Music: Blog items
Date: 29th Nov 2022 @ 9:40am
Year 6 - Using Music Notepad to Compose
Date: 24th Nov 2022 @ 7:11pm
We had a great music lesson today. We listened and appraised 'Fanfare for the Common Man' using the vocabulary on our new Music Listening Mats to describe the piece. We then went on to begin composing using the song 'Do What You Want To' as inspiration. We used the Music Notepad on Charanga to drag notes onto the stave. We listened to each other's compositions and provided feedback. We are looking forward to improving our compositions in the next lesson.
Date: 11th Nov 2022 @ 4:04pm
Today in Music, Year 2 focused on their listening and composing skills. We began the lesson by listening to what different instruments sounded like and listened to a variety of songs to try and identify the instruments we could hear, songs included We Will Rock You and Count on Me. Then, we began to compose, playing around with notes to create a sequence to play on the glokenspiels.
Year 6 Playing 'Do What You Want To'
Date: 10th Nov 2022 @ 5:57pm
In this week's music lesson we moved on to playing the glockenspeils. After a quick recap of musical notation, we completed an understanding music warm up, which involved listening to and then copying back riffs. We then went on to learn how to play 'Do What You Want To', which is a song we have previously listened to, appraised and learned how to sing. The piece of music was quite fast so we slowed down the tempo to allow us to accurately play the first part of the song.
Date: 3rd Nov 2022 @ 2:03pm
Today we have listened again to the Ghost Parade track and kept time to the beat by moving our bodies. We then used the percussion and xylophones to play a short melody before we began improvising our own patterns using CGE. We also began to learn some of the vocabulary for musical transcription, including sharpes, flats, stave, treble clef and time signature. Next week we will continue to develop our compositions!
Date: 3rd Nov 2022 @ 1:54pm
Today we have studied poppies and use our observational drawing skills to draw poppies, shading them with pencil crayons carefully. The aim is that we make a repeating pattern that can be used as part of our Remembrance display Soldier. We have taken great care and concentrated, whilst listening to music that would typically be played and performed at the cenotaph, including Abide with me and Elgar's Nimrod played by the orchestra. This allowed us to reflect on the soldiers who have fought or died for our country.
Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 2:56pm
This week we listen to and appraised Martin Luther King. The children participated well and listened carefully. Then we got the glockenspiels out and tried play and perform.
Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 7:47am
Bracken class have been lucky enough to have samba lessons this half term. We have been learning about a variety of instruments and learning to play in time with each other.
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 2:51pm
Nursery have been reading the story "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" By Michael Rosen and have been having such a good time! The story has a repetitive text which is great for encouraging children to join in with stories. From the story we have had so many wonderful experiences including adding music to the story, making binoculars, making bears and making some delicious biscuits. To finish of the week we even went on our very own Bear Hunt and found the bear hiding in the woods with a delicious treat for us.
If you would like to share the story with your child here is a link to the author reading the story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iou5LV9dRP0
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 12:47pm
We are very fortunate to have experience Peripatetic teachers who come into our school and support our extra learning. We have KS1 Singing Club, KS2 Choir and Schools Alive Club running this year, as well as Drumming and Guitar for pupils who have chosen to learn these instruments.
Year 6 Creative Movement & Performance Festival
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 9:22am
On Thursday morning 10 pupils from Year 6 took part in a Creative Movement & Performance Festival at Blackpool Sixth Form. They were taken through a series of workshops, looking at acting, singing and dancing all based around the production "The Greatest Showman". This was held by Active Blackpool, using Sixth Form Leaders who taught the children lots of different performing arts skills.
The children worked hard putting on their best performances of clowns, strongmen and acrobats in their acting workshop. They then learned the lyrics to This Is Me in the singing workshop showing fantastic confidence, before moving onto a dance to the same song at the end.
The event was rounded off with a fantastic show from the Sports Leaders with a compilation from The Greatest Showman which the children thoroughly enjoyed.
Date: 10th Oct 2022 @ 10:09pm
To help develop their listening and attention skills, the nursery children have been enjoying some exciting music sessions. During the sessions they have the opportunity to play some instruments including maraquitas and tambourines and have to listen carefully so they can copy a beat. Music time is also great for developing early phonics skills as the children learn songs and rhymes, listen to how sounds can be changed and tap simple beats.
Date: 5th Oct 2022 @ 7:37pm
This week we began our new art pathway, which is all about spirals! We started by looking at different examples of spirals, including those in nature. We then drew 'whole body' spirals outside before bringing this learning inside to create our own spiral drawings using chalk and pastels. We focussed on drawing our spiral from a centre point and creating clear lines that curve round.
Date: 27th Sep 2022 @ 7:24pm
As we continue our unit Dancing Through the Ages, we have looked at some common dance moves from the HipHop genre and created our own motifs in time to the music. We tried to work at different levels, in unison and in canon so that we could add some interesting dynamics to the dance routine. We had to negotiate and work together as a team to create our motif and perform it to the rest of the class.
