Music
Curriculum Statement Music
Instrumental and LAMDA Lessons
Instrumental Lessons:
Alongside the music curriculum, we have visiting private music teachers, that offer vocal and instrumental lessons on a one-to-one basis. In these lessons students are able to learn and develop their skills on a chosen instrument. Our peripatetic teachers offer lessons on bass, acoustic and electric guitars, drums, voice and piano. One-to-one music lessons are a great opportunity for students to increase their self-confidence, creativity and boost their sense of achievement.
We currently use two providers; Open2Music service and staff we have appointed. I have included details in the letter below.
If you wish to sign up your child for peripatetic lessons through the Open2Music service, then please complete email the following form: Enquire About Lessons (music-in-education.co.uk)
If you wish to sign up your child for peripatetic lessons through the school directly, then please complete the following online form: Click Here To Sign Up for Peripatetic Lessons
Home (music-in-education.co.uk)
LAMDA Lessons:
Our Teacher of LAMDA, Mrs Stewart, offers specialist lessons, working with students towards their LAMDA Verse and Prose qualifications. I have included details in the letter below.
This aspect of the Performing Arts Department is directed at helping to focus on the practical techniques required to act in the profession. Older students may use these lessons to prepare for auditions for productions, scholarships and for entry into the National Youth Theatre and Drama Schools.
If you wish to sign up your child for LAMDA lessons, then please complete the following online form:
Music KS3 Progression
Music KS3 Vocabulary List
Year 7 Music
Year 7:
Number of lessons a fortnight: 2
Aims of the course:
Year 7 Topics:
- Find Your Voice
- Carol Service Prep
- Intro the Keyboards
- Baroque Music
- Junk Rhythms
- Blues
All pupils have the opportunity to perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions. This is studied through a variety of works, including the so-called ‘great’ musicians and music that is relevant to the students.
Students will also learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence.
Finally, students will understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, through both aural and notated music. At Chertsey high, this will be achieved through the focus mnemonic of Mr D Tights: Melody, Rhythm, Dynamics, Texture, Instrumentation, Genre, Harmony, Tonality and Structure. Students will learn through a spiral curriculum in which students will see the same topics throughout their school career, with each encounter increasing in complexity and reinforcing previous learning.
Content; Skills / Knowledge:
Students build on their understanding covered by the KS2 music curriculum through performing, composing and listening. They develop their vocal and instrumental fluency, accuracy and expressiveness; and understand musical structures, styles, genres and traditions, identifying the expressive use of musical dimensions. Students listen with increasing discrimination and awareness to inform their practice as musicians. They use technologies appropriately and appreciate and understand a wide range of musical contexts and styles.
Pupils are taught to:
- Play and perform confidently in a range of solo and ensemble contexts using their voice, playing instruments musically, fluently and with accuracy and expression
- Improvise and compose; and extend and develop musical ideas by drawing on a range of musical structures, styles, genres and traditions
- Use staff and other relevant notations appropriately and accurately in a range of musical styles, genres and traditions
- Identify and use the inter-related dimensions of music expressively and with increasing sophistication, including use of tonalities, different types of scales and other musical devices
- Listen with increasing discrimination to a wide range of music from great composers and musicians
- Develop a deepening understanding of the music that they perform and to which they listen, and its history.
Students will see the same skills throughout their school career, with each encounter increasing in complexity and reinforcing previous learning.
How can parents help?
M - ‘Musicking’
Encourage them to sing and be musical
- They will make mistakes! However it is through those mistakes that they will learn and become better musicians. It won’t happen overnight so they may need somebody to...
U - Understand them
- Please help to understand that music has ups and downs. They will face hurdles and struggles that may frustrate them but please help to encourage them through it and...
S - Support them
- It is only through mistakes that progress is made so help them to reflect on what went well and what they can do to improve.
I - Independent work
- Please encourage students to take time over their homework and complete it a few days before the deadline. Often the tasks will be used for an assessment and it would be upsetting for all involved if they were to rush it!
