Year 7

Students begin by exploring melodies.   Using a keyboard and ukulele, students will develop a practical understanding of key elements of music such as pulse, rhythms, durations, timing, and pitch.   In term 3, harmony is introduced as a key element, which enables students to play chords on chordal instruments, such as keyboard, ukulele, and guitar.  Composing, dynamics, timbre and texture are explored practically in the music and media recorded performance unit.

Year 8

Year 8 is topic based and builds on skills developed in Year 7.  The first topic is Blues where students will develop their skills in harmony, rhythm, timing, and melody with a style of music which is new to them.    As Blues led to Rock, students are then introduced to the Rock topic.  This focusses on key elements of music such as Rock rhythms and Rock riffs.

In term 4, a topic called Music of Black Origin is introduced, with students playing syncopated Reggae rhythms.  This leads to Hip Hop as a topic, where students create Hip Hop beats, bass lines and write their own rap.   Performance recordings are made of each topic.

Year 9

In term one, students will be listening to and playing ‘Music Through the Ages’ which builds upon skills from Year 7 and 8.  We will focus deeper on performance elements of music such as melody, rhythm, notation, timing and harmony.   This unit further explores playing music from different times and places, such as Sea Shanties, Baroque classical, and Swing Jazz.

The next topic will be learning about Britpop (British cultural values), developing the skills from the previous terms. Britpop explores cultural contexts and lyrical meaning, which gives students opportunities to explore timbre, instrumentation, melodies and harmonies through the music of Oasis, The Verve, Arctic Monkeys and Blur.

The final unit in Year 9 is film music which explores scoring for film, dissonance, accidentals and ultimately builds towards a composing outcome where a piece of film is soundtracked using Logic Pro and iMovie.

Year 10

A Foundation unit is undertaken in Terms 1 and 2, which consolidates and builds upon performance skills from KS3.  This gives students an opportunity to focus on specific instrument/s and music genre/s.

Term 3 – 6: Unit 2: Creating

In this unit, students will develop and demonstrate understanding of the skills and techniques needed to create and refine an original piece of work in the performing arts. In essence, students will compose their own music.

There are 3 topics in this unit:

2.1 Explore and develop
2.2 Applying knowledge and skills to create original work
2.3 Review, reflect and refine

Year 11

Unit 1: Performing

In this unit students will gain a holistic understanding of the skills and techniques needed to reproduce an existing piece of professional/published work. In essence, students produce a creative cover version of an existing song/s.

There are 3 topics in this unit:

1.1 Research and rehearsal
1.2 Performance
1.3 Review and reflect

Unit 3: Performing arts in practice

This unit introduces the student to areas of the performing arts that need to be considered when responding to an industry commission.

Student will draw on the skills and knowledge gained in Unit 1 to reproduce a piece of professional/published work, and use the skills and techniques learned in Unit 2 to create and refine original work.

There are 3 topics in this unit:

3.1 Planning performance work
3.2 Promoting and pitching
3.3 Evaluating and reflecting

Year 12

Term 1 & 2: Live Music Rehearsal Skills (MUSPRA 358)

This unit aims to refine the learner’s rehearsal skills and to develop their ability to take ownership of the entire rehearsal process.  For rehearsals to be effective, the students will have clear goals for what they are trying to achieve in order give the rehearsals structure and purpose. Rehearsals can be a way of generating new material, crafting specific arrangement ideas, working on the interplay of the instruments, working on stage presentation and on-stage communication, devising running order, segues and ways of interacting with an audience from the stage.  Assessment is a written presentation and videoed dress rehearsal performance (SJH).

Term 3 & 4:  Live Music Performance (MUSPRA 359)

The aim of this unit is to refine learners’ live performance skills and to develop their capacity to take ownership of the entire performance process. The purpose of this unit is to provide learners with a range of opportunities to refine their performance skills through performance to a live audience. This in turn will enable them to elicit constructive feedback to inform their ongoing development as performers.  Summative assessment is videoed live music performance (public) to a paying audience.

Term 5 & 6: Recorded music performance (MUSPRA 360)

This unit aims to develop the knowledge and skills required to perform effectively in a recording studio environment, engendering confidence and professionalism within this field.

The purpose of this unit is to provide students with a range of opportunities to understand processes behind studio recorded performances and put them into practice in our recording studio environment.  Summative assessment is a written report identifying studio recording approaches and multi-tracked studio recordings.

Year 13

Terms 1 and 2.   Music Performance to Camera (Making a music video) MUSPRA 361

The aim of this unit is to develop the learner’s abilities to perform convincingly to camera in a self-directed film and function effectively in future video productions.

External assessed Unit – Event Management (MUSPRA 389E) Term 3 to 6.