Activity Resource 5: Evaluating different forms of musical thinking

Listen to these recordings of pupils’ work that have been generated by focusing the planning on a particular style (closed learning), genre (guided learning) or tradition (open learning). Are you able to identify the forms of thinking that the pupils have had to employ in order to achieve these outcomes? What does this imply for the breadth of your own music curriculum across Key Stage 3?

Style

• Tango  1mb: pupil's own Tango, working towards the end of Year 8;
• Samba  1mb: pupils' own group samba piece, from the start of Year 8.

Genre

• Programme music  4mb: pupils working at the end of Year 7. After studying the principles and conventions of programme music through various pieces, this composition is based on their own stimulus.
• Anthem  2mb: a collaborative piece of work inspired by the theme of ‘Kick racism out of sport’. It was created by classes at the end of Year 9, who had all studied anthems from across time and place. It also involved GCSE pupils in the recording process and Year 7 pupils in the singing of the main anthem line.

Tradition

• Arranging  3mb: pupils working at the start of Year 9. Although they had studied spirituals, pupils were given free reign in their arranging task: they could stay within the spiritual style if they wished, but did not have to.