Music
In Music, lessons across the school we follow the Music scheme called Sparkyard.
An exciting series of lessons help the children gives children experiences in composing music, playing instruments, understanding and developing skills in notation as well as developing a love for a range of musical styles.
Please click on the Year groups below to see what each Year group covers:
Music in Reception
Term 1 My Musical Classroom
The term begins with activities perfect for getting the class settled into school life! The children will learn simple welcome songs and have fun working as a class to create simple actions to accompany songs and nursery rhymes. They will learn to follow musical instructions and explore creative movement – jumping like a jack-in-the-box or dancing like a rock ’n’ roll teddy bear! The children will experience a range of music from West African dance to the sound of Norwegian ice instruments! They will learn to recognize simple classroom percussion instruments and compare their sounds. They will compose simple sound sequences and represent them using objects and pictures. To round the term off, why not ‘take a song for a walk’ by singing a song to different people and in different places in the school?
Term 2 Musical Patterns And Performing
Music is full of patterns! This term begins with activities designed to get children recognizing musical patterns in songs and music. The children will develop their recognition of classroom percussion instruments, using them to play simple accompaniments and simple rhythm patterns. They will begin to explore ways to change sounds and create simple patterns, e.g. playing loudly, quietly, slowly or quickly. Composing music inspired by transport, machines and robots provides an opportunity to explore descriptive sounds and to develop an understanding of pictorial notations. From ‘Fossils’ (Carnival Of The Animals by Saint-Saëns) to Don’t Stop Me Now (Freddie Mercury), lessons have an active listening activity, providing the children with opportunities to experience music through movement, dance, art or role-play.
A simple performance is a fitting way to end the term.
Term 3 Sound Stories
From simple singing games to wiggly snail trails, this term begins with opportunities to tell playful stories using voices and tuned instruments. Heading outdoors is encouraged with musical storytelling inspired by the natural environment. From sound sticks to journey sticks, the children will learn to create musical patterns. Listening choices also reflect the outdoors theme – the perfect opportunity to learn about instruments made from wood such as the didgeridoo, the log drum, the courting flute and temple blocks. An introduction to musical timbre is explored through fairy-tale characters as the children learn to associate characters with instruments. They explore the effect of layering instrumental sounds, developing an understanding of musical texture. Children will learn to use simple sound effects and pictorial notation to accompany a story or song. From a choice of activities, the children can retell The Three Billy Goats Gruff, create a fairy-tale sound map, or create a class song box for Come With Me To The Beach.
Music in Year 1
Term 1 MOVE TO THE BEAT – exploring pulse and rhythm
For children to understand pulse, they need to feel it. The songs and activities suggested for this term will help them do just that! This term, the children will learn to recognize pulse, matching movements to music. They will explore percussion instruments and perform simple instrumental accompaniments to familiar songs. The children will progress to copying and creating simple rhythm patterns, eventually using simple graphic notations to represent these sounds. They will be introduced to a range of music and create simple choreography for music such as Radetzky March by Strauss and Mattachins by Peter Warlock, as well as learning about different dance traditions such as South African Gumboot Dancing and North Indian Kathak Dance.
Term 2 Exploring Sounds
This term, the children will explore how sounds can be produced in different ways using voices and instruments. They will listen to a variety of music including Flight Of The Bumblebee and William Tell Overture, and will begin to recognize how composers use dynamics, tempo and timbre to bring a character or theme to life! They will learn to sing simple songs as a class, adding facial expressions and actions to enhance a performance. The children will explore song lyrics and use these as a basis for their own compositions. They will compose short sound sequences to tell a story or reflect a character. They will learn to follow musical instructions and invent their own musical notation.
Term 3 HIGH AND LOW – EXPLORING PITCH
This term, the children will identify and describe pitch. They explore the sounds created by a variety of different instruments and voices, describing their pitch and timbre. They play simple listening games and identify simple pitch patterns in a range of songs and music, recognizing when the pitch gets higher or lower. They use a variety of tuned and untuned percussion instruments and compose simple sound effects to accompany sections of a story. They compose pitch patterns and represent these using creative graphic notation tools such as pipe cleaners and coloured cubes! They will finish the term by preparing songs and music for a class performance.
