This time of year in the music department mirrors the season; in the quiet afterglow of the Christmas and CNY concerts, we find ourselves with time to begin anew, developing stimulating ensemble projects and growing the skills our budding musicians need in order to flourish.
Taking a tour through our Secondary lessons we begin with Year 6 who are creating pieces of rap music with Mr Benson. Their beatboxing and bass guitar patterns support lyrics that focus on and extend their current topic in Science, a cross-curricular project that will culminate in the recording of music videos.
Our Year 7s are embracing a form of music close to my heart- ska reggae - in a whole-class ensemble module based on two classic movie theme tunes: Misson Impossible and The Pink Panther. After completing their own successful band project for CNY, Year 8s move into rhythmic territory, developing techniques for conga playing through a close focus on Cuban percussion.
Year 9s are hovering at the intersection of music and poetry in their lessons this term. They will take examples from performance poets (including the pioneering work of Ken Nordine) and create a free-improvised soundscape to accompany a selection of contemporary poems.
Elsewhere, our ASA program is in full swing, with a new generation of students joining our Senior Music Hub on Fridays and an engaged group of actors and audio-visual tech students working together on our secondary play on Monday afternoons. Mr Walker’s music production ASA will likely be complemented by a VJ-ing option next term – allowing students to learn how to manipulate video in real-time for interactive performances.
As ever, I would encourage parents of students who learn instruments at home to contact the music department if their son/daughter has a piece of music ready for performance. We will have another Tea-time Concert towards the end of this term and there is an open invitation to all students to share their hard work with our community.
