What do we want our KS1 music curriculum to achieve?

• Use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
• Play tuned and untuned instruments musically
• Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
• Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the interrelated dimensions of music.

How do we fulfil this in KS1?

Music is taught as a discrete subject, by music specialists.  

It covers different topic based themes and includes all pupils and provide them with the opportunity to be challenged.

1. Music theory

Lite 1: This is a basic introduction to Music Theory. Throughout these lessons the children will be introduced to basic musical symbols as well as learning what importance they have within music; they will be taught different styles of World music and be encouraged to ask analytical questions. The children will be shown different musical instruments commonly used nationally and internationally. Finally, basic notation is the last thing to be taught introducing the children to crotchets, minims and semibreves.

Vocabulary: treble, bass, clef, orchestra, pitch, beats, rhythm, crotchets, minims, semibreve

Lite 2: This is a continuation of Music Theory Lite Level 1. This course focuses on three main areas of music and music theory: Film Composition, Genre, and Improvisation and Creativity. Each week pupils will be tasked with analysing and responding to a film score taken from Disney’s Fantasia. Pupils will then analyse a specific genre of music relating to an alternative score to Fantasia, learning about instrumentation, the working parts of popular instruments as well as being given the chance to improvise using a keyboard in a specific style.

Vocabulary: funk, rock, hip-hop, dance, electronic, jazz, genre, composition, rhythm

2. Singing

Lite 1: Pupils will learn the importance of warming up and cooling down before and after singing. They will learn how to breathe within a song without ‘snatching’ breath and how posture can help with our breathing. Pupils will also learn the keyword diction and see how useful it is; they will also investigate when it’s used and when it’s dropped and the reasons behind this.

Vocabulary: breathing, diaphragm, posture, diction, call and response, scales, movement, pitch.

Lite 2: Pupils will use their knowledge from Lite Level 1 to combine their keywords into musical phrasing. Pupils will perform vocal exercises to build on their pitch matching skills and their responses to changes in dynamics and tempo within a song. Pupils will also learn more technical keywords such as crescendo and diminuendo and be taught how to perform these using visual cues. Visual cues will also be brought into performances by the leader to change tempo and overall dynamics.

Vocabulary: diaphragm, posture, diction, call and response, scales, movement, pitch, crescendo, diminuendo.

3. Steel Pans

Pupils will explore the steel pan and its origins, from the instrument it originated from to its common use within festivals and carnivals. The pupils will learn a number of different hits to perform on the steel pan and they will also take part in a number of different musical numbers. Each week they will look into a different genre that uses the instrument and explore the different musical characteristics with a view to being able to recognise some of them by ear at the end of the course.

Vocabulary: steel pan, pannists, calypso, reggae, mambo, flick, roll, scale, rhythm, key, percussion.

4. Song writing (with glockenspiels)

Lite 1: Children will focus on how they can create sound with their bodies, their voices and with instruments using ostinati. They will learn the difference between lyrics and instrumentals and look into the sounds of different instruments before creating soundscapes. Pupils will investigate body percussion and begin composing using these sounds. The class will learn about graphic scores and explore the different ways of interpreting them, as everyone is unique in their way of thinking. Pupils will improvise question and answer phrases and link this with their
compositional skills.

Vocabulary:  soundscape, melody, word board, rhyme, structure, repetition, percussion, instrumental, lyrics, theme.

Lite 2: Children will begin to look at writing lyrics using rhyming words; these words will be added to word boards and be used to help create lyrics in future tasks. Pupils will create music and lyrics to non-musical stimuli such as pictures, poems and stories, as well as writing lyrics for well-known classical pieces.

Vocabulary:  soundscape, melody, word board, rhyme, structure, repetition, percussion, instrumental, lyrics, theme.

5. Class jam

Class Jam, taught across Keystage 1, will build on pupils’ musical skills using five different instruments: Chime bars, African Drums, Boomwhackers, Keyboards and Percussion. Pupils will have the opportunity to switch instruments each week, so they are able to feel confident in how to play all the instruments by the end of the course. Pupils on the Chime bars and keyboards will play simple, one-part melodies, pupils

Vocabulary:  rhythm, scales, melody, harmony, timing, emotion, performance, call and response.

6. Keyboards

Lite 1: This is an introduction to playing keyboards. Pupils will improve their keyboard skills gaining confidence in reading music, performing and composing. By working through several exercises looking at notation, timing and rhythm, pupils will learn how to read music in the treble and bass clef and perform a variety of pieces.

Vocabulary:  clef, stave, crotchet, minim, semi-breve, treble, bass, improvise.

Lite 2: This is a continuation from Keyboard Lite Level 1. This course aims to improve pupils’ keyboard skills and build upon the knowledge gained in Lite Level 1. The focus will be on keeping time and playing music as a duet. This course encompasses new elements of music theory such as rest notes and octaves.

Vocabulary:  clef, stave, crotchet, minim, semi-breve, treble, bass, improvise, duet, rest notes, octave