Music

COURSE OVERVIEW:
AQA GCSE Music will motivate and stretch students of all abilities and provide them with the skills and experience to succeed at GCSE & to go on to further study.
The course appreciates all styles and genres, skills and instruments, catering for different learning styles and musical tastes. GCSE Music focuses on practical skills, so students learn to compose and perform music across a variety of styles – and enjoy the freedom to focus on a style or genre close to their heart.

The Subject content is divided into the three assessment components:

Understanding music 40%
Performing music 30%
Composing music 30%

To be successful Students must be able to perform on an instrument or sing. If you have a love of music, and are dedicated to listening to Music of all genres then this is the course for you.

The four areas of study:

1. Western classical tradition 1650–1910
2. Popular music
3. Traditional music
4. Western classical tradition since 1910

You will also learn set works from the following areas of study:

1. Haydn - “The Clock” Symphony No.101
2. The Beatles - With a little help - Within You Without You - Lucy In The Sky

COURSE OVERVIEW:
A Level Music enables students to extend their knowledge and understanding of music, to create and develop their own musical ideas and to demonstrate technical, interpretative and communication skills through performing music.

The course helps students to develop aural, theoretical and appraisal skills and enables them to explore significant set works selected to suit their preferences. They will study compositional techniques, to create music which draws on their own experience and enthusiasm or to arrange a given piece of music. In their performances, students can present solo and/or ensemble pieces and can work with music technology.

Course Content and Assessment:

A Level Music is split into three components: Performing, Composing and Listening & Appraising. It is essential that students can already play a musical instrument and have a keen interest in creating and listening to different styles of music to appreciate how they are written and performed.
During both years of the course, students must put together a recital program which can be solo or ensemble based or a combination of both. The performing component is externally assessed but performance and recorded in school. Students are free to choose their own performance material and genres.
The Composing component is externally assessed and students must produce two compositions over the 2 years, a free composition and one set to a brief.

Listening and Appraising 40%:

The areas of study provide an appropriate focus for you to appraise, develop and demonstrate an in-depth knowledge and understanding of musical elements, musical contexts and musical language:

Area of Study 1: Western classical tradition 1650–1910 (compulsory). Baroque: the solo concerto Classical: the operas of Mozart Romantic: the piano music of Chopin, Brahms and Grieg.

Area of Study 2: Pop music. Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Muse, Beyoncé, Daft Punk, Labrinth.

Area of Study 3: Music for Media. Bernard Herrmann, Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, Thomas Newman, Nobuo Uematsu.

Performing 35% :

You must be able to perform music using one or both of the following ways:
Instrumental/vocal: as a soloist, and/or as part of an ensemble
Production: via music technology.
You must perform a repertoire that lasts for a minimum of ten minutes.

Composing 25%:

You will compose two pieces
One must be in response to an externally set brief (Composition 1)
Production: via music technology.
You must perform a repertoire that lasts for a minimum of ten minutes.

Extra Curricular:
We offer a diverse range of peripatetic tuition as well as a wide range of extra-curricular music clubs including:

• Budehaven Voices Choir
• Jazz Band
• Samba Band
• Junior and Senior Steel Band
• Karaoke Club
• Band Factory
• Studio Club
  
  You can follow what's happening in the Department via our Facebook page:
  
  https://www.facebook.com/budehavenmusic/

MUSIC
There are 2 main focuses within our Music Department:

• Does Music-Making take account of pupils’ views and interests?
• Is Music-Making engaging and enjoyable?

 
In all Music lessons across Key stage 3, 4 and 5, ‘Music-Making’ is at the heart of what we do and is the driving force behind our versatile and extensive curriculum. We know that music contributes enormously to the school and wider community and is a ‘shop window’ into our school as a whole.

We ensure that progress is constantly made by all pupils in the following ways:

• Defining clear steps of progression
• Having high expectations and giving constant attention to the quality of pupils’ musical responses
• Adapting work to meet the different needs of all pupils

 
KNOWLEDGE RICH
To ensure that we run a successful and thriving department we have a clear focus for each lesson, developed through all activities and always start with sound – developing pupils’ aural skills through constantly modelling work and using talk sparingly; introducing notation only after pupils have developed the ability to hear and repeat sounds; and developing their understanding of key vocabulary in music, particularly focusing on the ‘Elements of Music’.

