In year 7, we explore a wide range of musical styles and genres from classical music to the music of Africa. Girls are introduced to basic musical notation and explore this through keyboard and percussion performing, giving pupils of all abilities the chance to grow, develop and even to shine. Singing is a key area that is developed in year seven and by the end of the year, girls are able to sing in parts with increasing confidence and independence. They are introduced to the music notation software package ‘Sibelius’ as a tool for creating and realising their own compositions.
In year 8, girls are challenged to develop their musical skills further through broadening their understanding of musical genres, from Irish Jigs to Ground Bass Variations. They perform and compose more rhythmically complex music in compound time and look at structuring music formally into binary, ternary and variation forms. They learn about simple harmonic functions and demonstrate an understanding of how chords are formed. Pupils have the opportunity to perform lead and backing vocals in popular song performances.
In Year 9 pupils gain a deeper understanding of musical harmonies and are able to identify common harmonic structures in popular songs. They then apply this understanding and are able to structure and perform their own ‘Pop Mashup’ songs. Pupils also learn how to develop their own accompaniment patterns and use these to accompany their own pieces of music in both classical and popular styles.