Key Stage 3

Year 7 will start learning about the building blocks of music, the musical elements; timbre, texture, tonality, rhythm, pitch, tempo, melody and harmony. They will begin with a baseline assessment to establish what they already know and continue with a composition scheme of work where they create their own superhero/villain and compose suitable music to represent them. This is their first foray into the world of film music, leitmotifs and tonality. Throughout the rest of year 7, learners will receive a broad and balanced curriculum that is focused on three strands; performance, composition and appraisal. Schemes of work include music by Pachelbel, Mozart, film music, world music, music technology and an introduction to music theory.

Year 8 continues to develop the learners’ skills across the three assessment strands of performing, composition and appraisal with schemes of work that include music by The Beatles, Adele, Michael Jackson, composing a pop song, editing and manipulating sound files using music technology and an introduction to song writing, primary chords and compositional techniques.

Key Stage 4 

Students will build on their KS3 study of music and develop their performance, compositional and appraisal skills. Students are able to choose which instrument they prefer to use for the compositional and performance tasks and will get a chance to gain an insight into how the music business works and a host of varied careers and products that are contained within the industry. The course also delves into the world of digital recording and sound reproduction.

How lessons are taught

The weekly lesson plans for BTEC Music aim to offer a balance between the practical and the analytical tasks of the BTEC specification. This also helps to ensure that learners have an opportunity to hone their musical skills with regular practice and verbal feedback.