C - Extra-Curricular
- Continuing to support any extra-curricular activities that the young musicians may be involved with both inside and outside of school. Peripatetic lessons are by no means the sole way to develop musical aptitude, but they can help (provided in school by Open2Music.com)!
Year 8 Music
Year 8:
Number of lessons a fortnight: 2
Aims of the course:
Year 8 Topics:
- Intro to the Ukulele
- Reggae
- Ragtine
- Japanese Music
- Classical Variations
- Musicals
All pupils have the opportunity to perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions. This is studied through a variety of works, including the so-called ‘great’ musicians and music that is relevant to the students.
Students will also learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence.
Finally, students will understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, through both aural and notated music. At Chertsey high, this will be achieved through the focus mnemonic of Mr D Tights: Melody, Rhythm, Dynamics, Texture, Instrumentation, Genre, Harmony, Tonality and Structure. Students will learn through a spiral curriculum in which students will see the same topics throughout their school career, with each encounter increasing in complexity and reinforcing previous learning.
Content; Skills / Knowledge:
Students build on their understanding covered by the year 7 music curriculum through performing, composing and listening. They develop their vocal and instrumental fluency, accuracy and expressiveness; and understand musical structures, styles, genres and traditions, identifying the expressive use of musical dimensions. Students listen with increasing discrimination and awareness to inform their practice as musicians. They use technologies appropriately and appreciate and understand a wide range of musical contexts and styles.
Pupils are taught to:
- Play and perform confidently in a range of solo and ensemble contexts using their voice, playing instruments musically, fluently and with accuracy and expression
- Improvise and compose; and extend and develop musical ideas by drawing on a range of musical structures, styles, genres and traditions
- Use staff and other relevant notations appropriately and accurately in a range of musical styles, genres and traditions
- Identify and use the inter-related dimensions of music expressively and with increasing sophistication, including use of tonalities, different types of scales and other musical devices
- Listen with increasing discrimination to a wide range of music from great composers and musicians
- Develop a deepening understanding of the music that they perform and to which they listen, and its history.
Students will see the same skills throughout their school career, with each encounter increasing in complexity and reinforcing previous learning.
How can parents help?
M - ‘Musicking’
Encourage them to sing and be musical
- They will make mistakes! However it is through those mistakes that they will learn and become better musicians. It won’t happen overnight so they may need somebody to...
U - Understand them
- Please help to understand that music has ups and downs. They will face hurdles and struggles that may frustrate them but please help to encourage them through it and...
S - Support them
- It is only through mistakes that progress is made so help them to reflect on what went well and what they can do to improve.
I - Independent work
- Please encourage students to take time over their homework and complete it a few days before the deadline. Often the tasks will be used for an assessment and it would be upsetting for all involved if they were to rush it!
C - Extra-Curricular
- Continuing to support any extra-curricular activities that the young musicians may be involved with both inside and outside of school. Peripatetic lessons are by no means the sole way to develop musical aptitude, but they can help (provided in school by Open2Music.com)!
Year 9 Music
Year 9:
Number of lessons a fortnight: 2
Aims of the course:
Year 9 Topics:
- Just Play
- Britpop
- Indian Music
- Dance Music
- Underscoring
- Solo Performance
All pupils have the opportunity to perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions. This is studied through a variety of works, including the so-called ‘great’ musicians and music that is relevant to the students.
Students will also learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence.
Finally, students will understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, through both aural and notated music. At Chertsey high, this will be achieved through the focus mnemonic of Mr D Tights: Melody, Rhythm, Dynamics, Texture, Instrumentation, Genre, Harmony, Tonality and Structure. Students will learn through a spiral curriculum in which students will see the same topics throughout their school career, with each encounter increasing in complexity and reinforcing previous learning.
