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Thursday, 2nd September, 2010

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Classroom Music

Classroom Music

For downloadable lesson materials (including account set-up) and supporting material, please scroll to the bottom of this page.

Classroom Music, written for teachers by teachers, is a unique twice-termly magazine resource for anyone involved in secondary music education. Published just before the start of each term and half term for maximum benefit, Classroom Music offers a range of features, online lesson materials and in-depth product reviews. It offers inspiring ideas and advice for all classroom teachers, whether you're newly qualified or a head of department.

With specifications changing at all levels, it has never been more important to keep in touch with the very latest teaching advice. Our lesson materials section (now available online only) provides material that you can use directly in your own teaching, while the features section keeps you abreast of current debates, developments and initiatives within the music teaching profession, as well as providing innovative ways to expand and enhance your teaching.

Each issue contains six substantial sets of lesson materials, covering, KS3, GCSE, AS and A2, and from 2009/10, KS2/3 transition, BTEC and the International Baccalaureate. Some are specific to certain exam boards; others can be used more widely.

Online-only lesson materials from October 2009: the autumn 2 2009/10 issue was the first to give you online-only schemes of work. Subscribers can create a user account, enabling them to download the schemes for the latest issue, while still receiving a copy of the magazine, with a fantastic range of features and product reviews.

Classroom Music welcomes feedback and ideas from its subscribers, to make the magazine as useful and relevant to your teaching as possible:

Need help setting up your online user account? Contact our subscription provider on 01371 851892.

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Lesson Material

Issue 37 (Autumn Term 1 - 10/11)

Key Stage 2/3

Music for special events

Author: Andy Brooke

Music for special events

This unit of work is based on the theme of music for special events, with a focus on fanfares and an initial emphasis on music for the Olympic Games. It would tie in very well with a cross-curricular topic on the Olympics, which primary schools might like to consider over the next couple of years, given that the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in London in 2012.

The project will last for half a term, and will promote skills development in performing, composing, listening and appraising, at the end of which children will perform their own composition for a special event in school, either real or imagined. Teachers might like to consider a real performance at a real event, such as sports day. Read less...

Key Stage 3

The Classical period

Author: Jane Werry

The Classical period

This unit of work uses performing, composing, research and listening to provide students with an understanding of structures and compositional techniques used in the Classical period, and uses Beethoven's fifth symphony and Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik as starting points. It also incorporates numerous strategies for Assessment for Learning. I have found it to be very successful towards the end of Year 8, although you might decide that it would suit your students at a different point in KS3.

By focusing on the ways in which Classical composers develop their musical ideas, and how these ways can be combined, students are given valuable tools for creating music which not only help them meet the assessment criteria for the higher NC levels, but which will be useful for them at GCSE level. Read less...

Key Stage 4

BTEC Firsts: improvisation

Author: Perez Bugby-Ainsworth

BTEC Firsts: improvisation

Improvisation is an exciting performance skill that can be examined thoroughly within Unit 13. The learner is taken on a musical journey which explores improvisation in its many styles and genres. The pass criteria can be met through a series of teacher-led workshop/improvisation activities, however to meet the merit and distinction requirements, it is important for the students to explore improvisation in non teacher-led, smaller groups – allowing for students to be original, creative and spontaneous.

The assignment brief for this unit must incorporate the practical and improvisatory nature of the module. This scheme suggests tasks and activities for the brief, along with guidelines for assessment. An example outline of the brief to give to your students can be found at the end of this article.

Students will explore musical improvisation through group work, improvise within three musical templates, and perform spontaneously showing manipulation of the musical content.
Read less...

