Expressive Arts (Music) – Year 9

Title of Work – ‘Musical Ideas’

Ø      Students will look at musical ideas that are used in a composition by Lin Marsh.

Ø       They will learn how to play short musical ideas from notation and then use those ideas to compose their own piece.

Ø      Following this composition exercise, students will then listen to the actual composition with a musical score.

Course content:

Ø      Learning how to play musical ideas.

Ø      Develop their own ideas from the learned ones.

Ø      Work in groups on a composition.

Ø      Respond to the composition for Voice and Piano by Lin Marsh.

When this assessment work is complete – performance from a simple musical score.

Assessment procedures:

Students will be assessed in two years.

Performing (Both taught skills and their own ideas) and the group composition work will be recorded and assessed.

Students will be asked to write up aspects of their composition and also use their listening skills to describe what they hear in Lin Marsh’s piece for voice and piano.

Homework:

Homework is set once a week and is relevant to the work covered at the time in class.

This work is important since the following class work often builds on the basis that his homework has been completed properly.

Types of work set could include the learning of technical terms, written description work or work at practical pieces for the keyboard.

Please show an interest in their practical work and ask them to play it to you if they feel confident enough.

Levelling Information

Level 3

Students use two of three ideas  and make some use of repetition and texture/or use words as a means of creating a piece.

Students make their own selection and identify some of the ideas used by others in the class and by Lin Marsh in her composition for voice and piano.

Ø      Use two of three ideas to make up your piece and see if you can hear those ideas in the piece played to you by Lin Marsh.

Level 5

Students try out most of the ideas on the worksheet and recognise and explore those which they feel offer  most  possibilities; they develop their ideas using repetition, texture, harmony, rhythm and melodic development.

Students investigate ideas and identify some ways in which ideas are developed in pieces composed by others in the class and by Lin Marsh. They analyse changes in character and mood in the piece by Lin Marsh.

Ø      Try out lots of ideas and use only the ones that you think are useful. Try repeating ideas, adding other parts and making your ideas longer. Be detailed in your descriptive work on Lin Marsh by using the elements of music to describe what you hear.

Level 6/7

Students explore all of the ideas, developing several before discarding those which do not take their compositions forward.

They explore and develop how ideas and parts of ideas  can be used together and created a piece which enables their ideas to be developed and linked.

Students exploit ideas and describe the ways in which ideas are used in pieced by others in the class and by Lin Marsh. They identify how ideas are extended and how change of mood is created.

Ø      Look at all of the ideas given to you on the worksheet. Try them ALL out and get rid of the ones that you don’t like. Develop the ones that you want to keep for your own piece so that they are longer and compose a longer piece of music with a good start, middle and ending. Be very detailed in your written work, using the elements of music and draw on other pieces that you may know how tom use as examples of what you hear.