Music

The Music department aims to shape its pupils into complete musicians who can compose, perform, listen and appraise. These skills are taught through a wide range of musical styles from varied times and places, and therefore pupils learn how to identify music from across the globe, whilst also gaining insight into how music has evolved over time.

Through the art of composing, pupils use their imaginations creating their own pieces of music. They will have an understanding of musical devices, which are tools that can be used to develop musical ideas. They will also appreciate the expressive impact that musical elements such as structure, dynamics, texture and timbre have on the end result.

When performing, pupils develop confidence, an awareness of how parts fit together and coordination. Their understanding of rhythm and pitch is also reinforced as they follow and translate music notation.

Listening and appraising focuses pupils and provides them with the opportunity to make judgements, justify opinions and suggest improvements to pieces of music.  

Key Stage 3

At this key stage, it is important that pupils recognise the significance of music in their everyday environment, and appreciate its value to communities across the globe. Students will also be encouraged to question what music is, especially when introduced to ‘avant garde’ works from the Twentieth Century onwards.

A conscious effort is made to introduce important concepts to Key Stage 3 pupils that will provide them with the perfect foundation for the GCSE. For example, they will develop aural perception skills (recognising instrumental timbres), they will also understand chords and how they can be used to build a melody.   They will use music notation and will know the basic fundamentals of pitch and rhythm. Along with these concepts, they will also be introduced to some of the styles of music studied at GCSE and even A Level.

The topics currently covered at Key Stage 3 are:

Key Stage 4

At Key Stage 4, we offer the AQA GCSE Music course and explore works from the following areas of study:

• Western Classical Music (Baroque Orchestral Music, The Concerto, Music for Voices, Chamber Music)
• Popular Music of the 20^th and 21^st Centuries (Blues, Popular Music of the 1960s, Rock Music, R’n’B, Hip-Hop, Music Theatre, Film Music)
• World Music (Caribbean Music, African Music, Indian Music)

Pupils gain a wider understanding of music through the study of these various different styles. They will learn about their key musical characteristics, so that they can identify the styles aurally.

Pupils must also further develop as performers, working as a soloist and as part of a group. They will also create two compositions; each  will be submitted as a score and a recording. The department’s computer room with Sibelius software is a huge asset, as pupils can create professional scores and have the ability to playback what they have written. This means that they can check that the outcome is exactly as intended.

There are lots of extracurricular groups on offer in the department which are run in lunchtimes and after school.  These include: Band, Choir (including a Staff Choir), Keyboard Ensemble, Samba Band and Hand Bell Group.

All of these groups will feature in concert/events throughout the academic year both inside and outside of the school.

Altogether the Music department strives to be a positive and enjoyable environment to learn about and value Music.