Edexcel GCSE: 20th-century music

Author: Simon Rushby

Edexcel GCSE: 20th-century music

In this article I approach the Edexcel GCSE Area of Study 2 20th-century set works with a focus on the questions likely to be asked in the listening paper. I have therefore addressed each set work as follows:

1. Context - a little of the historical and stylistic background.

2. Style - an investigation of the main stylistic features of the work. Detailed listening guides can be found in the Rhinegold Edexcel GCSE Music Study Guide, so I won't be repeating any of that information here. However, there will be a good look at the characteristics of each piece, and it would be advisable to read these sections in conjunction with the scores, found in the Edexcel GCSE Anthology of Music.

3. A guide to the types of questions likely to be asked, and the best ways to prepare students for the exam. Read less...

Key Stage 5

Edexcel A2: applied music

Author: Alan Charlton

Edexcel A2: applied music

In the Unit 6 paper, knowledge of the Applied Music works is tested in Section B, ‘Music in Context’. Candidates choose to answer two out of three questions, each of which is awarded 13 marks.

The specification states that Section B questions ‘prompt candidates to identify given musical features from selected set works and comment on how these features help to place the work in a social and historical context. Answers may be in note form or continuous prose.’

This article will focus on identifying the contextual features of three 2011 works (Bach, Bernstein and the Jig and Reel), with the aim of enabling students to answer any questions on context they may be asked in the examination. Read less...

OCR AS: 2011 jazz

Author: Huw Ellis-Williams

OCR AS: 2011 jazz

Three jazz works feature for the first time in the OCR specification for the summer examination in 2011:
1. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven: Alligator Crawl (Chicago, 1927)
2. Charlie Parker’s Reboppers: Ko-Ko (New York, 1945)
3. Miles Davis and the Gil Evans Orchestra: It Ain’t Necessarily So from Porgy and Bess (New York, 1958).

This article will discuss these three works and suggest useful listening that students can do in class. Careful listening is an essential part of studying these works, particularly for Section B questions. In preparation for Section C, the article will explore some of the historical issues that students may find useful to address in the essay questions and link these issues to evidence drawn from the works themselves. Although for the purposes of the examination students are not required to study works other than those prescribed in the specification, there are also suggestions for further listening taken from tracks on the recordings specified by OCR. Read less...

Issue 36 (Summer Term 2 - 09/10)

Key Stage 3

Flamenco

Author: Chris Elcombe

Flamenco

Flamenco is usually overlooked when it comes to teaching world music, but there are lots of good reasons why it can make for a fascinating and engaging topic for you and your students. Together, you can explore its powerful and unusual rhythms, the drama of its melodies and chords, and develop effective but simple improvisations, while learning about flamenco’s rich history, from the caves of Andalusia to the tourist tablaos of the Costas.

You don’t need flamboyant singers or classically trained dancers in your class to make sense of flamenco; you don’t even need guitarists (although one or two might help) – keyboards and any bass and melody instruments will all work, together with clapping and some sort of hand drums, with singing as an optional extra. These lesson materials will give you the tools to perform two styles of flamenco music, as a class.
Read less...

Key Stage 4

AQA and Edexcel GCSE: composing in a Classical style

Author: Alan Charlton

Amid the wide range of possible styles for the composing element of the new GCSE specifications, the Classical style offers some of the most significant long-term rewards. If studied thoroughly, it gives students an invaluable grounding in all sorts of areas of music:
- Simple harmony, including simple modulation and cadential progressions
- Phrase structure, particularly in the use of question-and-answer phrases
- Tonal structuring
- Simple forms
- Melodic writing and development, including the handling of dissonant notes
- Idiomatic instrumental writing and an appreciation of texture.

This article examines these techniques through practical analysis and composition exercises, culminating in a composition project.
Read less...

AQA and OCR GCSE: Kenyan pop

Author: Christopher Walters

AQA and OCR GCSE: Kenyan pop

For many people, Africa is synonymous with music. Traditional music appears integral to life on the continent, celebrating daily rituals and major milestones, but nowadays the reality is different. Many African people have become distanced from traditional culture as a result of economic migration to urban areas, in some cases generations ago. Exposure to various kinds of music in towns and cities has led to the emergence of new styles that draw on both popular and traditional influences, representing some of the most exciting music in Africa today; nowhere has this happened more than in Kenya. This article will examine the Kenyan pop scene in detail, within the country�s broader musical context. Read less...