Year 2
Term 1 TIME TO PLAY – exploring pulse and rhythmic patterns
From body percussion to disco music, this term develops children’s understanding of pulse and rhythm. The term begins with songs and activities to get children performing together rhythmically. The children perform actions and movements to a steady pulse and play simple musical passing games. They will learn songs such as March To The Beat to explore the difference between pulse and rhythm, and investigate different ways to play rhythms, varying instrumental timbre and dynamics. The children will learn to play a simple accompaniment to a song or poem, selecting suitable sounds and timbre. They will learn to create simple four-beat rhythms and represent these using graphic notations such as Beat Monsters!
Term 2 Musical Moods And Pictures
This term, the children will learn how songs and music can communicate different moods and emotions. They investigate different ways to express the mood of a song by adding facial expressions and changing the timbre and dynamics of their voice. They will develop their understanding of musical mood through simple songs, where they will be introduced to major and minor tonality. Throughout the term, the children will listen and talk about a wide variety of music including Can-Can from Orpheus in the Underworld by Offenbach and Fanfarra Cabua-Le-Le by Sergio Mendes/Carlinhos Brown. They compose and improvise music on the theme of weather. They will learn to give musical instructions, taking the role of a conductor in a small group performance. Creating descriptive sounds inspired by a song and create a simple soundscape.
Term 3 PATTERNS WITH PITCH – EXPLORING PITCH AND MELODY
This term, the children explore pitch and melody. From the octobass to the piccolo, they will find out about a variety of instruments and learn to describe their pitch and timbre. They will play simple listening games and recall a pitch sequence, recognizing where the pitch gets higher, lower or stays the same. Through a range of songs, they will develop their pitch-matching skills, performing them with actions and movement. They will learn to use their voices creatively, They play simple melodies using tuned percussion and be introduced to the pentatonic scale with songs such as Just Five Notes. They finish the term by preparing songs and music for a class performance.
Year 3
Term 1 HEAR IT, PLAY IT! Exploring Rhythmic Patterns
This term, the children will be exploring rhythmic patterns. With activities designed to get everyone up and moving, the children will learn to identify rhythms and play them using body percussion, instruments and plastic cups! They will explore call-and-response techniques used in a range of songs and have fun creating their own call-and-response (question and answer) phrases. The children will develop their ensemble skills, learning to perform simple rhythmic ostinatos to accompany a song or poem. They will sing songs influenced by different musical styles such as Blues and Rock ’n’ Roll and listen out for simple stylistic features in music such as Hound Dog by Elvis Presley and Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets. The children will move on to composing and notating simple rhythmic patterns using different forms of graphic notation.
Term 2 Painting Pictures With Sound
Whether performing actions to match dynamics in Beethoven’s 5th Symphony or creating doodles in response to Vivaldi’s Winter from The Four Seasons, this term begins with activities designed to help children identify and describe the ingredients (dimensions) that make up music. The children will explore instruments, learning about instrumental timbres associated with different countries and use this knowledge to create simple accompaniments to songs such as We’re Going Round The World.
As the term moves on, the children will learn how to vary the dimensions of music to evoke mood and atmosphere. They will create suitable music to accompany song lyrics and poetry, as well as improvising a musical phone call to express a suggested mood!
The term ends with an opportunity to compose music inspired by stories and settings. The children will create and organize layers of musical sound to create interesting textures and have fun representing these sounds using different forms of notation such as storyboards and composition wheels!
Term 3 Sing, Play, Notate!
Whether it’s hopping, leaping, ascending or descending, this term begins with songs and activities to get children listening and describing pitch and melody. Using their voice as an instrument, they can create simple soundscapes or develop solo singing with songs such as The Losing Things Song.
The children will learn to represent melodies from songs such as Healthy Heart and Un, Deux, Trois, exploring different forms of graphic notation such as dots, coins and pipe cleaners!
As the term moves on, the class will develop their knowledge of the pentatonic scale, singing songs and working in small groups to compose and improvise simple melodies.
The term ends with an opportunity to learn about performance. They will listen and compare versions of music such as March Of The Trolls by Grieg or There’s No Business Like Show Business by Irving Berlin, learning how music can be arranged for different instruments and voices. And of course, an opportunity to perform to others is a vital ingredient of the term!
