Music
Music is a unique way of communicating that can inspire and motivate children. It gives an opportunity for personal expression and it can play an important part in the personal development of an individual. Music reflects our culture and society and so the teaching and learning of music enables children to better understand the world they live in. Besides being a creative and enjoyable activity, music can be a highly academic and demanding subject. It is also important in helping children feel part of a community.
Threshold Concepts
These are the key aspects of Music chosen to build conceptual understanding within the subject and are repeated many times over the course of the primary curriculum and beyond.
- Perform: This concept involves understanding that music is created to be performed.
- Compose: This concept involves appreciating that music is created through a process which has a number of techniques.
- Transcribe: This concept involves understanding that compositions need to be understood by others and that there are techniques and a language for communicating them.
- Describe music: This concept involves listening to and appreciating the features and effectiveness of musical elements.
Teaching and Learning Music
At Hanley St. Luke’s, we aim to make music an enjoyable learning experience. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we endeavour to build up the confidence of all children. Children are given the opportunity to discover, explore and develop technical skills through practical music lessons. Music lessons are timetabled for each class. This involves both whole class and small group activities. We aim to meet as far as possible the requirements of the National Curriculum. Pupils’ understanding of music will be developed through activities which bring together the requirements of the threshold concepts through performing, composing, listening and appraising.
Children are taught to recognise the musical elements of:
- • duration
- • dynamics
- • pitch
- • tempo
- • timbre
- • texture
Children are taught to make music together, to understand musical notation, and to compose pieces. They are also taught to sing and play in time controlling the sound and pace. They are taught different ways to represent sounds graphically and symbolically.
Here are some useful websites to support music. Please speak to your child's class teacher for more information.