Music
Staff within the Department
Ms E Edelenbos – Head of Music
BA (Hons), PGDE
Music at Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls aims to develop all students’ practical and listening skills, improving their enjoyment and understanding of music. Students will be introduced to many different genres of music from all around the world. The school also offers many extracurricular musical opportunities and students are encouraged to take part in regular performances, concerts and shows which take place throughout the year.
Curriculum
KS3
Students in KS3 complete a series of projects over the course of a term helping them to acquire basic skills in performance (keyboard, singing, and ukulele), listening and appraising, music theory, and composition.
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| Performing | Composing | Listening and Appraising |
| Year 7 | Singing The importance of warm-ups your voice Unison singing and introduction to harmony
Keyboard Skills Correct hand position and technique Developing fluency in performance Basic music theory and notation Treble clef stave notation Notating pitch Notating basic rhythms Basic Time Signatures (3/4 and 4/4 | Composing simple rhythms Developing a piece using the elements of music | Musical Vocabulary Elements of Music (Pitch, Melody, Dynamics, Rhythm, Timbre, Texture and Structure)
Basic music theory and notation Treble clef stave notation Notating pitch Notating basic rhythms Basic Time Signatures (3/4 and 4/4 |
| Core Repertoire List | From the Start by Laufey Ode to Joy by Beethoven Pirates of The Caribbean Theme by Hans Zimmer Lean on Me by Bill Withers | ||
Activities to do at home
All students are encouraged to learn a musical instrument in KS3. All students who have instrumental lessons are expected to do regular practice in between their lessons. Students will also be set a research topic each half term to broaden their understanding of each topic.
KS4
Students who have elected to study music at GCSE follow the Edexcel specification and develop their skills in three areas, performance, composition and listening.
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| Autumn term | Spring term | Summer term | |
| Year 9 | Elements of music developing vocabulary
Music theory
Composition introduction to DAWs
| The periods of Classical Music
Solo performance
Composition introduction to Logic Pro and Compositional Techniques I
| Ensemble performance
Music theory composition
Compositional Techniques II (Minimalism, theme and variations)
Overview of AOS 1-4 | |
| Year 10 | AoS4 - Esperanza Spalding ‘Music Em Preludio’ and Afro Celt Sound system, ‘Release’.
Compositional Techniques III
| AoS2 – Queen, ‘Killer Queen’ and Purcell, ‘Music for a While’.
Free Choice Composition
Solo performance
| AoS3 – John Williams, ‘Star Wars’ and Schwartz, ‘Defying Gravity’.
Free Choice Composition
Ensemble performance
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| Year 11 | AoS1 – Bach, ‘Brandenburg Concerto’ and Beethoven, ‘Sonata in Cm’.
Solo Performance Recording
Introduction to set brief composition
Exam preparation
| Ensemble performance recordings
Composition - completion of set brief and free compositions
Exam preparation and revision | Exam preparation and revision |
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