Content; Skills / Knowledge:
Students build on their understanding covered by the year 8 music curriculum through performing, composing and listening. They develop their vocal and instrumental fluency, accuracy and expressiveness; and understand musical structures, styles, genres and traditions, identifying the expressive use of musical dimensions. Students listen with increasing discrimination and awareness to inform their practice as musicians. They use technologies appropriately and appreciate and understand a wide range of musical contexts and styles. This learning will prepare all students for the GCSE in music.
Pupils are taught to:
- Play and perform confidently in a range of solo and ensemble contexts using their voice, playing instruments musically, fluently and with accuracy and expression
- Improvise and compose; and extend and develop musical ideas by drawing on a range of musical structures, styles, genres and traditions
- Use staff and other relevant notations appropriately and accurately in a range of musical styles, genres and traditions
- Identify and use the inter-related dimensions of music expressively and with increasing sophistication, including use of tonalities, different types of scales and other musical devices
- Listen with increasing discrimination to a wide range of music from great composers and musicians
- Develop a deepening understanding of the music that they perform and to which they listen, and its history.
Students will see the same skills throughout their school career, with each encounter increasing in complexity and reinforcing previous learning.
How can parents help?
M - ‘Musicking’
Encourage them to sing and be musical
- They will make mistakes! However it is through those mistakes that they will learn and become better musicians. It won’t happen overnight so they may need somebody to...
U - Understand them
- Please help to understand that music has ups and downs. They will face hurdles and struggles that may frustrate them but please help to encourage them through it and...
S - Support them
- It is only through mistakes that progress is made so help them to reflect on what went well and what they can do to improve.
I - Independent work
- Please encourage students to take time over their homework and complete it a few days before the deadline. Often the tasks will be used for an assessment and it would be upsetting for all involved if they were to rush it!
C - Extra-Curricular
- Continuing to support any extra-curricular activities that the young musicians may be involved with both inside and outside of school. Peripatetic lessons are by no means the sole way to develop musical aptitude, but they can help (provided in school by Open2Music.com)!
GCSE Music
Year 10 Music:
Aims and Objectives:
The WJEC Eduqas GCSE in Music offers a broad and coherent course of study which encourages learners to:
• engage actively in the process of music study
• develop performing skills individually and in groups to communicate musically with fluency and control of the resources used
• develop composing skills to organise musical ideas and make use of appropriate resources
• recognise links between the integrated activities of performing, composing and appraising and how this informs the development of music
• broaden musical experience and interests, develop imagination and foster creativity
• develop knowledge, understanding and skills needed to communicate effectively as musicians
• develop awareness of a variety of instruments, styles and approaches to performing and composing
• develop awareness of music technologies and their use in the creation and presentation of music
• recognise contrasting genres, styles and traditions of music, and develop some awareness of musical chronology
• develop as effective and independent learners with enquiring minds
• reflect upon and evaluate their own and others’ music
• engage with and appreciate the diverse heritage of music, in order to promote personal, social, intellectual and cultural development.
The four areas of study are designed to develop knowledge and understanding of music through the study of a variety of genres and styles in a wider context. The Western Classical Tradition forms the basis of Musical Forms and Devices (area of study 1), and learners should take the opportunity to explore these forms and devices further in the other three areas of study. Music for Ensemble (area of study 2) allows learners to look more closely at texture and sonority. Film Music (area of study 3) and Popular Music (area of study 4) provide an opportunity to look at contrasting styles and genres of music.
Entry Requirements:
Some schools insist on prior attainment or performance grades in order to gain entry onto a GCSE music course. However, I believe that music is open to all and that our KS3 music course prepares students for GCSE so at Chertsey High School there are no entry requirements; if you are passionate about music you will succeed. That being said, it is important to recognise that GCSE music requires dedication, particularly in regards to the performance element, as you will be expected to be able to perform at grade 3/4 standard by the end of the GCSE course. If you take GCSE music it is strongly advised that you take 1-1 lessons on your chosen instrument. Speak to your music teacher if you want more information on this.
