Music overview

Purpose of study

The aim of our music curriculum is to inspire and challenge all pupils by equipping them with the knowledge and skills to develop a love of music. As pupils progress they should develop an engagement with music, exploring and listening to a range of famous composers and performers and developing their composing and improvisation skills. Pupils are also given opportunities to develop their singing and performing skills in a range of supportive and encouraging environments.

Aims

The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:

• perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres,

• styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians

• 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

• understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations. 
  
  Subject content

Key stage 1 

• Pupils in Key Stage One will be taught to

• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes

• play tuned and untuned instruments musically

• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music

• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

•  

Key Stage Two

Pupils in Key Stage Two will be taught to

• play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression

•  improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music

•  listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

•  use and understand staff and other musical notations

•  appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians

•  develop an understanding of the history of music.