Curriculum Map GCSE Music

Year 9
Component 1: Understanding Music / Component 2: Performing / Component 3: Composing
Autumn / General Musicianship knowledge
Listening and contextual understanding
FQ = What are the building blocks of music? How and why is it organised?
Why is it important to understand the theoretical side of music?
1.  Reading music notation:
·  treble and bass clef
2.  Aural recognition of instruments and their families:
·  string, woodwind, brass, percussion, singing voices
3.  Italian terms
·  dynamics and tempo
·  phrasing and articulation
·  instrumental and vocal techniques
4.  Basic tonality
·  major, minor, modal and atonal
5.  Pulse and time signatures
·  simple and compound
6.  Major and minor scales and key signatures
·  up to 4 sharps and flats
7.  Chords, chord sequences
·  in keys up to 4 sharps and flats
·  chord finder use
8.  Melody and modulations
9.  Textures
·  Harmonic/homophonic
·  Polyphonic/contrapuntal
·  Imitative and canonic
·  Unison, octaves, monophonic
·  Antiphonal
10.  Note intervals
11.  Structure and form
·  binary, ternary, call and response
·  rondo, theme and variations
·  minuet and trio
Mastery = grade 4–5 ABRSM theory / FQ = Am I ready for GCSE level performing?
Short solo
Short ensemble
Spring / Performance 1: solo (1st attempt) FQ = What habits of mind are most important when practising a solo piece?
·  Structured practice
·  Recording schedule / Composing Skills
FQ = Is composing imaginative or a process?
·  How to use Sibelius
·  Compose a simple chord sequence
·  Compose a simple melody
Summer / Performance 2: ensemble (1st attempt)
FQ = What habits of mind are most important when practising a group piece?
·  Structured practice
·  Recording schedule / Composing Skills
FQ = How can I use the musical elements to create an effective composition?
Structured Ground Bass composition
·  Booklet
·  Sibelius score
Year 10
Component 1: Understanding Music / Component 2: Performing / Component 3: Composing
Autumn / Area of Study 1: Western Classical Tradition 1650-1910
Study Piece – Haydn: Symphony 101 in D major The Clock, mvt. 2
Study musical features relating to:
·  Melody; Harmony; Tonality; Structure; Sonority (timbre); Texture; Tempo, metre and rhythm; Dynamics and articulation / Performance 1: solo (2nd attempt)
·  Structured practice
·  Recording schedule / Composition 2: free composition
·  Create a score and a recording
Spring / Area of Study 2: Popular Music
Study Piece – The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band –
o  With a Little Help from my Friends
o  Within You, Without You
o  Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Study musical features relating to:
·  Melody; Harmony; Tonality; Structure; Sonority (timbre); Tempo, metre and rhythm
Performance 2: ensemble (2nd attempt)
·  Structured practice
·  Recording schedule
Summer / Area of Study 3: Traditional Music
Study Piece – Santana: Supernatural –
o  Smooth
o  Migra, Migra
o  Love of my Life
Study musical features relating to:
·  Melody; Tonality; Structure; Sonority (timbre); Texture; Tempo, metre and rhythm / Preparation for Composition 1: composition to a brief
Year 11
Component 1: Understanding Music / Component 2: Performing / Component 3: Composing
Autumn / Area of Study 4: Western Classical Tradition since 1910
Study Piece – Aaron Copeland: Saturday Night Waltz and Hoedown from Rodeo
Study musical features relating to:
·  Melody; Harmony; Tonality; Sonority; Texture; Tempo, metre and rhythm / Final performances and recording
·  Only where needed; either through lack of quality or absence / Composition 1: composition to a brief
Spring / Exam preparation
Summer / Exam preparation