Music– KS3 overview: Topic Map
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Topic 1
Topic 2
Topic 3
Topic 4
Topic 5
The Elements of Music:
Musical Theatre:
Musical Structures:
Ladders
Pictures at an exhibition
Pupils will explore sound through
Graphic Scores and
experimenting with Pitch,
Tempo, Dynamics, Texture,
Silence, Duration
Attack & Decay.
Their assessment will be to
create a composition
demonstrating these features in
a pair.
Pupils will explore music and
singing in the context of Musical
Theatre, analysing the key
features of different songs and
structures. They will examine how
the music is communicated.
Their assessment will be to
prepare a musical theatre
performance and appraise
themselves and others.
Pupils will explore Melody Writing,
Balanced Phrases, Call and Echo, Call
and Response,
Binary, Ternary, Rondo,
Song Structure,
Ostinato,
Drone,
Pentatonic.
This unit aims to explore how pictures and
art can provide the inspiration and stimulus
for composition. Pupils then explore how
the elements of music are used to create
different effects. Pupils compose their
own piece of music inspired by a picture or
painting of their choice, which is put
together to form a class “Pictures at an
Exhibition” featuring the recurring
“Promenade” theme.
Theme and Variations
Composing Christmas Songs:
Indian Music- Exploring Raga:
Pupils begin with the Pentatonic scale
and learn and explore this through
integrated activities of listening,
performing, composing and
improvising. Pupils move onto the
Chromatic scale and learn about tones
and semitones before exploring and
identifying the difference between
major and minor scales. Pupils learn
about the whole tone scale and how
the composer Debussy used this in
impressionist music and the
connection between impressionist art
and music.
Beginning the Blues:
This unit develops pupils’ ability
to recognise, explore and make
creative use of the elements of
music found in variation form.
Pupils explore how composers
have used variation form in a
selection of music from different
times and places.
African Music:
Pupils will begin to explore the art
of song writing by exploring
existing Christmas songs and
writing songs of their own. They
may use music technology
software for this.
Pupils will learn about the structure of
an Indian Raga, Traditional Indian
Musical Instruments, Tala, Drone,
Raga Scale & Mood
Improvisation
Pupils will explore the basic history
and context of Blues music. They will
learn to play the 12 Blues. They will
learn to play triads, dominant 7ths,
walking bass lines, syncopated
rhythms and to improvise a melody.
Acoustic vs. Electronic Sounds
Programme Music – “The Planets” by
Gustav Holst
Graphic Notation
Timbre & Instrumentation
Dynamics
Soundtracks
Popular song: Exploring Songs &
Samba
Minimalism
Pupils will learn about Rhythm,
Bass/Tone/Slap,
The role of the Master Drummer
Rhythm Grid Notation
Call & Response, Polyrhythms
Cyclic Rhythms, Syncopation
Improvisation
Pupils begin by exploring leitmotifs
and how themes have been used
in film soundtracks and performing
a number of “James Bond”
themes. Pupils compose their
own soundtrack to the new James
Bond film trailer “Skyfall” learning
how film composers use
cuesheets to create music to fit
with exact timings. Pupils then
explore storyboards as another
device used by soundtrack
composers, creating a soundtrack
for a particular film genre before
exploring how musical clichés
have been used in silent films and
cartoon soundtracks.
Pupils will explore Musical
Arrangements, Cover Songs, Popular
Songs, Song Structure, Textures &
Layers, Recording a Song, Music
Technology and Digital Effects
This unit introduces the polyrhythmic
style of Latin-American Samba and
identifies its roots in African and
Spanish/Portuguese music. Through
performing Samba, pupils will learn the
sounds and understand the roles of
each instrument used in Samba, learn
about rhythmic loops, polyrhythms, call
and response and improvisation in
Samba and experience the
exhilaration and physical impact of
percussion ensemble music. The unit
is based around a flexible class
Samba performance piece - “Samba
de Janeiro” which can be used solely
as a percussion piece or with optional
melodic parts added.
Music & Space-
This unit develops pupils’ understanding of
polyrhythmic music and contemporary
minimalist styles exploring how different
polyrhythmic textures and musical
conventions are used by minimalist
composers including the use of repetitive
and changing rhythmic and melodic motifs
in different styles of minimalist music. The
main focus of this unit is rhythm: cyclic
rhythm, polyrhythm and moving in/out of
phase and also looks at structure including
cyclic structure and motivic transformation.
Pupils explore a range of minimalist music
including “Clapping Music”, “Tubular Bells”
and “Oxygene (Part IV)”.