Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend
Music
“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”
Victor Hugo
At Mayfield Grammar School, we help every student to develop their self-confidence and creativity in a safe, supportive, and positive learning environment. We promote a strong understanding of the Music that surrounds our students in their everyday lives, and we give them a life-long appreciation of Music. Through a practical-led, academic and challenging curriculum, students thrive and enjoy this rich and varied subject.
Key Concepts
The Core Concepts in our Music Curriculum challenge students to:
- Play and perform confidently in a range of solo and ensemble contexts using their voice, and playing instruments musically and fluently with accuracy and expression.
- Improvise and compose, extending and developing musical ideas by drawing on a range of musical structures, styles, genres and traditions.
- Use staff and the relevant notations appropriately and accurately in a range of musical styles, genres and traditions.
- Identify and use the inter-related dimensions of music expressively and with increasing sophistication, including use of tonalities, different types of scales and other musical devices.
- Listen with increasing discrimination to a broad range of music from a wide selection of composers and musicians.
- Develop a deepening understanding of the music that they perform and to which they listen, and its history.
Key Skills
At all stages of their learning, our students explore, make connections between and develop skills in the interrelated core components of Music:
Listening and appraising
Composing
Performing
Through developing these key skills, students work with the elements of Music to understand, create and perform music in a broad range of styles and genres, from Year 7 to Year 13.
What is taught?
Academic Literacy in Music
In Music, subject specific language is introduced from the start of Year 7 and is continued throughout our seven-year curriculum. In addition, students are often asked to read around the subject using a range of academic, age-appropriate sources.
Students are encouraged to extend their interest in Music by…
Mayfield students are encouraged to extend their interest in Music by listening to and researching a broad range of music with an analytical ear. In addition, they are encouraged to make use of the facilities on offer to develop and extend their practical music-making.
Enrichment Opportunities
Mayfield students are encouraged to become involved in the rich extra-curricular life of the Music department. Opportunities include:
Learning to play an instrument or taking singing lessons with our team of peripatetic teachers.
Regular rehearsals of our Small Ensemble Performance Club, Keyboard Club, Music Lab, Musical Theatre Choir and Orchestra.
Performing at our two main concerts a year, informal lunchtime concerts, in our annual School Production, and at a range of events during the school year.
Booking spaces in the Music department to practise and rehearse in their own time during the school day.
Taking advantage of a range of trips to participate in local and national Music events.
Careers Guidance and Support for Music:
Music Careers: Singer, Songwriter, Music Producer, & More (careersinmusic.com)
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/music
