Music Content Year 1
Content/Outcomes
The content of the curriculum will enable the following outcomes.
Instrumental – Using tuned and untuned percussion
All children will be given and taught the recorder in the Summer term of Year 1 to continue through to Year 2.
Acquiring and developing skills
At the end of the year most children should
- identify rhythm and pulse
- maintain a steady beat following a variety of tempo
- perform simple rhythmic pattern to a steady pulse
- identify high, medium and low notes
- identify long and short sounds and explore on a variety of instruments
- maintain a specific mood
- respond to symbols (notation) when playing
- respond to a conductor when playing
At the end of the year some children could
- begin to choose symbols to represent their own sounds
- identify pitch changes
Selecting and applying skills
At the end of the year most children should
- follow symbols to perform in groups with several instruments
- select and combine instruments to tell a story or create a scene or create a mood
- change sounds to reflect different stimuli – e.g. animals moving faster or feeling sad
By the end of the year some children could
- order sounds with a beginning, middle and end
- play instruments in different ways to describe the mood of a story or song
Singing and Chanting
Acquiring and developing skills
By the end of the year most children should
- sing with a sense of the shape of the rhythm
- sing with a sense of the beat
- show dynamics, loud and quiet
- respond to a conductor
- sing at different pitches
By the end of the year some children could
- follow the line of the pitch
- sing with an awareness of the structure of the song; introduction, verse and chorus
Selecting and applying skills
By the end of the year most children should
- sing a range of familiar songs
- learn a variety of songs
- sing in unison
- begin to sing in a round
- sing whilst maintaining a beat or simple accompaniment
By the end of the year some children could
- sing with expression, following the mood of the music
Listening
Acquiring and developing skills
By the end of the year most children should
- maintain the beat through clapping, conducting, playing
- recognise different features such as dynamics
- begin to recognise the different instruments playing
- recognise the mood of a piece
By the end of the year some children could
- begin to recognise pitch changes
Selecting and applying skills
By the end of the year most children should
- identify sounds and repeated patterns in a piece of music
- respond to music with movement
- begin to listen with appreciation
By the end of the year some children could
- begin to share ideas about what they have heard using appropriate vocabulary
- begin to understand how the mood or picture in a piece of music can be created
Evaluating and Improving Performance
At the end of the year most children should
- describe activity using appropriate vocabulary
- comment constructively on own performance and that of others
- talk about similarities and differences between own and others’ performance
- suggest ways to improve performances
- express likes and dislikes and give reasons
At the end of the year some children could
- see how their work is similar to and different from others’ and use this understanding to improve own performance
- listen and describe own and others’ performances and suggest ways to improve