Free and premium music resources including classroom activities, full schemes of work, posters, practice exam questions, revision materials, and much more! More resources are currently being written, so keep checking back regularly. Follow me on twitter for regular updates @SeanYoung_Music and check out my Facebook page @SeanYoungMusicEd.
Free and premium music resources including classroom activities, full schemes of work, posters, practice exam questions, revision materials, and much more! More resources are currently being written, so keep checking back regularly. Follow me on twitter for regular updates @SeanYoung_Music and check out my Facebook page @SeanYoungMusicEd.
This pack, containing 10 worksheets and 1 teacher answer sheet, is aimed at supporting the teaching of Set Work 2, Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Pathétique, movement 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven, from the new Pearson Edexcel GCSE Music (9-1) 2016 specification.
The activities and tasks on each of the worksheets range in difficulty, in order to support the development of skills for a range of abilities, with differentiated questions aimed at specific target grades.
The following worksheets are included:
– Worksheet 1.1: First Impressions;
– Worksheet 1.2: The Set Work in Context;
– Worksheet 1.3: Sonata Form;
– Worksheet 1.4: Thematic Material;
– Worksheet 1.5: Dynamics;
– Worksheet 1.6: Texture;
– Worksheet 1.7: Harmony and Tonality;
– Worksheet 1.8: Exam Style Questions;
– Worksheet 1.9: Wider Listening;
– Worksheet 1.10: Revision Checklist.
In addition, a comprehensive answer sheet is included providing definitive answers (where they exist) and indicative content for student responses for every question presented in this worksheet pack. Added following feedback from a user of another worksheet pack in this series, these answers make marking and discussion of class tasks more efficient, and support peer and self-marking of tasks too!
Previews of the first page of each worksheet are available from the files list.
It is the responsibility of the teacher to check the coverage of this content against the exam board specification. This worksheet pack does not intend to offer complete coverage of the set work, but should be used instead as a tool to support the teaching of the subject content.
Please leave a review if you like this resource!
––––
Update 05/09/17: Correction of a small misprint in Worksheet 2.3.
Update 12/10/17: Addition of answer sheet, and change of wording in Worksheet 2.9, Q. 5.
This pack, containing 11 worksheets and 1 teacher guide, is aimed at supporting the teaching of Set Work 1, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, 3rd movement, by J. S. Bach, from the new Pearson Edexcel GCSE Music (9-1) 2016 specification.
The activities and tasks on each of the worksheets range in difficulty, in order to support the development of skills for a range of abilities.
The following worksheets are included:
– Worksheet 1.1: First Impressions;
– Worksheet 1.2: The Concerto;
– Worksheet 1.3: Finding the Solo;
– Worksheet 1.4: Instrumentation: Exam Style Questions;
– Worksheet 1.5: Fugal Structure;
– Worksheet 1.6: Melody in Section A;
– Worksheet 1.7: Comparing Melodies;
– Worksheet 1.8: Rhythm and Metre: Exam Style Questions;
– Worksheet 1.9: Rhythm in the Harpsichord Part;
– Worksheet 1.10: Identifying Texture;
– Worksheet 1.11: Revision Checklist.
Additionally, as suggested in a review for this resource, a Teacher Sheet has now been included providing all of the answers (where a definitive answer exists) and indicative content for each of the questions on every worksheet in this pack. This adds the flexibility for students to self-mark their work and makes teacher marking easier too.
Previews of the first page of each worksheet are available from the files list.
It is the responsibility of the teacher to check this coverage of this content against the exam board specification, this worksheet pack does not intend to offer complete coverage of the set work, but should be used instead as a tool to support the teaching of the subject content.
Please leave a review if you like this resource!
Update 30/05/2017: Correction of a minor error in Worksheet 1.10.
Update 21/09/2017: Addition of Teacher Sheet 1 – Answers.
This 44 page resource contains one complete practice paper and accompanying mark scheme for the Component 3: Appraising exam that students will sit as part of the assessment for the 2016 Pearson Edexcel GCSE Music (9-1) qualification. The questions in this paper are based upon the style and wording of those found in the sample assessment materials provided by the exam board so as to help prepare students as much as possible for their exam.
This resource includes one complete practice paper and a comprehensive mark scheme to accompany each of the questions.
The following breakdown provides a summary of the set works covered in each question:
• Question 1: John Williams, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
• Question 2: Afro Celt Sound System, ‘Release’ from the album Release.
• Question 3: Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, ‘Pathétique’, first movement.
