Musical  Concepts

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Help to remember the concepts

Junior curriculum

Senior Curriculum

 

It is difficult to teach the musical concepts in isolation from the three strands of music

Listening and responding

Performing

Composing

Drawing children's attention to the concepts, as you teach music, makes them more musically aware, as listeners, and also more sensitive to music, as performers.

A little help to remember the concepts......             

lPulse/ beat  (think of your heart!)
lDuration  (are notes long or short, silence?)
lTempo (mph!  )
lPitch  (high/low,  imitate melodies, shape of melody)
lDynamics (loud/soft, volume control!)
lStructure  (beginning, middle, end, )
lTimbre  ( each instrument has a unique sound, you know your friend on the phone by the timbre of their voice!)
lTexture (what makes up the music, one or many instruments?)
lStyle (classical violin  / traditional fiddle)

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Curriculum for Junior classes   top            

Information is colour coded to correspond with the curriculum.

infant work is in blue only, red represents all work for first and second, often including development of the infant work.

 pulse
  1. Show a steady pulse or beat (e.g. marching, tapping, clapping)    (first and second)
  2. Understand and differentiate between music with a steady pulse of beat and music without a strong beat.

duration
  1. Listen to and imitate patterns of long and short sounds. (infants only)
  2. Listen to, imitate and perform simple rhythm patterns which include silences

 tempo
  1. Understand and differentiate between fast and slow rhythmic and melodic patterns (first and second)
  2. Getting faster, getting slower.

 pitch
  1. Understand and differentiate between high and low sounds, (first and second)
  2. Imitate melodies. (first and second)
  3. Understand and differentiate between  same and different.
  4. perceive the contour (shape of melodies)

 

 dynamics
  1. Understand and differentiate between loud and soft sounds.( First and second)
  2.  Getting louder getting softer.

 structure
  1. Understand ‘start’ and ‘stop’. (infants only)
  2. Understand beginning , middle and end
  3. identify an obviously different or repeated section.

 timbre
  1. Play and explore a variety of sound-making materials (first and second)
  2. Classify sounds  by the way they are produced. (infants only)
  3. Classify instruments by the way the sound is produced.
  4. differentiate between obviously different sounds and instruments eg triangle, drum

 texture
  1. Listen and respond to sounds from one source and from more than one source. (also for first and second)

 

 style
  1. Listen and respond to music in different styles.      (also for first and second)

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Curriculum for senior classes

 

 

pulse
  1. Show a steady pulse or beat. Keeping time to the music. (fifth and sixth)
  2. Understand and differentiate between music with a steady pulse or beat and music without a strong beat. (fifth and sixth)
  3. Discover and recognize strong and weak beats. (recognise strong and weak beats)
  4. Discover two-beat time (like a march), three beat time (like a waltz), and six eight time (like a jig) in moving to music

duration
  1. Listen to, imitate and perform patterns of long and short sounds and silences.          (fifth and sixth)

tempo
  1. Understand and differentiate between fast and slow rhythmic and melodic patterns, getting faster, getting slower.

(also for fifth and sixth class)

 

pitch

1.    Understand and differentiate between high and low sounds, (fifth and sixth)  same, different, repeated.

2.     Imitate melodies

3.    Perceive the contour (shape) of melodies (the general shape of a short simple melody represented on a stave, movement by steps or leaps)

dynamics

1.        Understand and differentiate between loud and soft sounds, getting louder, getting softer. (fifth and sixth)

2.        Select appropriate levels of loud and soft in performing.

structure

1.        Understand beginning, middle and end.

2.        Identify a different, contrasting or repeated section.

3.        respond with a sense of phrase (observe the natural divisions in music)

4.        Recognise simple form (e.g. ABA where A represents the first section,and B a second contrasting section)

timbre

1.        Explore, classify and differentiate between different sounds and instruments. (fifth and sixth)

2.        Identify some families of instruments. (fifth and sixth)

texture

1.        Recognise differences between single sounds and combined sounds when listening. (aurally)

2.        Recognise differences between single sounds and combined sounds visually, (from graphic or standard notation)

 style

1.        Listen and respond to music in a wide range of styles. (fifth and sixth)

2.        Differentiate between clearly contrasting styles (e.g. folk and flamenco guitar playing)
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