Music Year 9 — Horbury Academy's Curriculum

Half Term 1

The Band Challenge

This unit will recap the band skills from the previous year but will develop to include new chord progressions and other new techniques, such as chord inversions and extended chords on the keyboard. Students will learn a new piece with 2 contrasting sections, rehearse over a number of weeks and then perform to the class.
Worksong, field holler, enslaved, Africa, America, The Blues, drums, piano, banjo, rhythm, syncopation, melody, chords, walking bass, swung rhythms, block, broken and rhythm chords, style, improvisation, blues scale, blue notes, flattened sevenths.
Listen to some Blues music and help them to pick out and identify instruments and features of The Blues. Listen and discuss the lyrics and the story behind them. Listen to various music and try to pick out the basslines, this will help your child identify the walking bass in other Blues music, and this will support the listening assessment.

Half Term 2

Half Term 4

Half Term 6

This unit will look at the development of rock music in the 60s and will allow the students to develop their band ensemble skills and will result in a performance of a song by The Beatles for their assessment.
The ideas pupils will understand and the words they will be able to use:
Band instruments; drums, bass, keyboard, ukulele, voice, backing vocals, guitar, rhythm, timing, pulse, rehearsal strategies, strumming patterns, riffs, improvisation.
Listen to the music of The Beatles and ask your child to identify and explain what is happening in the songs.

Half Term 3

In this unit, we research and explore the rich culture of percussion in the world, including Samba from Brazil, African Drumming and Taiko from Japan.
Students will learn a piece to perform as a class that allows for solo, duet and whole ensemble participation.
The ideas pupils will understand and the words they will be able to use:
Rhythm, Syncopation, melody, pitched / percussion, cross rhythms, metre, time signature.
Samba, Brazil, surdo, Caixa, claves, agogo, ganza, tambourim, repinique, tambourine, apitos.
Taiko, Japan.
African Drumming, Djembe.
Watch videos that show drumming from other cultures and then try to pick out these aspects in other songs or films. For example, Disney’s Encanto.

Half Term 5

The ideas pupils will understand and the words they will be able to use:
Ukulele, Hawaii, tuning pegs, nut, fretboard, sound hole, strings, neck, headstock, body, frets, chords, chord progressions, chord diagrams.