Year 4
Term 1 PLAYING WITH RHYTHM – playing together and rhythmic structures
This term you can rustle up rhythm pizza and beatbox with Beardyman! Beginning with activities to get children performing together rhythmically, the children will learn to follow musical instructions and experience how it feels to be the conductor! Throughout the term, the children will develop their knowledge of rhythmic notation and use movement to express these concepts. They will have fun exploring songs such as Harvest Samba and will learn how music can be built by combining layers of rhythm. Developing ensemble skills is a key focus and the children will learn to stick to their own part in a group as well as thinking about ways to improve their group performances. The term ends with children composing music within a rhythmic framework with a selection of activities to choose from – the children could write new lyrics to a song, explore rhythm grid notation or create a class composition using rhythmic motifs.
Term 2 MUSICAL CONTRASTS
Staccato or legato, forte or piano, major or minor - this term is all about musical contrasts. Beginning with songs and activities which explore different instrumental timbres, the children will learn how instruments can be grouped and classified in different ways. They will listen to music such as The Young Person’s Guide To The Orchestra by Benjamin Britten and identify orchestral families (i.e. string, woodwind, brass, percussion).
As well as comparing instrumental timbre, they will also learn to identify changes in tonality through singing songs such as The King’s Feelings, as well as developing recognition of major and minor chords through simple listening games.
Playing together as an ensemble is a key focus for the term. The children will learn to lead and follow musical instructions and understand the importance of keeping an eye on the conductor! They will explore contrasts between staccato and legato articulation when singing and playing and learn to vary dynamics, tempo, timbre and pitch through a Kandinsky-inspired improvisation!
The children will end the term by developing their understanding of musical structure. With a selection of activities to choose from, they can create music in AB or rondo form or explore motifs with a game of Musical Top Trumps!
Term 3 MELODY BUILDERS – EXPLORING MELODIES AND SONG STRUCTURES
The term begins with a range of songs and activities to get the children describing and internalizing pitch. As well as singing aloud, they will also learn to use their ‘thinking voice’, exploring games and songs such as That’s The Way We're Put Together and Moving To The Music. From a pentatonic lucky dip to call-and-response melodies, the children will develop their composition and improvisation skills as they learn to create simple melodies using a given range of notes.
As the term moves on, the children will compose and notate melodies using graphic and letter notation. They will identify how melodies can be organized in different ways, exploring cumulative structure in songs such as In The Jungle and identifying the use of call and response in the Papageno/Papagena duet from The Magic Flute by Mozart.
Using song structure as inspiration, the term ends with an opportunity to compose lyrics and create simple musical arrangements, preparing them for performance. From a choice of activities, the children can write a new verse for a song, create and notate performance directions to accompany sections of a song or plan a class performance.
Year 5
Term 1 RHYTHM BUILDERS – Exploring Rhythmic Layers
This term the children will develop their understanding of rhythm and rhythmic notation. They will get to grips with time signatures, learning to ‘feel’ the difference between three and four beats in a bar. They will explore folk traditions such as Morris dancing and Basque dance and have fun creating and performing their own dances.
From a Tabletop Percussion Machine to rhythmic motifs, learning to play rhythms expressively, is a focus for the term as the children will learn to choose suitable timbre and dynamics when playing and composing. They will also learn the importance of following the conductor! As the term moves on, they will learn how composers create interesting textures by combining layers of musical sound. They will identify the use of ostinato in pieces such as Bolero by Ravel and will use ostinato to accompany songs such as I Have A Song To Sing and Time For Everything, creating interesting polyrhythmic textures!
The term ends by exploring ways to represent musical textures through notation. With a selection of activities to choose from, the children can explore rhythm grids or create a layered composition inspired by composers taking part in a video call!
Term 2 MUSIC AND WORDS
This term is all about music and words! The children will brush up their Italiano, improvise musical conversations, scat like Ella Fitzgerald and compose music inspired by poetry!
Songs such as Music Italiano and I’ll Sing This Song will teach the class to recognize the inter-related dimensions of music as well as develop their understanding of Italian musical vocabulary. Through creative listening activities, the children will learn to represent expressive features of music in a graphic score and then use musical vocabulary to describe their creations!
Improvisation skills will be developed through call-and-response activities where the children will create rhythmic and melodic patterns to a four-beat pulse. From the classical cadenza to the Be-bop scat of Ella Fitzgerald, the children will also develop an understanding of how improvisation has been used throughout musical history. Learning about musical styles such as jazz gives the class an opportunity to find out about influential musicians such as Louis Armstrong, and of course, it’s the perfect reason to sing songs written in ‘jazzy’ style such as Jazz Is Cool, In The Band and Shoo-Be-Doo-Ah.
