Music education at Monkton Wood Academy is designed to be captivating and inclusive, enabling all pupils to develop confidence and resilience and encourage children to value and develop their own creative identities through expressing themselves and communicating with others. The aim of our music curriculum is that pupils will leave school having built an inherent appreciation, understanding and life-long love of music.
Our curriculum in music is divided into three core musical disciplines: performance, composition and listening & appraising. These core disciplines are taught through the elements of music (DR SMITH) and woven together throughout all music topics, to provide our students with an evolving opportunity to develop their musical appreciation and general musicianship. The core qualities developed throughout their music education include: leadership, problem-solving, teamwork, negotiating, resilience, time management, cultural history, confidence, social skills, and a sense of achievement, along with many others.
The curriculum follows a musical journey of learning which explores three core themes: Community, Art and Popularity, alongside the core musical disciplines. The development of these three core disciplines of music throughout the KS3 curriculum has been based on the academic and practical expectations of the GCSE Music specification, so that pupils start to embed some of the key concepts and skills required by the end of this course. These schemes of work develop students’ understanding of the musical elements through composition, deliberate listening activities and the practical development of performance skills.
Year 7:
Project 1 – Spirit of the Carnival: Pupils will learn about note values, bars, pulse, how to ‘keep a beat’ call & response, repetition & ostinatos, time signatures/metre and dynamics. They will do this though exploring the medium of Samba Festival Music.
Project 2 – Great Composers & Instruments of the Orchestra: Pupils will learn about staff notation, treble/bass clef, chords, melodic shape, keys (Major/minor), identifying different timbres/instrumental families and will develop their keyboard/piano performance skills. They will do this through exploring some of Western Classical Music’s greatest composers, as well as learning about some lesser known composers who have made a great contribution to the musical world.
Project 3 – MWA Glastonbury CabotFest Project: Pupils will learn about performance techniques on the drums, ukulele, keyboard, guitar and vocals, texture, pop song structures and popular music notation (TAB/Lead Sheets). They will do this though exploring popular music which has been performed at the Glastonbury festival. They will learn about the context of the festival, it’s impact on the music industry and see what makes an effective performance.
Year 8:
Project 1 – Blues & Jazz Music: Pupils will learn about the history of Blues & Jazz music and their link to the transatlantic slave trade, the 12 bar blues chord structure, blues scale improvisations, walking bass lines & AAB lyric structures. They will do this through exploring a number of famous blues and jazz music examples through listening and analysis, and then practically on the keyboards, guitars and ukuleles.
Project 2 – Great Composers of Baroque, Classical & Romantic Music: Pupils will learn about the context of the baroque, classical and romantic eras and explore example composers, the arrangement of chords (II, III, VI), melodic intervals and degrees of the scale. They will do this through listening to and exploring the music of some of the Greatest Composers, learning about these composers and their lives (in the context of the time they were writing music for) and then exploring examples of their music through playing performance set works on the keyboards.
Project 3 – MWA Glastonbury 2 CabotFest Project: Pupils will learn about popular music and how it has developed throughout the decades (70’s -present), stylistic expression (using dynamics, tempo and performance techniques), textural variation, articulation and a range of different performance techniques. They will do this by listening to and exploring popular music set works from each decade from the 1970’s until present day as well as developing performance techniques and group performance skills.
Year 9:
Project 1 – How Music Can Tell My Story Songwriting Project: Pupils will learn about lyric writing, 4 chord progressions, personal identity profiles, songwriting techniques and masterclasses on alternative music tech pathways. They will do this by listening to examples of songs which use the ‘4 Chord Method’ – and will then use this knowledge to create their own ‘4 Chord’ sequences. They will then watch recorded masterclasses on songwriting and watch modelling by their teachers on song structures, writing lyrics, adding a bassline and other songwriting skills. They will then combine all of these elements together into the creation of their own piece of music, which they will then perform.
