Music: Blog items
Year 3 - Improvising and composing!
Date: 27th Feb 2025 @ 9:17am
In Year 3, we have been looking at composing and improvising skills. The children used the Glockenspiels to accompany the track “You’re a shining star”. Firstly, the children used the notes G, A, B , C, D to improvise with the music. When then uses a 4/4 score paper to compose our own piece along with the backing track.
Date: 10th Feb 2025 @ 9:19am
Last Monday some of our KS2 children wowed audiences in The Winter Gardens for Schools Alive. The children have worked incredibly hard since September to create a piece called ‘We are all in this together!’. They should be very proud of all they achieved, well done!
Date: 4th Feb 2025 @ 3:56pm
This week, we had a go at composing our own music using Charanga for the song we have been learning 'Bringing Us Together'.
Date: 30th Jan 2025 @ 10:41am
In Music our focus question is ‘How Does Music Improve Our World?’. In our third lesson we sung the Freedom is Coming song again, changing the key and the dynamics. We then used Chromebooks to composed using YUMU through charanga, composing using our own ABA structure using the notes provided recap Ternary form.
Date: 24th Jan 2025 @ 12:07pm
Reception had a great time this week when Travelling by Tuba visited our school.
They listened to the different sounds instruments make, some made a high pitch sound and others a low pitch sound. They clapped their hands and knees to the beat, looked at historical instruments and other instruments from around the world.
Date: 23rd Jan 2025 @ 5:44pm
Today we were lucky enough to work with Travelling by Tuba. In our whole school assembly, we were taken on a trip around the world, where we listened to different pieces of music played on lots of different instruments. In the afternoon, we were then lucky enough to take part in a workshop where we all learnt to play an instrument. We learnt the rhythm and how to play each instrument, before coming together to perform our final piece!
Date: 23rd Jan 2025 @ 2:43pm
Today we were lucky enough to start the day off with a fantastic performance from Travelling by Tuba. They took us on a journey around the world, showing us instruments from around the world and explaining the history of instruments and how theyhave developed into what we have today.
We then attended a workshop with Travelling by Tuba where we were all given an instrument to learn how to play. We all learnt our set rhythm and came together as an ensemble to perform our piece. We had a fantastic day linking Music, History and Geography!
Year 5 - Charanga YUMU - Composing
Date: 23rd Jan 2025 @ 10:09am
This week we recapped Musical Vocabulary and the names and values of notes on the stave and time signature. We sung the Freedom is Coming song again, changing the key and the dynamics.Using Chromebooks we composed using YUMU through charanga, composing using our own ABA structure using the notes provided recap Ternary form.
Date: 22nd Jan 2025 @ 5:30pm
This week, we listened to the song, ‘Bringing us together’, again. We recapped the features of the song and then started to listen to the first part using the notes GAC so we could learn how to play it on the glockenspiels. We first started with a slower tempo (90bpm) and gradually increased the tempo to matching the song (112bpm). We performed the song to the class and the were fantastic. They were all in time and it sounded like the song!
Date: 16th Jan 2025 @ 9:34am
On Wednesday the children in Schools Alive got the opportunity to professionally record the sound for their upcoming performance. The children loved singing into the microphones and worked hard to sing in unison. Some children even had solos and all did a fantastic job!
Date: 18th Dec 2024 @ 1:05pm
Nursery held their annual Christmas Sing Along this week. We all gathered under the lit up tree and sang some beautiful Christmas songs. We were so proud of all the children and how well they sang.
Year 3- Matching musical composers!
Date: 18th Dec 2024 @ 9:36am
In Music, we have been looking at the History of music. Over the past few weeks, the children have explored a different time period each week and looked at different composers from this time period. This week we looked at all the composers and put them in timeline order. We discussed key vocabulary from each time period and what music they composed.
Reception Nativity- Why do Christians celebrate Christmas?
Date: 16th Dec 2024 @ 12:02pm
Over the past few weeks the children in Reception have been learning about why Christians celebrate Christmas. The have been using the different figures at the storytelling table to retell the story in their own words. As part of their learning we have also be rehearsing our annual nativity; The Wriggly Nativity. The children have been working hard singing the songs, practricing their lines and perfroming on stage.
