Music

Bingley Grammar School Music Department follows a highly practical approach to music lessons. Pupils are involved in listening, performing, composing and evaluating from the start.

Pupils are taught to use their voices correctly and also to play keyboards, drums and guitars as well as African drums and percussion instruments. In addition to classroom music lessons we also have instrumental lessons available with our visiting instrumental teachers, currently we offer lessons in singing, drums, electric/bass/acoustic guitar, woodwind, strings and piano.

Pupils also have the opportunity to perform outside of lessons in our concerts and yearly musical and we also have some valuable links with our local primary schools through our Artsmark Gold Award.
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Enrichment

In addition to classroom music lessons we also have instrumental lessons available with our visiting instrumental teachers, currently we offer lessons in singing, drums, electric/bass/acoustic guitar, woodwind, strings and piano. There are also a number of extra-curricular groups running such as Clarinet Group, Saxophonics, Swing Band, Guitar Group and Vocal.

Pupils also have the opportunity to perform outside of lessons in our concerts and yearly musical and we also have some valuable links with our local primary schools through our Artsmark Gold Award.

Curriculum Overview

Year 7

Year 8

In year 7 pupils study music on a rotation basis for a block of 10 weeks at a time. In that time they study 4 topics:

- Vocalisation

- World Music

- Programme Music

- Popular Music

Vocalisation - This topic is about having fun and aims to give the pupils confidence at the start of music, hopefully helping them to make friends and begin to trust the other pupils around them. It involves singing, creating soundscapes and using body percussion to create pieces of music.

World Music - In this topic we look at World Music and specifically Fusion studying African Hip Hop. The pupils will listen to lots of different types of world music, learn to play a melody on the keyboard and add African drums to this to create a piece of Fusion in groups.
Programme Music

This topic is about music created to provoke an image using Holst's Planets Suite. Pupils will learn why programme music is important in areas such as film music and leit motifs.

Popular Music

This is the last topic pupils study and within this we will look at bands, solo artists, lyric and melody writing specially 4 chord mash ups. The pupils will form a small band and produce a popular music piece based on a genre of their choice.

In year 8 pupils study music on a rotation basis for a block of 10 weeks at a time. In that time they study 4 topics:

- Beatboxing

- World Music

- Film Music

- Cover Versions and Parodies

Beatboxing

This topic is about having fun and aims to give the pupils confidence at the start of year 8 music. It involves learning the 3 basic beatboxing sounds and working with a group to put these into a performance.

World Music

In this topic we look at World Music studying Bhangra. The pupils will listen to lots of classical Indian music and learn what a Raga is and the sections within the piece. We will also look at Bollywood and the connections it has with Bhangra.

Film Music

This topic is all about music created for film and why it is so important to have film music. The pupils will use the keyboards to learn to play some well know film scores and create their own piece for a scene from a film.

Cover Versions and Parodies

This is the last topic pupils will study and within this topic we will look at band skills, melodies and chords, lyrics and why people cover and parody songs. The pupils will form a small band and produce a popular music cover version.