Key Stage 5

BTEC Nationals: the music freelance world

Author: Benji Vincent

Offered here are four assignment briefs that cover Unit 38 – The Music Freelance World, one of the units in the specifications for the Edexcel BTEC Nationals in Music and Music Technology, including all the current BTEC National Awards, Certificates, Diplomas and the new 2010 BTEC National Certificates, Subsidiary Diplomas, Diplomas and Extended Diplomas.

This is a specialist unit for all of the current 2007 specification BTEC National courses. It can also be offered as an optional unit for all of the 2010 BTEC National courses, with the exception of the National Certificate and National Diploma in Music Technology (Events Support).
Read less...

OCR A2: programme music

Author: Robert Steadman

OCR A2: programme music

Programme music is an important subject in the OCR A2 Music examination. It appears in two separate units:
- A2 Unit G355: Composing 2
- A2 Unit G356: Historical and Analytical Studies in Music.

This article introduces a variety of works that could be studied as ‘related repertoire’, and complements these with a number of composing ideas.
Read less...

General

Music lessons for the digital native

Author: James Cross

Music lessons for the digital native

Our students have grown up digital. Many secondary students will have had access to the internet for as long as they can remember, and they inhabit a world that is becoming more connected and multimedia-centred by the day. Music, for them, is now digital – whether they are sharing it with friends, downloading it from iTunes or listening to it on their iPods.

A few years ago, the internet was mainly useful to the music teacher as a research tool. In the age of ‘Web 2.0’ however, the internet is now much more interactive. Social networking sites, collaboration tools and services that quickly let anybody publish content have exploded in popularity.

So where does this leave the music teacher? This article explores some practical ways in which teachers can leverage students’ interest in technology to make music teaching more effective. The aim of this article is to present a variety of versatile ideas that the interested teacher can pick and choose from and incorporate into their teaching, rather than whole lesson plans. By giving these ideas a try, your classroom can become more connected, relevant and engaging for your ‘digital native’ students!

The following areas will be covered, with step-by-step guides and practical ideas for their use in both KS3 and with examination classes:
- Using digital video:
- Creating a class blog:
- Creating an online school record label.
Read less...

Issue 35 (Summer Term 1 - 09/10)

Key Stage 2/3

Journey down the Amazon

Author: Andrew Brooke

Journey down the Amazon

Below is a six-week transition unit in which the secondary music teacher will work alongside the primary class teacher, on the theme of 'the Amazon'. So, put on your black pumps, line up by the door (boy-girl, boy-girl) and get back to primary school!

Proposed outcome: students will compose a set of compositions using different stimuli; they will perform their own compositions and taught material; they will practise and record their work.

Logistics:
- There will be five lessons of around 75 minutes, which will take place in the primary school
- The primary class teacher (CT) and secondary music teacher (MT) will deliver the lesson content both discretely and through team-teaching
- It is envisaged that the class teacher will provide opportunities both to learn from the central theme (i.e. the Amazon) and develop musical skills and understanding.

Some basic assumptions are also being made:
- The class is of mixed ability, around average size (25)
- The primary teacher's specialism is not music
- Children may or may not have had a solid musical foundation
- There will be few specialist resources/equipment.
Read less...

Key Stage 3

North African music

Author: Philip Ciantar

North African music

This article will unfold quite similarly to the way my first trip to Libya progressed. Although my main interest was in learning about the ma'luf in Libya, this also brought me in touch with other musical genres, forms and musical practices diffused both in Libya as well as in neighbouring north African countries (mainly Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco) and the Arab world more widely.

This article provides information about these, as well as suggested listening resources, performance and research activities, and ideas for class discussion. Read less...