The children will end the term by creating music inspired by lyrics, words and poetry, exploring techniques to establish mood and atmosphere.
Term 3 SONG INGREDIENTS - EXPLORING MELODY, HARMONY AND LYRICS
This term, the children will learn about the key ingredients used in songs: rhythm, melody, harmony and lyrics! They will begin to learn rounds and part songs such as School Is Nearly Over and I Got A Little Dog and identify how layers of melody can be combined to create a polyphonic texture. They will identify these features in music from the past and present, listening to traditional songs such as Frère Jacques and Three Country Dances In One, alongside contemporary music created and performed with a loop pedal!
As the term progresses, they will develop their understanding of intervals, scales and chords and learn to notate pitches using staff and letter notation. Playing together as an ensemble remains a key focus and they will accompany song melodies using chords, drones and basslines.
The term ends with a chance to explore the songwriting process. The children will learn how songs can reflect the time and place in which they are written, and may be sung to mark a social or cultural occasion. With a selection of activities to choose from, the children can write their own song inspired by the structure of Take A Major Scale, compose a school jingle or collaborate to write a song to celebrate their school community.
Year 6
Term 1 We've Got Rhythm – Rhythmic Devices And Structure
The term begins with an exploration of time signatures. Through songs and collaborative rhythm games, the class will get a feel for 6/8 rhythms and learn to identify changes in time signature and musical style in the song Take Five Styles.
Performing rhythms expressively is a focus for the term and the children will explore rhythmic poems and songs such as Plastic Wrap and 1066 Rap. They will experiment with vocal and instrumental effects by varying articulation, dynamics and timbre and learn to identify these features when listening to each other perform.
Throughout the term, the children will listen to rhythms from around the world such as djembe drumming from West Africa, Latin American rhythms such as tango, salsa and samba and Konnokal from South India. Using songs as inspiration, the children will learn to play polyrhythms and experiment with creating different polyrhythmic textures.
The term ends with an opportunity to capture rhythmic ideas in a musical structure. From a choice of activities, the children can write a short rap, choreograph a routine with plastic cups or create a 16-beat (four bar) body percussion break to accompany the song, Fiesta!
Term 2 MUSICAL EFFECTS AND MOODS
Whether ‘Mickey Mousing’, singing like a Silly Donkey or creating a vocal firework display inspired by Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, the term begins with an opportunity to get creative with vocal and instrumental sounds. The children will develop improvisation skills, learning how to make subtle changes to vocal timbre as well as exploring dynamics, pitch, tempo and articulation to achieve effects.
Songs such as Ear Warm and Crying Out For Love are a great opportunity to learn about intervals and through simple tuned percussion activities, the children will explore how consonant and dissonant sounds in harmony can create moods and atmosphere.
Throughout the term, the children will explore how composers use music to communicate characters, settings, and moods, identifying and exploring techniques such as leitmotifs used by film composer, John Williams.
As the term moves on, it’s time to take to the stage! The children will learn about key features of musical theatre, identifying the role of actors, musicians, and audience! Working in small groups, they will explore ways to interpret and convey the lyrical meaning of a song effectively, adding appropriate dynamics, vocal timbre, facial expression, and movement.
The term ends with an opportunity to compose, notate and perform! From a choice of activities exploring graphic and standard notations, the children could create film soundtracks, leitmotifs, sound-effect rhythms or perhaps try a musical rollercoaster ride!
Term 3 CELEBRATING SONGS
Whether they are listening out for that catchy hook, performing a chord progression, or composing the next hit song, this term the children will develop their knowledge of song ingredients!
The children will learn how composers use the dimensions of music to communicate the message of a song as well as identify structural features such as verse, chorus and bridge.
As the term progresses, they will learn to identify and describe melodic patterns and sequences in songs, playing them by ear on melodic instruments. They can learn to identify chromatic melodies with songs such as Happiness is Not... or compose and notate simple melodies inspired by Ring Out The Bells and London Bells.
Ensemble playing remains a key focus and the children will develop their understanding of chords, learning to play simple chord progressions and basslines to accompany songs such as This Is The Blues or When We Celebrate.
Throughout the term, the children will listen to a range of music from protest songs to royal fanfares and understand how composers find their inspiration from specific events and situations in the world.
The term ends with a chance to create music for a specific occasion. With a selection of activities to choose from, the children can write a song of celebration, a leavers song or a school fanfare!
