Last updated: 05 Nov 2007

Broadening horizons

At key stage 3, pupils deepen and extend musical interests and skills. Pupils compose their own music, as well as performing their own and others' music within and beyond the classroom. They explore live and recorded music from different times and cultures and a range of classical and popular traditions and current trends. They investigate the use of ICT and music technologies to create and manipulate sounds and learn about the role of the music industry and intellectual property rights.

Making effective music

Pupils might:

• use a mixture of acoustic and electronic sounds in composition work and assess the effectiveness of their work
• listen to music originating from Java, Africa and India and perform and compose group pieces using cyclical (rather than linear) models
• recognise, analyse and use musical clichés from different musical genres
• identify, explore and make creative use of musical devices
• explore riffs, hooks and grounds through performing and composing, and consider the effect of these in popular music
• explore overtures from different genres, for example opera, theatre and musicals, and develop their own compositions
• explore and perform musical genres from India, such as bhajan/qawwali
• explore how music is used in the media, for example, to sell a product, and compose their own examples
• learn how music technology structures, shapes, arranges and provides a backing to popular songs, and create their own (working within fixed parameters)
• work with community musicians within, and outside, school, for example to stage a performance.

Compulsory learning

Music is compulsory at key stage 3.