Project 2 – Music For Media – Film & TV: Pupils will learn about the power of music in film/TV/Games, what leitmotifs are, compositional techniques and will develop music technology skills. They will do this by exploring different scenes and how the music changing can impact on the mood/effect of the scene, they will then explore a series of different film/TV genres and will learn about the compositional devices used to match that genre/mood of clip.
Project 3 – Live Lounge Project: Pupils will learn about cover songs/remixes, listen to ‘Live Lounge’ examples, acoustic/electronic sounds, expression and stylistic interpretation and will explore more complex musical structures and forms. They will do this through analysing the differences between original song versions, and selected remixes/Live Lounge examples. They will explore ways in which both acoustic and electronic sounds can be used to create a different arrangement of a piece of music, moving it into a new genre.
Here are Monkton Wood Academy we follow the WJEC/Eduqas GCSE Music specification. Pupil studying music in Years 10 and 11 will be provided with an excellent opportunity to develop their interest in music and enhance their musical understanding and skills. This will include: Listening to and Appraising a rich variety of music from a wide range of genres and eras; Performing music on instruments and by using their voices (on their own and as part of an ensemble) and through the Composition of their own music – acoustically or through the use of appropriate music technologies – both in response to a specific stimuli or brief and as a creative exploration of their own concepts and ideas.
Skills developed through the study of this subject are not only scientifically proven to develop cognitive processing and problem solving – as well as memory and information recall – but also help with emotional, interpersonal and creative development and expression. This qualification directly supports the future study of Music, Music Technology and/or other Performing Arts Subjects in Further and Higher Education, as well as providing the skills and confidence useful when applying to a wide variety of courses; from Law to Medicine, Media Studies to Journalism. Careers related to, or part of, the music industry are as equally varied; from music producers to sound engineers, entertainment attorneys in law to speech pathologists and music therapists, there are music related careers in every sector.
Year 10:
Component 1 – Performing 30%: Pupils will explore what makes an effective ensemble performance. They will then prepare repertoire for a band/ensemble performance for around Christmas time. After this they will then explore what makes an effective solo/free performance in preparation for a solo/free performance of prepared repertoire by the Easter Holidays. The rest of the year is spent building upon feedback from these two different forms of performance and engaging with as many performance opportunities as possible.
Component 2 – Composing 30%: Pupils will start a ‘Compositional Sketchbook’, where they will explore the creation of music in many different styles/genres. They will explore differ mediums, live composition and the use of music technology. This will involve music theory masterclasses and music technology workshops. They will then start creating their first ‘Free’ composition to a brief of their own choice. They will track their progress using a composition log, develop a musical score and regularly submit audio files for development feedback. They will then complete and submit their first fully completed composition by the end of the first year of study.
Component 3 – Listening & Appraising 40%: This will involve the study of four Areas of Study: AoS 1 – Musical Forms and Devices – This is music from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods, pupils will also learn about contextual forms and stylistic devices of each era’s music, as well as studying their first of two Set Works (J.S Bach’s Badinerie); AoS 2 – Music For Ensemble – This includes Jazz & Blues music, Chamber Music and Musical Theatre, explicitly focusing on textures, forms & instrumental/voice groupings; AoS 3 – Film Music – This includes exploring soundtracks used for film, the study of both original scores and pre-existing music used in movies and how music is utilised within film from dramatic effect or to create a mood or emotional response; AoS 4 – Popular Music – This includes exploring a range of different musical genres that come under the umbrella of ‘Popular music’, different instrumentation, structures and the use of appropriate performance techniques and/or music technology, as well as studying their second of their two Set Works (Africa by Toto).
Year 11:
Component 1 – Performing 30%: During the second year of this course, pupils will prepare repertoire for their final band/ensemble performance for around Christmas time. After this they will prepare repertoire for their ‘Free’ performances which will take place by the Easter Holidays.
Component 2 – Composing 30%: Pupils will compose a second piece of music to meet one of four Set Brief released by Eduqas in early September.
Component 3 – Listening & Appraising 40%: Involves revisiting all of the four Areas of Study, completing practice questions, working on exam technique and undertaking targeted masterclasses focused on areas for development from PPEs completed throughout the year.
