Music Key Processes
Key processes
These are the essential skills and processes in music that pupils need to
learn to make progress.
Performing, composing and listening
Pupils should be able to:
a. sing in solo or group contexts, developing vocal techniques and musical
expression
b. perform with control of instrument-specific techniques and musical
expression
c. practise, rehearse and perform with awareness of different parts, the
roles and contributions of different members of the group, the audience and
venue
d. create, develop and extend musical ideas by selecting and combining
resources within musical structures, styles, genres and traditions
e. improvise, explore and develop musical ideas when performing
f. listen with discrimination and internalise and recall sounds
g. identify the expressive use of musical elements, devices, tonalities and
structures.
Reviewing and evaluating
Pupils should be able to:
- Analyse, review, evaluate and compare pieces of music
- Identify conventions and contextual influences in music of different styles, genres and traditions
- Communicate ideas and feelings about music, using expressive language and musical vocabulary to justify their opinions
- Adapt their own musical ideas and refine and improve their own and
others’ work.
Explanatory notes
Essential skills and processes: These should be seen as interrelated skills
and processes that enable the development and demonstration of musicianship
and musical understanding.
Group contexts: These include singing in unison and in parts.
Developing vocal techniques: This could include using the voice to make
music in a variety of ways, for example different singing styles, rapping,
beatboxing, choral singing, scat singing, chant and other vocal styles from
around the world.
Create, develop and extend: This includes composing original music,
arranging existing musical ideas and creating new pieces using a range of
existing material.
Musical structures: These include popular song structures, binary form,
ternary form, variations, rondo, raga and 12-bar blues.
Styles, genres and traditions: Different types of music across time and
place (styles), music for different purposes (genres) and ways of working
and producing music that may reflect a specific cultural or social function
(traditions).
Musical elements: These include pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre,
texture and silence.
Musical devices: These include repetition, riff, ostinato, call and
response, canon, sequence, inversion, cyclic patterns and ornamentation.
Musical tonalities: These include major and minor keys, atonality,
modulation and different types of scales.