Date: 23rd Sep 2022 @ 4:12pm
Throughout Autumn term, we will be exploring the key question 'How does Music help us to make friends?' So far, we have listened to two contrasting pieces of music- Music is in my Soul and Bolero. We have practised keeping the beat of these songs and thought about what we liked and disliked about them. During our music sessions, we have been learning to sing the song 'Music is in my Soul' and have practised the chorus and first verse trying to keep in time with each other as well as sing in tune. Lastly, we have been improvising to the song using the glokenspiels which has been lots of fun!
Date: 7th Sep 2022 @ 8:05pm
Our first PE unit in Year Two is a dance unit themed around Minibeasts. We had a great first session today, we discussed different types of minibeasts and how they might move. We then shared our ideas to music. We tried to incorporate movement on different levels and we then worked together to create a motif to the count of 16. We displayed fantastic team work, moving together and sharing ideas.
Date: 23rd Jun 2022 @ 5:23pm
Nursery have loved exploring music outside this week and the music wall has been well used! The children have been tapping beats, playing the bells and noticed the different sounds you get when you use wooden and metal beaters on the instruments. Did you know if you tap the bottom of a drain pipe with a flip flop you get a wonderful deep sound and an upside down bucket makes a brilliant drum!
Date: 20th Jun 2022 @ 12:20pm
Today, Year 6 began their new music journey. We started by recapping on musical terminology so that we could correctly use it to listen and appraise the song 'Heal the Earth'. The song was in the style of Reggae and was about how climate change is affecting our planet more than ever before. The lyrics explained how we can work together to solve some of these issues.
Date: 20th Jun 2022 @ 7:43am
In this unit, we ask ‘How Does Music Connect Us with the Environment?’ as an entry point for the broad Social Theme of ‘Music Is a Nature Lover and Guardian of the Earth’. We will look at how this links to other subjects and learning in school such as nature, environment, animals, Geography, Science, Art, Forest School, climate change etc. We began our first lesson by listening to the song ‘You and Me’ and decided that this was Pop music. We discussed similar songs and artists from this genre and why we like or disliked this piece. We then began looking at the structure of the song ‘You and Me’ and began learning the chorus – we know this to be the ‘catchy’ part or the hook and we started to practice the first verse and chorus.
We can't wait to use the Recorders in the next few weeks and create our own piece of music!
Date: 19th Jun 2022 @ 4:58pm
Last half term, our Music unit explored how Music can make us happy and want to make us dance. Throughout the unit, we listened to and appraised lots of music including: I wanna play in a band, the themetune from E.T, Music is all around, Moon and River as well as Saying sorry. Whilst appraising the music we thought about how different styles of music can make different people happy and some songs have a good, bouncy rhythm that makes us want to dance. We also learnt the lyrics to a range of these songs and enjoyed performing them vocally as well as using the glokenspiels to perform the music. The children particularly enjoyed the lyrics to Saying sorry which was our favourite to perform but we also enjoyed revisiting I wanna play in a band as we covered this in the Autumn term.
Year 6 - Chords and structures in Music
Date: 25th May 2022 @ 4:44pm
In Music this week we have looked the unit 'Chords and Structures. This involved listening and responding to the three songs 'Wake Up', 'Down by the Riverside' and 'We Shall Overcome'. As we listened to the lyrics we realised that they all had a similar theme that linked with equality and Black Lives Matter. We were also able to compare and contrast the songs and discuss key elements such as tempo, dynamics, structure, texture etc. To finish the unit, we played the glockenspiels to the song 'Down by the Riverside' and began to improvise and compose our own music.
Date: 8th May 2022 @ 6:42pm
This week in music we got the glockenspiels out! After warming up and finding the pulse of a song we then started breaking down the different verses of 'Train is A-Comin' and the different notes used. At first, this proved to be quite hard becuase the tempo was extremely fast and there were a lot of notes to remember. After some perseverence and a slower tempo, we began to get the hang of it and performed really well! Looking forward to the next one!
Year 1 Having Fun with Improvisation
Date: 8th May 2022 @ 10:08am
In Year 1 this half term we are going to be exploring improvisation through the key question, 'What songs can we sing to help us through the day?' Our song for our first lesson was called 'Getting Dressed.' Through our understanding music task we practised finding and keeping a steady beat and copying simple rhythmic patterns using long and short notes. We then listened and appraised the song, before singing together as a group and having fun! We stood up straight to focus on our breathing, moved to the music and created actions for the song! We also then used the glockenspiels to play the notes C, D and E with the song we were performing.
Date: 6th May 2022 @ 12:35pm
This week in Reception the children have been learning a new song about 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and used instruments to keep a steady beat. We also learnt a song aboiut Peter Rabbit and added actions for his curly tail and floppy whiskers. We used the claves to play syllables in a phrase to say goodbye.
Date: 1st Apr 2022 @ 4:21pm
Over the last few weeks, we have thoroughly enjoyed learning to sing the song 'The Music Man'. We took it in turns to be groups A and B as to who sang the main verse and who did the Echo of 'What can you play?' After we had practised singing and performing the song, we got the glokenspiels out and played notes A, C, D, E and F. This was a difficult skill to look at the board and try to play the glokenspiels but we persevered and we were getting better with each practise.
