Music fills our classrooms
During the Summer term we have focused on children practising and performing music using a variety of instruments. The children have been learning how to play to the beat of the music and how to change the tempo and pitch of the music using their instruments. Many children have had opportunities to play instruments that they have not experienced before.
Playing to the music
The children in Nursery have been building on the rhythmic skills they have been learning and practising. They have been focusing on keeping a continuous beat, using percussion instruments, while singing their favourite nursery rhymes and other familiar songs. The children have had opportunities to use a variety of instruments including tambourines, shakers, maracas and triangles. They enjoyed playing the instruments whilst singing nursery rhymes about animals including ‘Five Little Ducks’ and ‘Old MacDonald’ in their music circle sessions.
Instruments from around the world
The children in Year 1 have been learning about musical instruments from around the world as part of their carnival topic. They listened to pieces of music which use a wide variety of instruments including Steel Drums and Agogo Bells. The children participated in a Brazilian grooves workshop where they were introduced to instruments that they had not experienced before including a Ganza and they practised playing a simple piece of music maintaining the beat throughout. The children also learnt how to play and sing a song in Zulu using drums and tambourines.
Listening for the melody
The children in Year 4 looked at famous composers including Thomas Tallis and John Blanke. They listened to music by the two composers and identified the instruments that they could hear and the impact that the music had on them. The children learnt how to improvise and compose music using online software called Dreampipe. The children composed their own melodic parts and drum rhythms to create a song. They composed their own rhythm using a range of time signatures and they altered the tempo to create a nice effect.
Beethoven
The children in Year 5 have listened and appraised a piece of music by Beethoven and created a piece inspired by Beethoven's rhythms. They also composed a piece based on Beethoven's melody, learnt about sonata form and then combined these ideas into a development section. Lastly, they created a coda and then performed their piece of music as an ensemble. In addition to this, children created a drill remix using the opening of Beethoven's 5th Symphony in Band Lab.