• Question 4: J. S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, 3rd movement.
• Question 5: ‘Defying Gravity’ from Wicked.
• Question 6: Queen, ‘Killer Queen’ from the album Sheer Heart Attack.
• Question 9: J. S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, 3rd movement.
The complete question paper is included within the teacher guide for reference, and a separate copy of the complete paper is available as a separate file which can be printed or for students.
Audio files
Unfortunately, for reasons of copyright, this resource does not have an accompanying audio CD or sound files. However, full details of the recording used, and the timings required for each extract are given in this book to make it easy for teachers to compile their own audio CD. For the set work questions, the recording used is from the Pearson Anthology CD, meaning no additional purchase of material be necessary for the majority of questions. For question 8 and 9 (the unfamiliar listening questions), the recording has been selected as one that can be easily found and purchased as an MP3 download online at very low cost. For best results, you may wish to edit each extract and mix them onto a single recording with announcements at the beginning of each playing.
If you purchase this resource, please leave a rating and feedback!
––––––––––––––
Update 19/06/2018: updated to reflect confirmation that the extracts in Section B will each be played three times, contrary to what appears in the Sample Assessment Materials. A minor error in the total number of marks for question 9 has also been corrected.
This 50 page resource contains a compilation of practice questions for the Component 3: Appraising exam for the new 2016 Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Specification. In the exam, students will be required to complete listening questions based on set works from each of the areas of study. The questions in this collection are tailored specifically towards the set works in Area of Study 2: Vocal Music.
The collection contains:
– Five listening questions based on Henry Purcell, Oedipus, Z. 583: Music for a While
– Five listening questions based on Queen, Killer Queen
– Three musical dictation questions based on Henry Purcell, Oedipus, Z. 583: Music for a While
– Three musical dictation questions based on Queen, Killer Queen
– Two unfamiliar listening questions.
– Full mark scheme for teachers.
– Student mark record sheet for tracking progress.
Student Book
– In response to a suggestion made on Twitter by a user of this resource, a student book has now been added which contains just the questions and the mark record sheet, with the answers omitted, to enable teachers to print a whole booklet for their students to use, without them being able to consult the answers.
Audio Recordings
– For reasons of copyright, this resource does not contain the audio recordings that are required to complete the questions. Full details of specific recordings and timings are provided, and for those questions that relate directly to a set work, the recording used is the same as that recommended in the specification, so should be available already.
These questions are all based on those that will be found in Section A of the examination. No questions based on those from Section B are included.
A sample question is available to preview by selecting the 'Sample Question' file in the files list.
If you purchase this resource, please leave a rating and feedback!
–––
Update 15/03/2017: Minor corrections.
Update 20/01/2018: Correction of key signatures in questions 11-13.
Most GCSE Specifications require students to have a basic knowledge of cadences that they can use to identify them through the study of set works, and through listening to unfamiliar music, or both. This 6-page worksheet introduces the concept of the cadence at it's most basic level, and progresses through 3 different tasks ensuring that students are able to practice recognising cadences from a score, by listening, and able to write cadences in their own composition.
The worksheet begins with a comprehensive guide that introduces the concept of the cadence, ensuring that students can recognise chords and assign the appropriate roman numeral, before introducing each of the four types of cadence, each accompanied by a written example.
There are three subsequent tasks aimed at securing student's understanding – they are:
– Task 1: To name various cadences by analysing a score;
– Task 2: To complete the last two chords of a simple chorale phrase, using the cadence specified;
– Task 3: A listening question requiring students to identify 6 cadences at the end of a short chorale harmonisation (audio file included).
A limited preview of the worksheet is available from the files list.
It is the responsibility of the teacher to check the coverage of this worksheet against the exam board specification, this worksheet does not intend to offer complete coverage for all specifications.
Please leave a review if you like this resource!
This pack of posters contains 12 full colour A3 classroom posters, covering several of the most significant Blues and Jazz composers. These posters are perfect to brighten up your classroom, and help to familiarise your students with the key composers of the genre.
The pack currently contains posters for the following composers:
– Benny Goodman
– Bessie Smith
– Charlie Parker
– Count Basie
– Dizzy Gillespie
– Duke Ellington
– Glenn Miller
– Jelly Roll Morton
– Louis Armstrong
– Miles Davis
– Scott Joplin
– W. C. Handy
For the best results, the posters should be printed borderless on A3 paper, in colour, and laminated.