Date: 10th Dec 2024 @ 7:53am
In music this half term, we have been learning all about Jack & the Beanstalk through songs. We have been working on finding the quick rhythms in songs and identifying these by clapping, singing high and low notes with our voices and working on playing and singing in unison. We used a variety of percussion instruments to play the rhythms to the song, ‘And He Went Higher’, but our favourite song was ‘Fee Fi Fo Fum’.
Date: 5th Dec 2024 @ 10:54am
This half term, Year Two have been exploring Opera and used it to retell the story of Hansel and Gretel. Throguhout the unit, we have listened and appraised a variety of different songs before learning them and practicing singing together in unison. Also, we explored body percussion and used it to add into pauses and instrumental sections of songs in time to the beat.
Date: 21st Nov 2024 @ 10:33am
Over the last few weeks, we been looking at the 'Rocking Romans'. We have listened and sang along to the song, “Oh, the strata of society” and performed the song "Boudicca" using percussion instruments. The children reneacted the sounds of gallopping horses and soldiers marching through Roman towns.
Date: 21st Nov 2024 @ 9:31am
In Year Three, the children have music lesson by a peripatetic teacher focusing on Samba music. The children enjoy playing a range of instruments and creating and playing musical rhythms and patterns.
Date: 20th Nov 2024 @ 4:49pm
Year 5 - African Drumming 2024
Date: 29th Oct 2024 @ 4:16pm
Today, all of the children in Year 5 were given an amazing opportunity to take part in an African drumming workshop. Pupils learned about the different percussion instruments from west Africa and had a go at playing a djembe - an African drum. We learned different dances and rhythms and performed what we had learned in an assembly at the end of the day to parents and carers. It was an amazing experience!
Reception Music this Half Term
Date: 20th Oct 2024 @ 5:08pm
This half term we have enjoyed singing Nursery Rymes and Action Songs. We have learnt a 'Hello Song' using Makaton to support our communication.
We really enjoyed learning the 'Owl Song' and 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow' to help our learning across the curriculum.
We can now start and stop all together using instruments (Maracas and Claves) and we are beginning to find a steady beat.
What a fantastic start to Music in Reception!
Date: 17th Oct 2024 @ 9:07am
This half term in Music, we have been learning all about finding the steady beat in the music that we have been listening to. We have learnt lots of new musical vocabulary to help us when discussing what we can hear. We have had lots of fun playing a variety of notes on the glockenspiels and learning about one of our composers, Mozart. Our favourite lesson was learning how to play Twinkl, Twinkle Little Star on the glockenspiels.
Date: 16th Oct 2024 @ 4:47pm
This half term, we have enjoyed listening and appraising lots of different songs, trying to use the key musical vocabulary that we know from Year 1 and introducing some new vocabulary for Year 2. Throughout the unit, we have practised singing a range of songs and the glokenspiels.
Date: 10th Oct 2024 @ 2:29pm
Nursery have thoroughly enjoyed reading "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen. They can all join in beautifully with the story and loved using musical instuements to make the sound of swishy swashy grass and squelchy squerchy mud. They created some fabulous bear puppets, counted and sorted bears by colour and even baked some delicious bear paw print biscuits.
Date: 8th Oct 2024 @ 7:38pm
This week in Music, Year 5 performed the song 'Words Can Hurt'. We have been analysing the lyrics, looking at the structure of the composition and then practising hwo to perform as a group.
The song has meant a lot to us as it has lead to some excellent discussions about how words can hurt our Mental Health just as much as physical pain. Some of us even performed some role plays about how to act kindly and with respect - following the Boundary Always Promises.
Date: 1st Oct 2024 @ 11:48am
Today we were improvising and composing!
We started by using the glockenspiels and to improvise using a these note options:
C, D, E
C, D, E, F, G
We improvised using these 5 notes by making up a pattern of rhythm and melody of our choice – after some experimental time.
We then wrote down our preferred ostinato accurately on stave paper using the notes above, crotchets, minims, quavers. Finally we practiced playing this section for ourselves, then those who choose to, performed their improvised piece for the class.
