We have made a great start to the year in Music. Lots of children across Prep 3-6 are having individual instrumental and singing lessons in school and I have enjoyed hearing all the children perform in their Class Concerts. Some of these children will then be chosen to perform for parents in the Recital on Thursday 12 November. Further details will follow to parents in Prep 4 and 5 if your child is ready to perform in this event. We do still have some spaces left for certain instruments so if your child would like to start individual lessons then just send me an email.  

All of our Music clubs are also in full swing now and the children continue to burst into the rehearsals with enthusiasm and commitment. Prep 4 have enjoyed the opportunity to join Prep 5 and 6 in the school choir, Encore, and they are starting to work on new songs for Christmas. We have a variety of performances planned in December.  The orchestra are learning pieces by Strauss and Tchaikovsky and The Music Theatre club is beginning rehearsals for their performance of Oliver in March. The sounds coming from the Music Room remain varied and lively and it is a place of great fun and enjoyment!

During their class lessons all the year groups learnt their songs for the Harvest Festival and then the children in Lower School and Prep 2 started working on their Christmas performances. These will take place in December and I look forward to welcoming all parents into school to watch. They are an invaluable opportunity for the children to perform on the school stage and they help them grow considerably in confidence, giving them a chance to work as a whole year group to create their play. 

Preps 3 and 4 have been working hard on their reading of music notation to support their work on the keyboards. Each child has their own keyboard and they are all learning to play the instrument. Individual stations allow for progress to be tailored to each child and everybody learns how to read music and play a selection of pieces. For Prep 3 this is a whole new experience and Prep 4 have enjoyed building on the foundations from Prep 3. Many have now progressed onto more advanced pieces involving both hands and even a backing beat. The children love this aspect of the subject and are rightly proud of the progress they make. 

The curriculum in Prep 5 focuses a lot on composition and currently the classes have been working on a piece called “Cyborg Attack”. They listened to it and studied a graphic score which showed them how it sounded through a simple diagram. The children were then tasked with working out how to play the music on the keyboard. They then performed it to the class. This took focus and determination but the results were great. 

In Prep 6 the children have been using GarageBand on the iPads to create a new soundtrack for the end of the Star Wars film. The music had to be created to fit the film and then it was all dropped into iMovie to create their own version. This required the choosing and manipulation of different sounds and careful consideration of when and how they each wanted their piece to sound.  No two pieces sounded the same in the end but they all showed creativity and developed a greater understanding of this important skill. Maybe we will have a few budding sound engineers in the future? 

Mrs Drennan 

Director of Music