All posters are supplied in PDF format. Previews of all posters are available in the files list.
Please leave a review if you purchase this item, and share photos of your display on twitter @SeanYoung_Music
In order to do well in their exam, your students will need to be familiar with the key musical features of each of the eight set works listed in the new 2016 Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Music Specification. These posters categorise the key features under each of the different elements of music, and will help your students to learn and memorise these elements effectively! The collection contains one revision poster for each of the 8 set works.
Please leave a review on the individual elements of this bundle if you like this resource, and share photos of your display and feedback to @SeanYoung_Music on Twitter!
Wider Listening has assumed an increased importance in the new Edexcel GCSE Music Specification, with students required to listening to repertoire that is related to each of the set works and mention this in their Section B essays in the exam to access the top marks.
To support this, I've launched #WiderListeningWednesday on Twitter and Facebook, with a different wider listening piece that's related to one of the Edexcel Set Works posted each Wednesday at 9.30 am. This wider listening diary is the perfect accompaniment to these weekly posts, as it will ensure your students engage regularly in listening outside of lessons and provide a useful record for revision, without the task become arduous and time consuming.
Two versions of this product are included:
– The worksheet version contains two weeks worth of diary entries and provides space for students to log the name of the piece, the composer, the year, and the area of study the piece relates to. In addition, they are asked to list three similarities and 3 differences between the wider listening piece and a set work they have studied to encourage their comparison skills – the space for this comparison is deliberately small to ensure that the points made are kept concise.
– The second version comes in the form of a full colour A5 booklet that can be printed for students which provides space for 53 diary entries in one place. For best results this should be printed commercially. Two versions of this booklet are included, one for in-house printing, and a second for commercial printing with all of the necessary crop marks included. Please consult the attached guidance for commercial printing to ensure your printed product appears correctly.
– For ease, a handy printing guide has been included to guide you through in-house printing and some recommended print specifications, if you choose to let a professional print company handle your printing.
You can follow #WiderListeningWednesday on Twitter @SeanYoung_Music and Facebook @SeanYoungMusicEd!
Please share, retweet and leave a review of this resource if you like it!
This resource is an entire, ready to teach, scheme of work for a sequence of 6 fully differentiated lessons designed to teach students at KS3 level about the key musical features of the Blues. Although 6 lessons are planned, the unit may be easily expanded to suit the needs of your individual school.
The following resources are required to teach this unit:
– Access to projector/Interactive whiteboard with audio playback facilities;
– Piano in classroom;
– A selection of band instruments including keyboard, guitar, ukulele, drums, and bass guitar;
– Ukuleles – for whole class performance of the 12 bar blues (keyboards could be substituted);
– Individual spaces/practice rooms for students to work.
The unit is designed with an emphasis on practical work, with the majority of learning taking place through students working in small groups to compose a Blues song.
The resource contains all of the materials required to teach this unit, including a 48 slide PowerPoint presentation guiding through every lesson, differentiated worksheets, and lesson plans.
Unfortunately, for reasons of copyright, this resource does not have an accompanying audio CD or sound files. The PowerPoint presentation indicates places where audio files may be embedded for ease of teaching, and details of the track used is provided in the slide notes section on the relevant slide. If you do not wish to purchase these audio files, they are also easily available for free using a streaming service such as YouTube or Spotify.
Update 29/1/2017: Fixed an issue that prevented some pages displaying incorrectly on Apple devices.
If you purchase this resource, please leave a review!
This pack of posters currently contains 16 full colour A3 classroom posters, ideal to brighten up your music classroom. They range from basic note identification on the keyboard, to posters more ideal for GCSE and Post 16 Level such as characteristics of Baroque and Classical music.
The pack currently contains the following posters:
– Baroque Music
– Baroque Composers
– Cadences
– Classical Music
– Classical Composers
– Dynamics
– Film Music
– Reading Music
– Romantic Music
– Romantic Composers
– Sonata Form
– Tempo
– The Guitar
– The Keyboard
– The Instruments of the Orchestra
– Musical Voices
For the best results, the posters should be printed borderless on A3 paper, in colour, and laminated. A pdf file combining all of the posters and including crop marks and colour bars has been added, should you require it if you choose to have your posters commercially printed.
All posters are supplied in PDF format. Previews of all posters are available in the files list.
Please leave a review if you purchase this item, and share photos of your display on twitter @SeanYoung_Music
In Section B of the Component 3: Appraising Exam, students will be expected to complete an extended answer in the form of a short essay that will demonstrate their musical knowledge.