Key Stage 4

BTEC Firsts Unit 6: working as a musical ensemble

Author: Simon Larner

BTEC Firsts Unit 6: working as a musical ensemble

Working as a Musical Ensemble is a popular unit in the Edexcel BTEC Music syllabus. This scheme focuses on students learning the 'musical interpretation of pieces'. For this purpose I have chosen the three solo character songs from The Wizard of Oz, as they have additional chorus parts and therefore allow for groups to define their own roles within the ensemble (solo or chorus) according to their ability and ambition. Of course, by choosing these songs as the stimuli, the brief can also be submitted for the Musical Theatre unit of the Performing Arts syllabus, under the heading 'interpreting lyrics, mood, the character of the music', as music teachers are so often called upon to fulfil their share of the BTEC in Performing Arts. Read less...

Improving texture in GCSE compositions

Author: Richard Knight

Not many of us as composers can call on a wealth of imaginative melodic, rhythmic or harmonic ideas - there is often a sense that we are covering ground that others have visited before us with greater success, but whatever material we do invent can be given a dash of fresh, creative flavour by the way we might go about setting our ideas into a musical texture.

In this article we will look at some ways in which this can be done so that students can be encouraged to shake up their approach to handling texture in their compositions. This can be a fruitful area to develop in young minds, for once they latch onto the difference that some varied use of texture can bring to their compositions, imaginative thoughts about texture can come first and then stimulate the production of interesting melodic, harmonic and rhythmic material to suit the intended textural context. Read less...

Key Stage 5

Aspects of the orchestra and symphony, 1700-1830

Author: Hugh Benham

Aspects of the orchestra and symphony, 1700-1830

This article can serve as a complement to study of Classical-period orchestral music for all three main A-level exam boards in England:
- AQA: Western Classical Tradition AoS
- Edexcel: Instrumental Music AoS
- OCR: 18th/early 19th-century Orchestra AoS.

Although it makes some reference to the Baroque period, this article focuses primarily on some Classical and early Romantic developments in the orchestra and its instruments, and the symphony.
Read less...

Edexcel A2 revision sheet: Beethoven Septet in E flat, movement I

Author: Richard Knight

Revision notes for your students on this Edexcel set work. Read less...

Edexcel A2 revision sheet: Gabrieli Sonata pian' e forte

Author: Richard Knight

Revision notes for your students on this set work. Read less...

IB: Copland - El Salon Mexico

Author: Alan Charlton

Copland's El Salon Mexico is one of the two prescribed works for International Baccalaureate standard level (SL) and higher level (HL) for examinations in 2011 and 2012. This article will focus on equipping students with the necessary background knowledge, analytical understanding and technical vocabulary to allow students to answer the set-work essay questions of the IB examination relating to El Salon Mexico.

El Salon Mexico is also a good introduction to students of other syllabuses on several topics to do with 20th-century music: the integration of folk music into classical music, 20th-century rhythmic techniques, harmony and orchestration.
Read less...

Issue 34 (Spring Term 2 - 09/10)

Key Stage 3

Musicals

Author: Roberts Steadman

Musicals

Pupils love to learn about musicals; I guess it’s the mix of music, drama, catchy songs, costumes and dance. The whole spectacle of the production has great appeal and that’s the reason why the musical became one of the most important genres of the 20th century. This scheme of work takes pupils through the history and development of the modern musical and then looks in greater detail at one classic example, West Side Story.

A project about musicals easily lends itself to some cross-curricular collaborations with drama and dance but, potentially, also with the English department if they are studying a book or play that has been adapted as a musical. In addition, the media studies department may be studying a film that has been made into a musical.

Read less...

The power of music

Author: Jane Werry

The power of music

Music is all around us, and fulfils an extraordinary range of purposes in our lives: to soothe, to inspire, to energise, to bond, to sell washing powder – the list is endless. The aim of this unit of work is to get students to consider the role of music in their own lives, and understand some of the ways that it affects the lives of others. I have used this unit successfully towards the end of Year 8, although it could be adapted to fit in earlier or later in KS3.

