Music

Intent and Aims

Music surrounds us in our daily lives. It has the power and universality to move and inspire any person, of any age and in any part of the world. It is one of the first things we hear at the start of our lives and accompanies us to the very end. At Moulton School we aim to ensure that students gain enjoyment, appreciation and understanding of a wide range of different musical styles and genres through performing, composing, listening and appraising. We strive to keep students’ learning experiences as musical, practical and creative as possible.

  • Engender a lifelong love of music.
  • Give students the opportunity develop confidence in performing music.
  • To develop creativity and self expression through composing music and developing musical ideas.
  • To help students develop emotional awareness through collaboration and teamwork.
  • To develop thinking skills such as verbal memory, spatial reasoning and literacy skills.
  • To expose students to music from great composers in diverse genres and styles.
  • To give students an understanding of the development of music through time and place.
  • To give access to individual instrumental lessons.
  • To provide opportunities for students to participate in musical productions, performances and concerts.

Key skills

Perform music of different styles and traditions through singing, playing an instrument and using technology with technical control, fluency and musical expression. Perform as a soloist and as part of an ensemble. Reflect on their performances to develop strengths, weaknesses and next steps.

Compose music using techniques studied in lessons on instruments and/or technology. The music will be increasingly coherent, structured, confident and creative. Evaluate their compositions to identify strengths, weaknesses and next steps.

Understand how music is constructed by:

  • Using key terminology to describe musical elements of a wide range of musical styles and traditions,
  • Forming links between diverse styles,
  • Learning to read notation, including identifying note names of the treble clef.

Listen to and analyse with increasing confidence musical styles across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions including the works of the great composers and musicians. With increased understanding of music will come increased emotional response. Develop aural skills and the ability to identify musical features by ear.

Key concepts

  • Melody: how melodic lines are constructed and developed.
  • Rhythm: how musical ideas are organised against time.
  • Structure: how musical ideas and pieces are constructed with balance between contrast and repetition.
  • Sonority: how instrumentation and timbre can be exploited for musical effect.
  • Dynamics: how dynamic shading and contrasts increase the emotional impact of music.
  • Harmony: how the vertical organisation of pitches affects.
  • Texture: the layering of parts and interaction between instruments.
  • Tonality: the use of different key structures.
Our programmes of study

In Years 7 to 9 students explore music from diverse traditions, styles and genres. The students’ understanding of key concepts is developed by exploring these styles of music through performing, composing, listening and appraising. Students arrive at Moulton School with different starting points, having had very diverse experiences up to this point. We therefore use a scaffolded approach using the school’s flightpath model to support learners in developing their basic skills, while enabling high prior attainment students to stretch their skills at the top end.

 

 Year 7    
Autumn Term Spring Term Summer Term
The Sorting Hat - students divided into families of the orchestra learning their sound, name, function. Focus on listening, notation and visual learning with a presentation at the end of the term.

Keyboards and Glocks - students to learn keyboard techniques and form a Glockenspiel orchestra with class performances. More theory to be implemented through reading music focusing on rhythm
Cops and Robbers - students learn musical elements of blues and jazz through the ensemble performance of the song “Cops and Robbers”

Musical Clichés - in this topic, students learn how devices such as bass ostinato and heroic melodies are exploited in music for film. They are assessed on a composition of music to accompany the trailer from a recent film
African Drumming - students study rhythms and songs from West Africa, and learn to play African instruments such as the djembé. They are assessed on a group performance and improvisation.

Swing Low - Students learn about the history of music of black origin and sing spirituals. They compose and perform an arrangement of the song “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” for their assessment.
Year 8    
Autumn Term Spring Term Summer Term 
The Name’s Bond, James Bond - students learn to perform some of the themes from Bond films. They then compose their own pieces to accompany the Skyfall trailer using and developing these themes as their assessed piece of work.

The Beatles - Students study song structure and songwriting using a very popular chord sequence as a starting point. Their final assessed piece of work is a completed song composition, with contrasting verses and choruses.
Music and War - students study music through the prism of war. They learn how music can inspire as well as represent the horror of war. They compose a programmatic piece which tells the story of a battle.

Bhangra - Students learn about fusion music including music from the Punjab region. Students will perform a piece by Ray Charles,
Elvis Presley or The Beatles
All About that Bass - students learn about the structural device of “Ground Bass” in both classical and modern contexts. Their assessed piece will be a performance of their own composition of a ground bass
piece.

Remix - students explore how technology can be used to create remixes and arrangements. They will learn how to fully exploit the music production software to create remixes of a song of their choice.
Year 9    
Autumn Term Spring Term Summer Term 
Film Music - students learn key film composition terms and techniques by listening and watching a variety of film genres. Students will participate in group performances of leitmotifs as well as compose the music for a short film extract
Hooks and Riffs - students to develop their song writing skills using chords and melody to compose their own song. Students will learn to perform well known hooks and riffs for a whole class performance
Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra - students to have a more detailed look at family of instruments, timbre, ear training and conducting. Group performance as well as composition techniques

Transition to GCSE

Students will start the Eduqas area of study 1 which incorporates structure, time signatures, chords, cadences and keys in order to develop their composition skills and techniques. Further work on music theory including treble clef, bass clef and rhythm

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