This workbook will help students to develop the skills needed to formulate a structured answer to this question using the PEEL (Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link) paragraph structure. In addition to a 'teacher tips' section, there are 3 related tasks:
– Task 1 will ask students to analyse a sample of musical writing that is written using the PEEL structure, demonstrating ways in which you can incorporate evidence and explanation from the music.
– Task 2 will introduce a second exam style question for students to plan an answer to using a table breaking down the Point, Evidence, Explanation and Link.
– Task 3 will require students to write up their answer to the question, based on the plan they have made in Task 2.
As requested in a review of this resource, a set of Teacher Notes with answers and indicative content has now been included with this resource to aid with teaching and marking.
------
Update 12/10/2017: Featuring the same content but updated with an all new design that reflects the style and tone of the newer Edexcel GCSE Music worksheet packs. A Teacher Notes document with answers and indicative content has now been added.
Sibelius is one of the leading music notation applications and is now used in many classrooms worldwide. This pack includes two variants of the same poster, one for Mac and one for Microsoft Windows, and details some of the important keyboard shortcuts that your students will benefit from learning at the outset! This resource will add a visually attractive and informative addition to your classroom or studio wall!
Both posters are supplied in PDF format. Watermarked previews are available in the files list. The full unmarked poster is available as the second page in each PDF file, which will become available after purchase. For the best results, the posters should be printed borderless on A3 paper, in colour, and laminated.
This resource contains 2-page guides to each of the common instruments used in Musical Futures style band lessons. Each guide covers the basic information about the instrument, misconceptions about how it should be played, the basics of playing each instrument, and it's appropriate notation.
Tried and refined after use in lessons, these guides are designed to help students to find quick answers to question that they may have about the instrument they are playing, while they wait for assistance for the teacher, encouraging initiative and independence.
The following guides are included:
– A Quick Guide to Bass Guitar;
– A Quick Guide to Drums;
– A Quick Guide to Guitar (two versions are included, one showing an annotated diagram of the guitar neck with each note labelled, the second with diagrams for the most common chords);
– A Quick Guide to Keyboard;
– A Quick Guide to Ukulele.
Previews of the first page of each guide are available in the files list.
Please leave a review if you like this resource!
In order to do well in their exam, your students will need to be familiar with the key musical features of each of the eight set works listed in the new 2016 Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Music Specification. These posters categorise the key features under each of the different elements of music, and will help your students to learn and memorise these elements effectively!
The collection contains one revision poster for each of the two set works listed in Area of Study 3: Music for Stage and Screen:
– Stephen Schwartz, ‘Defying Gravity’ from Wicked
– John Williams, ‘Main Title/Rebel Blockade Runner’ from Star Wars
Great value at just £1 per poster!
All posters are supplied in PDF format. Previews of all posters are available in the files list. For the best results, the posters should be printed borderless on A3 paper, in colour, and laminated.
Please leave a review if you like this resource!
This pack, containing 11 worksheets and 1 teacher guide, is aimed at supporting the teaching of Set Work 4, Killer Queen, by Queen, from the new Pearson Edexcel GCSE Music (9-1) 2016 specification.
The activities and tasks on each of the worksheets range in difficulty, in order to support the development of skills for a range of abilities.
The following worksheets are included:
Worksheet 4.1: First Impressions;
Worksheet 4.2: The Set Work in Context;
Worksheet 4.3: Performing Forces;
Worksheet 4.4: Guitar Techniques;
Worksheet 4.5: Music Technology;
Worksheet 4.6: Structure;
Worksheet 4.7: Harmony and Tonality;
Worksheet 4.8: Rhythm and Metre;
Worksheet 4.9: Wider Listening;
Worksheet 4.10: Exam Style Questions;
Worksheet 4.11: Check Your Knowledge.
In addition, a comprehensive answer sheet is included providing definitive answers (where they exist) and indicative content for student responses for every question presented in this worksheet pack. Added following feedback from a user of another worksheet pack in this series, these answers make marking and discussion of class tasks more efficient, and support peer and self-marking of tasks too!
Previews of the first page of each worksheet are available from the files list.
It is the responsibility of the teacher to check the coverage of this content against the exam board specification. This worksheet pack does not intend to offer complete coverage of the set work, but should be used instead as a tool to support the teaching of the subject content.
Please leave a review if you like this resource!
–––––––––
Update 05/06/2018: minor corrections in Worksheet 4.5.
