Year 2

Imagine hearing the sounds of the African plains, and the animals found there. A regular pulse is playing on African drums and untuned percussion accompany the vocals of a call and response song.  Go on safari with Year Two as they learn some of the features of African music, and the skills of call and response. They will begin to consider how to talk about the sounds they can hear using the technical vocabulary of tempo, dynamics, timbre and rhythm. They will develop short sequences of sounds, considering the structure and how it will look when it is written down as notation. They then continue their travels back in time through myths and legends of old, developing skills of composition to accompany tales of courageous Knights, Greek Gods and ferocious dragons. They will demonstrate an increased understanding of composition, and begin to use tuned percussion to add to their performances.

In Year Two, children learn about how music is created, produced and communicated through all the musical elements: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre and texture. They use their knowledge of the different types of musical instruments, how they are played and what sounds they make, in order to structure, compose, write (using appropriate notation) and perform in small groups. We aim that each child becomes a confident performer who can evaluate and improve their learning.

‘ I like playing all the musical instruments. I learnt how to play them properly. I like music. I would like to get better at keeping time to the beat when I am using an instrument’