Music Monthly Update #3

In Year 1, the children will:

• Continue to learn nursery rhyme style songs and add appropriate accompaniments using un-pitched percussion instruments.
• Explore the variety of sounds that we can produce on non-pitched percussion instruments in the classroom.
• Listen to examples of orchestral instruments and learn how sound is produced. Learn about the four major orchestral families: Strings, woodwind, brass and percussion.

In Year 2 the children will:

• Continue to listen to and play different examples of beat and rhythm and learn how to conduct different beat patterns such as two beats in a bar or three beats in a bar.
• Using instruments to create classroom arrangements of songs such as “Old MacDonald has a band”.
• Look at how an orchestra is made up and the role of the conductor.

In Year 3 the children will:

• Explore different types of musical accompaniment; rhythmic, melodic and harmonic.
• Sing songs that have different types of accompaniment..

In Year 4 the children will be:

•  exploring patterns in music.
• We will be playing pieces of music that incorporate ostinato patterns such as Pachelbel’s “Canon” and Tubular Bells 2 as well as other examples often used in popular music.
• We will also be starting work on ukuleles.

In Year 5 the children will be:

• Linking with their current Unit of Inquiry, Migration, we will look at the influence of the African slaves in America in the development of current day Afro-American music.
• We will learn and perform some Negro Spirituals, Blues and Ragtime.

In Year 6 the children will:

• explore the way composers use various musical devices and conventions to convey certain meanings in music.
• They will examine how tension can be created in compositions by exploring semitones and silences.