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Denbigh Music Curriculum

Subject Lead: Miss Norton

The music curriculum at Denbigh aims to provide children with a range of musical experiences and access to music tuition from professional musicians. Focus changes on a half termly basis for every year group through Foundation Stage to Upper Key Stage 2. The aim is to show progression and a development of musical skills throughout the key stages.

We aim to expose children to a range of genres, styles and instruments that can be used in performance or as a means of expression.

Music is an important part of life at Denbigh and, paired with our performing arts school (Denbigh Academy of Performing Arts) which takes place as an after school club, we aim to offer children a means to learn and perform to an audience and their peers. Children enhance their learning through use of technology, singing assemblies and extra- curricular clubs and tuition.

At Denbigh, we value the Arts and believe that all children should have access to a broad range of musical experiences.

Denbigh Community Primary School

Music Curriculum

Year 1 Music Curriculum

Find the pulse whilst listening to music and using movement

Recognise different instruments

Begin to understand that the rhythm is a mixture of long and short sounds that happen over the pulse

Copy and repeat a simple rhythm or melody

Understand that pitch describes how high or low sounds are

Understand that tempo describes how fast or slow the music is

Understand that dynamics describe how loud or quiet the music is

Play untuned/percussion instruments musically

Sing song, chants, rhythms and raps musically with accuracy

Year 2 Music Curriculum 

Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music

Use his/her voice expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes with growing confidence

Play tuned instruments musically

Improvise a simple rhythm using different instruments including the voice

Understand that timbre describes the character or quality of a sound

Understand that texture describes the layers within the music

Understand that structure describes how different sections of music are ordered

Develop an understanding of melody, the words and their importance in the music being listened to

Sing a song in two parts (including rounds)

Year 3 Music Currciulum 

Practise, rehearse and present performances to audiences accurately

Listen with direction to a range of high quality music

Confidently recognise a range of musical instruments

Understand that improvisation is when a composer makes up a tune within boundaries

Understand that composition is when a composer writes down and records a musical idea

Sing songs with multiple parts with increasing confidence

Develop an understanding of formal, written notation which includes crotchets and rests

Begin to listen to and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

Year 4 Music Curriculum 

Confidently recognise a range of musical instruments and the different sounds they make

Confidently recognise and explore a range of musical styles and traditions and know their basic style indicators

Use musical language to appraise a piece or style of music

Copy increasingly challenging rhythms using body percussion and untuned instruments where appropriate

Sing as part of an ensemble with confidence and precision

Play and perform in solo or ensemble contexts with increasing confidence

Develop an understanding of formal, written notation which includes minims and semibreves

Listen to and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

Year 5 Music Curriculum 

Compose complex rhythms from an increasing aural memory

Understand how pulse, rhythm and pitch work together

Improvise with increasing confidence using own voice, rhythms and varied pitch

Sing as part of an ensemble with increasing confidence and precision

Play and perform in solo or ensemble contexts with some accuracy, control, fluency and expression

Use and develop an understanding of formal, written notation which includes staff or stave and the role of the dot for extending a note

Develop an increasing understanding of the history and context of music

Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

Year 6 Music Curriculum 

Play and perform in solo or ensemble contexts with increasing accuracy, control, fluency and expression

Create a simple composition and record using formal notation

Develop a deeper understanding of the history and context of music

Appropriately discuss the dimensions (pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and notation) of music and recognise them in music heard

Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory and accuracy

Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians

Deepen an understanding and use of formal, written notation which includes staff or stave and the role of the dot for extending a note

Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music (pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and notation)

Denbigh Primary School