The unit includes listening, performing, and composing activities centred on football songs, lullabies, Olympic songs and music in adverts. There is also a research project which students complete as an ongoing homework over the course of the unit, which covers music in sport, music and healing, music and propaganda, the Mozart effect, and muzak. Giving students choices can be a powerful motivator, and one of the things my students have enjoyed most about this unit is its flexibility and opportunities for them to choose which performing and composing activities they do.
Read less...

Key Stage 4

GCSE: technology performance options

Author: Rachel Brooks & Craig Ratcliffe

GCSE: technology performance options

The use of technology in performance has been embraced by all the main examination boards in the recent changes to the GCSE specifications (from September 2009). As the popularity of music technology is seeing an increase in schools and with students, you may be intending to offer music technology-based performance options for the first time to your students.

This article guides you through the sequencing and multi-tracking processes and provides suggested activities for you and your students to practise these. Read less...

Tango

Author: Richard Knight

Tango

Tango appears in the new OCR GCSE specification (Area of Study 3: Dance Music) and this article is intended to provide some helpful insights and material for teachers engaged in delivering this course. It could alternatively form the basis of a KS3 project, and it is also hoped that the materials included will be of wider interest, since tango offers a whole new musical world that will appeal to many.

2009 has been a significant year in the history of tango: in September UNESCO awarded tango world heritage status. Its presence on the UNESCO list is unusual: a style of dance and music alongside the great natural and man-made sites of the world (Stonehenge, the Grand Canyon, Sydney Opera House, etc.). You won’t find polka, waltz or foxtrot on the list; not even samba or salsa. So what is so special about tango?
Read less...

Key Stage 5

AQA A2: English Choral Music of the 20th Century

Author: Richard Knight

AQA A2: English Choral Music of the 20th Century

The AQA approach of setting topics but not prescribing specific works can lead to an embarrassment of riches when it comes to music that you might choose to study. In the Rhinegold Study Guide for this specification, space permitted only a fairly tightly drawn selection of works. For the English Choral Music topic, the three most famous works of the category were examined, at least in part:
- Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius
- Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast
- Britten: War Requiem.

While these three towering scores offer more than enough material, there is no shortage of wonderful alternative pieces that teachers could also incorporate, either to augment the musical diet, or to provide an alternative to the mainstream sacred works of the century and to provide a wider chronological span.

This article is intended to cover three such pieces in some detail. These are:
- Lambert: The Rio Grande – a rollicking, jazz-infused cantata-cum-piano concerto depicting Brazilian partying, written in 1927
- Howells: Hymnus paradisi – an extraordinary personal response to bereavement written by this master of the English cathedral tradition between 1935 and 1950
- Rutter: Requiem – a skilful blend of various influences from this modern master of English choral music.
Read less...

Edexcel AS: composition

Author: Alan Charlton

The new Edexcel AS composition paper (Unit 6MU02) is now in its second year of teaching. Replacing the old paper 6702/01, it incorporates a number of changes that will have caused teachers to revise their delivery of the unit, in many cases quite drastically.

This article will examine these changes and provide practical advice and ideas for your teaching, and for students as they prepare coursework and the accompanying sleeve note. Read less...

Issue 33 (Spring Term 1 - 09/10)

Key Stage 3

Music and nature

Author: Richard Knight

Music and nature

In Classroom Music summer term 1 2008/09, various ideas were presented for projects using the sea as an inspiration for music. Here, in a companion article, we look at various projects related to more land-based elements of nature.

For artistically minded people, there is nothing new in turning to the natural world around us for inspiration. In an age where a rebalancing between man and nature is, many would argue, overdue, encouraging pupils to respond creatively to the natural world around them, tapping into their often fervent concern for their planet, has much to recommend. There are many facets to nature that one can explore musically; here we consider three: landscape, animals and weather.
Read less...

