convey mood for an underscore.
· Use of BandLab.
· Writing a melody using a chord sequence.
· Analysing variations; understanding embellishment and tonality.
· Varying a melody.
· Leadership skills; working as a group to recreate music from another culture.
· Artist research and analysis.
· Bass clef (HPA chord) recognition adaptive theory homework.
· Underscore analysis.
· BandLab – creating a motif.
Year 9:
Film Music
Programme Music
Musical Theatre
Radio Adverts
Fusions: Jazz and Hip-Hop
Musical Futures
· Background / history of music in film.
· Film music techniques.
· Analysis of a film scene / theme.
· Short composition tasks; Mickey Mousing.
· Understanding how music can represent a theme.
· Identifying and analysing programme music.
· Planning and composing programme music to suit one of four pictures.
· Persuasive writing / marketing for voiceover.
· Analysing underscores.
· Creating an underscore.
· Creating a jingle.
· Application of prior knowledge of the blues in order to understand jazz.
· Background of hip-hop and popular styles from 1950 onwards.
· Identifying separate genres in fusion music.
· Application of two genres in a small group.
· Leadership and independent work: Musical Futures.
· Analytical – Film Music.
· Planning a composition.
· Research – Programme Music.
· Self-assessment and DIRT.
· Jazz / hip-hop artist research.
Year 10:
Set work: “Badinerie” – J.S. Bach.
Set work: “Africa” – Toto.
Musical Forms and Devices.
Jazz and Blues.
Musical Theatre and Chamber Music.
Fusions and Bhangra / Summer Exam Prep.
Composition Techniques.
Free Composition.
Composition to a Brief – techniques.
· Solo and / or ensemble performances each half term.
· Composition skills: MuseScore basics, minimalism, motifs, chord sequences.
· Understanding links within eras between music, fashion, art and architecture.
· Understanding and identifying different eras of music using elements.
· Understanding different ensembles.
· Analysing for purpose: Baroque coronation anthems.
· Following and analysing a score.
· Note-taking.
· Keywords for writing about musical elements.
· Aural skills: Identifying intervals, cadences and texture.
· Understanding and identifying musical forms.
· Applying forms to short composition tasks.
· History of jazz and blues.
· Group analysis and presentations of jazz sub-genres.
· Individual analysis of music theatre.
· Writing efficiently about music.
· Fusions: Identifying elements of traditional music (including understanding of traditional music) from modern popular music.
· Home learning; often research-based.
· Analysis – writing up plans from lesson-based activities.
· Presentation preparation.
· Small composition tasks.
· Practice.
· Composition coursework.
· Listening skills: Cadences, intervals, texture, sonority and dictation.
Year 11:
Popular Music
Revision: AoS 1 & 2
Revision: AoS 3 & 4
X
Brief Composition
Final Free Composition
Final Brief Composition
· Film Music Devices.
· Analysis: Writing about music in detail.
· Listening skills recall.
· Composing to a brief.
· Performance skills – refining solo and ensemble performances.
· Revision techniques.
· Guided revision.
Year 12:
Baroque Solo Concerto: Purcell, Vivaldi and Bach.
Optional Area of Study 1
Romantic: The Music of Chopin, Brahms and Grieg.
· Close analysis of scores.
· Gaining an understanding of the development within the Baroque era, including German and Italian influences.
· Contextual understanding of optional AoS.
· Writing a 30-mark answer for the A Level paper.
· Listening skills: Analyses of cadences, sonority, harmony, rhythm, melody and gaining an ability to dictate melody and rhythm together.
· Instrument practice and composition expectations are part of homework.
· Exam-style questions.
· Research.
Year 13:
The Operas of Mozart
Optional Area of Study 2
Revision & Exam Prep
· Independent analysis of scores.
· Understanding of Mozart’s operas and analysing for meaning.
· Contextual understanding of optional AoS and using whichever means appropriate to analyse.
· Listening skills continued.
