I am a specialist primary music teacher living and teaching in Devon.
I have 20 years experience of teaching and love creating resources. As well as creating my own resources I have also created resources for companies such as ABRSM. I am also a professional and published composer of Brass band and Concert Band music.
Check out my Youtube page - www.youtube.com/musicwithmrgray
I play trumpet professionally in a ska/reggae/dub band called The Kingstons (www.thekingstons.club).
I am a specialist primary music teacher living and teaching in Devon.
I have 20 years experience of teaching and love creating resources. As well as creating my own resources I have also created resources for companies such as ABRSM. I am also a professional and published composer of Brass band and Concert Band music.
Check out my Youtube page - www.youtube.com/musicwithmrgray
I play trumpet professionally in a ska/reggae/dub band called The Kingstons (www.thekingstons.club).
This is a 6 week topic that aims to teach the main elements of music: Pitch, Tempo, Timbre, Dynamic, Duration, Texture and Rhythm. This is done through listening to music (from Queen to Beethoven), composing songs, moving to sounds and music and creating music compositions using tuned and untuned instruments.
Every lesson will focus on an element and explore its importance in music. Tuned and untuned percussion will be used in every lesson to help with this. The children will be given opportunities to improvise and create their own music and sounds.
Standard notation will be used to help children develop an understanding of music/rhythm reading.
Songs/chants will also be sung to accompany the lessons, developing their singing voices every week. An opportunity for the children to write their own class song will also be used to develop their singing and compositional skills.
As well as plenty of compositional and improvisation opportunities, lessons are also inspired by Kodaly/Dalcroze/Orff ideas and methods, allowing children to explore music through sound and movement.
Links to curriculum/Possible assessment opportunities:
Use the voice expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
Play tuned and untuned instruments musically
Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music
Please note: I have used the font AR CHRISTY for a lot of the slides so it may look slightly different!
This is a 6 week topic aimed at KS1 and KS2 to teach them about different music traditions from around the world.
Throughout this topic, pupils will be given the opportunity to explore music from different countries and cultures around the globe, including: West Africa, Australia, Poland, Ireland, Jamaica and Native America.
Each week will focus on a different country. The focus of each lesson will be to learn where the country is on the map, listen to an example of traditional music from that that country and learn a song/game/dance that is culturally relevant.
Pupils will be given the opportunity to develop their listening and singing skills (Links to curriculum can be found at the bottom).
By the end of the topic pupils should have a better understanding of different styles and genres of music and where they came from as well as developing their understanding of the role of music in different cultures and societies.
Perfect for linking to Geogrpahy and History!
Links to curriculum/Possible assessment opportunities:
Use the voice expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
Play tuned and untuned instruments musically
Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music
Please note: I have used the Font AR CHRISTY so it may look different when downloaded!
This resource has been created to help teachers with whole class (wider opportunities/first access) guitar teaching.
It is based on learning guitar via Tablature (TAB) and chord boxes. It begins by teaching children how to read TAB with some simple melodies. Teacher can accompany the class on piano or guitar. The PowerPoint then continues on to teaching children 4 chords (G, C, D & Em), either the short versions (circled) or the full versions.
There is then a large amount of popular rock and pop riffs and well known melodies from AC/DC to Harry Potter and Ed Sheeran to Metallica for the children to learn to play.
I have also attached 10 pages that can be put together to create a booklet for the children to take home.
** Recently updated to include a lot more riffs!**
Enjoy!
This topic aims to teach children how to use Garage Band on the iPads. It is ideal for KS2 and KS3.
It begins with step-by-step instructions for children to create a simple rock piece of music. Whilst doing this they are learning how to create a new song, add instruments, use pre-set patterns, add drums loops/tracks and play the Garage Band guitar.
The class are then given the opportunity to create their own compositions whilst exploring the other features on Garage Band.
The topic also teaches them how to use the Smart drums, Smart strings, Drums, Sampler, Keyboard and Microphone (audio recorder).
This is from my Music of the Far East topic.
It's a piece of Gamelan style music that can be played using classroom percussion (Tuned and un-tuned). It's colour coded to help children play the piece with relative ease.
I've attached a WAV file of the the piece.
Enjoy!
I have written this Topic to help teach children learn to play the Ukulele. It’s a great resource if you’re doing Wider Opps/First Access. I have written a lesson plan that covers 6 weeks but this can easily be stretched out to a whole terms worth of material.
The class will learn up to 6 chords, plenty of fun songs and will also begin to learn how to read and play from Tablature (this is a great skill for those who will continue to learn rock/pop guitar).
The PowerPoint has plenty of recognisable songs, pictures to help with chord positions, a brief history and origin of the Ukulele. It has been UPDATED with plenty of songs and melodies to learn including Star Wars, Pink Panther, Harry Potter etc. You can create a book using the PDF’s.
Enjoy!
In this topic the children will be given the opportunity to develop their compositional skills by writing music for their own version of the well known musical story Peter and the Wolf as well as helping to create their own musical story.
The children will be able to creatively think about how different instruments/sounds/textures can help to portray a particular character, creature and/or emotion.
The children will be given the task of creating their own story using pictures and writing and then adding a musical score to it.
This topic will also allow the children to continue developing their singing skills by singing the fun song ‘Shake my sillies out’ as well as developing their musical thinking skills by determining which sounds/instruments suit certain scenarios/characters/scenes the best.
This topic is very engaging from start to finish with plenty of activities and original lesson starters, Enjoy!
This topic explores music of the Far East including the following countries: China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Polynesia, Bali and Java.
Year 5 will also learn about the importance of the pentatonic scale in Chinese music. They will be given the opportunity to learn to play a traditional piece of Chinese music (Jasmine Flower) on tuned percussion and keyboards and will also be set the task of composing their own piece of music using the pentatonic scale.
The class will also be given the opportunity to learn to sing a Filipino & Polynesian song as well as taking part in a classroom Gamelan activity for the last two weeks (they will use classroom tuned percussion to create Gamelan style music).
As well as broadening their musical listening and experiences this topic is also great for linking with geography and history too.
This is a 6 lesson topic exploring the music listened to and played during World War 2.
The children will develop an understanding of the styles of music civilians and soldiers were listening to during the 1930’s and 1940’s including Vera Lynn, George Formby, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong etc.
They will also learn how to play a simple swing/jazz piece of music (C Jam Blues), develop their improvisation skills and sing a fun Glenn Miller inspired song.
By the end of the topic the class will have a good understanding of the music of World War 2, the instruments that make a jazz/big band, the role music and songs played during the war, what swing music is and how to improvise using the pentatonic scale.
Overall, this topic will help children develop a range of skills including listening and appraisal, singing, musical instrument playing, improvising and performing.
I have now added another classroom arrangement of Little Brown Jug
This is a short project I did with KS2.
It contains a Powerpoint with all the relevant information about how to write your own song.
You will need to link music to the relevant pictures.
It has music for a class to play 'I Gotta Feeling&' by the Black Eyed Peas.
There is also a very basic lesson plan with it.
A PowerPoint containing all of the information for Area of Study 3 (Texture and Melody). The Powerpoint includes links to musical examples. Some of the pictures are linked to music on my own laptop so will not work on yours! You'll need to upload your own example (mp3)
I have a created a 'Who wants to be a millionaire&' quiz based on Popular music of the 20th & 21st Century (AQA Music).
Four of the questions are based on audio files so you will need to add your own. The answers are in the &';notes' tab underneath the edit page.
Enjoy
I have created Power points covering all of the subject content for the Areas of Study 1 & 2 (AQA Music) including links to music examples.
Hope it's of some help!