Roma and Balkan music

Author: Simon McKerrell

Roma and Balkan music

This article unveils the world of Roma music (‘gypsy’ music) in the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe. The article places an emphasis on developing an understanding of the culture of the Roma, and how this is reflected in their music and music about them.

Topics include: varied listening (art and traditional genres); class discussions of discrimination; working with Balkan rhythm, music and language; creative improvisation; gender; making a Roma cimbalom (dulcimer); understanding how and why Roma are a marginalised group in Europe.
Read less...

Key Stage 4

BTEC Firsts: exploring musical composition

Author: Barry Russell

BTEC Firsts: exploring musical composition

TV-theme, film and video-game music composition projects are common currency. The assignments in this article frame three approaches to these sorts of project and, as well as giving students the opportunity to meet all the grading criteria for BTEC Firsts Unit 4, are designed with supporting materials for the teacher to help students develop their ideas.

The projects are also easily adapted for classroom work in Years 7–9 and as frameworks for integrated assignments related to the AQA GCSE area of study: Film Music.

Although all the assignments are ostensibly about composing for TV, film and games, each has a related compositional concept:
Assignment 1 – manipulating musical ideas and units
Assignment 2 – using modal material
Assignment 3 – extending tonality, developing atonal material.
Read less...

Hip hop

Author: Charlotte Lane

Hip hop

This scheme of work is intended for use with key stage 4 students and has been developed from existing schemes that have been taught at both KS4 and KS3 level. It is designed to fulfil many of the listening, performance and composition requirements of the AQA, OCR and Edexcel syllabuses and could also be adapted for the BTEC First Certificate in Performing Arts at Level 2. Where appropriate, links have been highlighted directly to the pertinent course material.
The intention has been to provide access to teachers and students, regardless of ability level or availability of resources, to this very relevant and current musical genre.

The journey that the learner takes encompasses an investigation into the musical style that is hip hop, and leads the learner through practical composition and music-making opportunities. The scheme provides a guided approach to creating and performing a hip-hop piece, but also offers many other performance opportunities throughout. Read less...

Key Stage 5

Edexcel AS Music Technology: focus styles 2009/10 - reggae and heavy rock

Author: Chris Duffill

This article is primarily aimed at covering the knowledge and skills needed for section B of the Music Technology AS listening paper, but also covers other wider areas of relevance in Music Technology, either for the Edexcel A level or any of the other boards. It will also have wider uses in the curriculum if these styles are required as an area of study, and some of the technology aspects may provide useful at GCSE and even KS3.

It includes: stylistic features – ensembles, timbres, writing approaches, performance, recording, production and use of technology; context – influences, significant artists, social and cultural background, development, popularity; how to deliver the Special Focus topics in the classroom; crossover with practical tasks and skills development (a two-way process); and other listening and analysis work. Read less...

Edexcel AS: 20th-century vocal music

Author: Simon Rushby

Edexcel AS: 20th-century vocal music

This article will explore in detail the last three of the six set works that students have to know for the Vocal Music area of study for Unit 3.

Rhinegold’s Edexcel AS Music Study Guide (second edition) by David Bowman and Paul Terry provides detailed background and analysis of these works, and I do not intend to repeat that information here. Instead I will look at each of the three songs from the perspective of the two types of question that will come up in the 2010 summer AS examination. Read less...

Issue 32 (Autumn Term 2 - 09/10)

Key Stage 2/3

Machines

Author: Andy Brooke

Machines

How well do you know the students who will be starting in Year 7 next September? What have they been doing for the last seven years, and what have they learned? Have you ever met any of their primary school teachers?

This six-week KS2/KS3 transition unit on the theme of machines promotes stronger links between primary and secondary teachers, and suggests that primary school is still just as fun-filled, feel-good and action-packed as we remember ... and with any luck, the kids might even think so too.