Summary of Assessment:
| Component 1: Performing Total duration of performances: 4-6 minutes Non-exam assessment: internally assessed, externally moderated 30% of qualification |
| A minimum of two pieces, one of which must be an ensemble performance of at least one minute duration. The other piece(s) may be either solo and/or ensemble. One of the pieces performed must link to an area of study of the learner’s choice. |
| Component 2: Composing Total duration of compositions: 3-6 minutes Non-exam assessment: internally assessed, externally moderated 30% of qualification |
| Two compositions, one of which must be in response to a brief set by WJEC. Learners will choose one brief from a choice of four, each one linked to a different area of study. The briefs will be released during the first week of September in the academic year in which the assessment is to be taken. The second composition is a free composition for which learners set their own brief. |
| Component 3: Appraising Written examination: 1 hour 15 minutes (approximately) 40% of qualification |
| This component is assessed via a listening examination. Eight questions in total, two on each of the four areas of study. See below to see the areas of study. Two of the eight questions are based on set extracts set by WJEC that you will study in depth, the remaining questions will be unfamiliar pieces requiring you to apply your listening skills to the piece. |
Areas of study:
- Area of study 1: Musical Forms and Devices Forms and devices are of fundamental importance in musical composition, and many of the common musical forms and devices used by composers today have their origin in the Western Classical Tradition. The music of the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras provides the context for a study of binary, ternary, minuet and trio rondo, variation and strophic forms. Learners are encouraged to engage with a variety of music from the prescribed eras, through a range of performing, composing and appraising activities. They are also encouraged to make links between music they listen to, pieces they perform and their own compositions, as well as music by composers from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries who use these forms and devices.
- Area of study 2: Music for Ensemble Music for ensemble forms the basis for a study of texture and sonority. Through a study of diverse musical styles composed for ensemble, such as jazz and blues, musical theatre and chamber music, learners will consider how music is composed for small groups of instruments and voices. Learners will also consider how texture is manipulated and they are encouraged to use small instrumental/vocal groupings in their own music. Learners are required to perform as part of an ensemble, and through this to actively engage with ensemble music, understanding the relationship between performers on the stage and the audience.
- Area of study 3: Film Music The film industry is of considerable commercial and cultural interest in both the UK and abroad. There are many areas of specialism for musicians within this industry such as composer, orchestrator, arranger, performer, music editor, producer and more. A film composer scores music to accompany a motion picture for film or television. This includes dramatic underscore and thematic music as well as popular songwriting. Through this area of study learners are encouraged to consider how music for film is created, developed and performed, and the impact this has on the audience. Learners will have the opportunity to compose and perform film music and are encouraged to use musical technology to create mood and atmosphere through engaging with the story of the film.
- Area of study 4: Popular Music Popular music is a wide-ranging and diverse art form encompassing several distinct genres. The popular music industry offers a wide range of opportunities for both composers and performers, including singer, song-writer, music producer, arranger and more. Through this area of study learners are encouraged to explore the musical idioms associated with a variety of popular music, and they will have the opportunity to perform popular music as well as compose music associated with a popular music genre. Learners are also encouraged to use music technology, understanding the impact this has on the way music is developed and performed in popular music.
How will you be taught:
You will be taught GCSE Music in a broad and coherent course of study. As such, you will study and prepare for the three strands, performance, composition and appraising, continuously throughout the year. You will study the elements of music using the mnemonic MR D TIGHTS, and then use this in relation to all of the areas of study in a spiral curriculum. You will see this mnemonic throughout your school career (and will remember it from KS3), but it will gradually increase in complexity and reinforce previous learning.
Importantly, you have non-exam assessment throughout the two years. Don't worry, your teacher will guide you through how to achieve the very best marks, but ultimately it is your work so you will have work on the feedback your teacher gives you and meet the deadlines. You will regularly meet and discuss your work with your teacher, who will guide you to improve your work.