As part of the Edexcel specification for GCSE Music, students are expected to listen to, and be able to appraise, pieces of unfamiliar music that are linked to the set works. As part of this requirement, and to facilitate the breadth of knowledge required to place each of the 8 set works within their wider context, the exam board has suggested a series of pieces of music that may be studied in addition to the set works. By studying these wider listening pieces, students will gain more experience of unfamiliar music, and will further their understanding of key stylistic features of the style and genre that each of the set works represents.
This book provides an analysis of two of these wider listening pieces, both of which relate to Area of Study 1: Instrumental Music (1700-1820). They are:
– Vivaldi, ‘Winter’ from The Four Seasons, movement III; and
– Mozart, Piano Sonata in C major K. 545, first movement.
Each analysis is broken down into the key elements of music, with follow-up student questions to stimulate comparison with the set works after each section.
Although the wider listening pieces are not compulsory study, and do not need to be studied in as much detail as the set works, this text book will help students in broadening their knowledge of the context and styles of each of the set works, and will make determining similarities and differences in the unfamiliar listening question more approachable.
The book is provided as full colour PDF file, in a presentable format with questions and keywords throughout.
A sample double-page spread is available to preview from the files list.
If you purchase this resource, please leave some feedback!
As part of the examination for the new Pearson Edexcel AS GCE Music specification students will be expected to complete an error identification test. These tests require candidates to listen to a monophonic extract of music and identify three errors in the music as it is notated in the exam paper. Having identified the errors, they will then be expected to write a correct version of the melody.
This book provides a series of practice error identification tests in the style of that given in the sample assessment materials provided by the exam board. In each of the tests included, a short melodic fragment or phrase from an existing piece of music has been taken.
The first 20 tests in the book are drawn from melodic material found in set works from Areas of Study 1-5 of the specification. Given the nature of the set works in the New Directions area of study, and the reduced importance of melody as a compositional device, or aleatoric nature of the score, the decision has been taken not to include tests for these set works. The final 8 tests are drawn from a wider range of repertoire in order to give students practice completing tests based on unfamiliar music. This is important, as there is no commitment in the specification that the material used in the actual examination will be drawn from either the set works, or the suggested wider listening list. As such, it will be beneficial for students to practice tests that are both from familiar and unfamiliar repertoire.
A full mark scheme and audio files for each question are included.
A mark record sheet for students to keep a log of their progress can also be found at the back of the book.
The book is provided as a PDF file, and the audio files for each question are provided in MP3 format within a compressed ZIP file.
This book is designed so that it can be used as one off printed sheets which can be given to students, or as a full printed booklet. A handy guide has been included to help you, if you want to print the full book, to help you make sure the right pages end up in the right place!
If you like this resource, please leave a review below.
This pack of posters currently contains 13 full colour A3 classroom posters, with one for each major and minor key signature, ideal to brighten up your music classroom.
For the best results, the posters should be printed borderless on A3 paper, in colour, and laminated.
All posters are supplied in PDF format. Previews of all posters are available in the files list.
Please leave a review if you purchase this item, and share photos of your display on twitter @SeanYoung_Music
This pack of posters currently contains 13 full colour A3 classroom posters, with one for each of the main instruments of the orchestra, ideal to brighten up your music classroom.
The pack currently contains the following posters:
– Piccolo
– Flute
– Oboe
– Clarinet
– Bassoon
– Horn
– Trumpet
– Trombone
– Tuba
– Violin
– Viola
– Cello
– Double Bass
For the best results, the posters should be printed borderless on A3 paper, in colour, and laminated.
All posters are supplied in PDF format. Previews of all posters are available in the files list.
Please leave a review if you purchase this item, and share photos of your display on twitter @SeanYoung_Music
This pack of posters currently contains 11 full colour A3 classroom posters, covering several of the most significant film composers of the 20th and 21st century. These posters are perfect to brighten up your classroom, and help to familiarise your students with the key composers of the film music genre, and the scores they composed.
The pack currently contains posters for the following composers:
– Alexandre Desplat
– Bernard Herrmann
– Danny Elfman
– Ennio Morricone
– Hans Zimmer
– Howard Shore
– James Horner
– Jerry Goldsmith
– John Barry
– John Williams
– Randy Newman
For the best results, the posters should be printed borderless on A3 paper, in colour, and laminated.
All posters are supplied in PDF format. Previews of all posters are available in the files list.
Please leave a review if you purchase this item, and share photos of your display on twitter @SeanYoung_Music