This is a unit of work that could be used or adapted as a transition unit, to be delivered by a secondary music teacher alongside the primary class teacher. There are some ambitious activities but, as teachers, we can do no greater service to the students than to have high expectations of them, and to insist that they have similarly high expectations of us and of themselves. Read less...

Key Stage 3

GarageBand

Author: Joe Moretti

GarageBand

GarageBand can be thought of as the complete music package for the classroom: the range of techniques and facilities that it brings is extensive. Through three projects aimed at students at KS3, I will attempt to demonstrate the range and scope of these. The projects will cover the following key areas:

1. Loops - exploration of texture, dynamics, instrumentation and structure; sharing to devices (including ringtones).
2. Class singing - GarageBand and MIDI files, instrumentation and adding live musicians.
3. Audio recording - recording audio via three sources, and introduction of effects.
Read less...

Mexican music

Author: Ruth Hellier-Tinoco

Mexican music

Viva Mexico! The land of sun, turquoise waters and beach resorts. You've seen the mariachi musicians with their huge hats, tight jackets and trousers with silver buttons. You've heard the brilliant trumpets and the soaring violins. You think of dry mountain landscapes and tall spiky cactuses.

But what of P'urhepecha music? Of gentle duet singing, flowing string ensembles and rousing brass bands? In the state of Michoacan, nestled in the green, wooded mountains and on little islands on Lake Patzcuaro, thousands of P'urhepecha musicians play sones, abajenos and pirekuas for religious fiestas, for birthdays, for festivals and for their sweethearts.

Through these lessons, students will listen to and learn to play and sing two P'urhepecha sones. Read less...

Key Stage 4

Edexcel GCSE: Area of Study 3 (popular music in context)

Author: Simon Rushby

Edexcel GCSE: Area of Study 3 (popular music in context)

This article approaches the Edexcel 'Popular Music' set works with a focus on the questions likely to be asked in the listening paper. Each set work is addressed from the point of view of the different areas of knowledge needed for the paper, as follows:

Context - a little of the historical and stylistic background
Style - an overview of the main stylistic features of the track
A listening guide or overview - best read while listening to the track
An examination of the elements of music - pitch, rhythm, harmony and tonality, instrumentation
and texture, structure and any other important features
Some sample Section A and B questions, or a guide to the types of questions likely to be set.
Read less...

Key Stage 5

BTEC Nationals: three performance projects

Author: Adam Lane

BTEC Nationals: three performance projects

Offered here are three assignments which together cover three of the BTEC National units for the various Music qualifications:

Unit 22: Music Performance Techniques

Unit 31: Pop Music in Practice

Unit 40: Working and Developing as a Musical Ensemble.

The three assignments are presented here as task sheets suitable for handing out to learners, with each task clearly linked to the grading criteria. Read less...

OCR A2: listening/analysis

Author: Veronica Jamset

This article will outline how the listening and analysis tasks have changed in the new specification for
OCR A2.

Rhinegold will not be publishing a revised listening tests book for this, but here, the author of the existing edition explains how the material in it can be adapted for use in current teaching, suggesting new questions to ask and issues for you to discuss with your students. The article will then examine Parry's setting of Jerusalem in detail, asking questions that fit the requirements of the new specification (and providing the answers), while including extracts from the score to analyse. Read less...

Tonality (part 2)

Author: Hugh Benham

In part 1 of this article (Classroom Music autumn term 1 2009/10), tonality was defined, and considered in terms of various listening, analysis and composition tasks. In part 2, some historical trends are outlined; understanding of these will assist analytical studies in particular, for a range of courses including A level, IB and Pre-U.

There are three main lines of investigation:

How Renaissance and early Baroque tonalities compare and contrast with later major- and minor-key tonality

Classical-period major-minor tonality, especially in terms of musical structure

How, from the 19th century, this type of tonality was superseded. Read less...

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