Knowledge Organisers are made for all Schemes of Learning and used within lessons and when setting homework. The staff in the Music Department work in line with the school policy and follow guidelines for using Knowledge Organisers to support practical and written work. These are particularly useful with KS4 when finishing a topic and giving students KO as handouts for revision and follow up quizzes. The use of KO are beginning to be built into marking schemes and marking criteria across the department.

KNOWLEDGE RETENTION
Questioning features a lot in Music. Hot seating activities are used in starters and plenaries and both closed and open questions are built into our Schemes or Work and supporting resources such as PowerPoints presentations and worksheets. Random name generator used in class charts to ensure all students are involved and participating in Questioning as well as hands up/hands down.

KNOWLEDGE ACCESS
Vocabulary Exposition
To expose the key tier three words in Music Knowledge Organisers are available for all Schemes of Learning and used within lessons and when setting homework. The staff in the Music Department use these to support practical and written work by signposting key vocabulary. These are particularly useful with KS4 when finishing a topic and giving students KOs as handouts for revision and follow up quizzes. The use of KOs is beginning to be built into marking schemes and marking criteria across the department.
  
Reading Instruction
The approach to this aspect within the music department is twofold, as both English literacy and music notation fall under this remit. For the English literacy aspect tasks are designed, which enable the comprehension of key terminology and more challenging wider vocabulary and allow for the teacher to see the results of their pre-teaching. These can include physical tasks where students use body parts or their whole body to demonstrate their understanding of spelling and meaning through 50/50 questioning, or simple match up tasks designed to quickly assess whether pre-taught terminology has been understood fully by the students. In terms of musical notation, chord charts for keyboards, guitars and ukuleles are on display in the classroom and are used continuously throughout Key Stages 3 and 4 to aid pitch comprehension, while note finders act as a useful scaffolding aid for students who may need further assistance during practical work.

Writing Instruction
Again, the music department focuses both on literacy and notation when teaching written skills. Regarding literacy, the use of sentence formers and sentence plans allow the students to produce higher-level work. This particularly comes in useful when using the musical elements in describing the music heard during listening exercises. The students have a list of musical elements and their definitions and can use this to decide which elements are appropriate to describe what they hear as part of a sentence/point plan. The sentence formers then act as scaffolding for certain students who struggle to turn their plan into full sentences. In much the same way as EFL students can piece together a sentence using KO options, music students can construct sentences using given options. In terms of music notation, students are given the pitches and rhythmic units/names in their KOs to refer to, while musical staves are always available for students to practice aspects such as clefs, note heads, stems, and accidentals. These are very often formatted into the set task.
 
STUDENT FOCUS
We use visual aids and resources created across the department in every lesson including note rulers and giant piano posters. This has been embedded not only in our teaching styles but also in the way that students respond to questions and class discussions in drawing their information from the classroom displays and visual aids. This has been particularly difficult since September 2020, teaching in different classrooms across the school. For example, when teaching music theory and notation we have been unable to model through instrumental playing or show semi-tones and whole tones for example without the wall display of a keyboard.

We plan and deliver a ‘Musical Futures’ style approach to all topics to ensure that the focus of the majority of music lessons is ‘Music-Making’. Musical Futures is a teaching initiative where everybody benefits from the value of music. It ensures that music-making is relevant, engaging, imaginative and authentic. This includes band style lessons with all students on an instrument, sharing skills with student led carousels, applying notation skills to practical playing which can include traditional notation, tablature reading and chord charts, whole class instrumental playing. Theory is embedded throughout the delivery of our Schemes of Work but are really understood and digested by students when applying this in a practical element. We have currently moved away from this focus whilst teaching in non-specialist areas across the school. Traditional Music Theory, Key Vocabulary and Notation is being delivered across KS3 which will feed into practical topic-based Schemes of Work when returning to lessons being taught within the Music Department

Student mentors are used with students who find Music more challenging. This has been highly successful and has helped to develop progress and grades with Yr. 8 students. We also switch between students choosing to work with their friends in practical rehearsals and groupings which has been proven to have a much higher rate of success in outcomes and assessments. In addition to this we also pre-determine groups based on attainment and abilities throughout the year to compare outcome and success.