The long-awaited arrival of a newly-updated KS3 unit - Elements of Music - to kick-start Year 7 with a bang!  
 
This fully-resourced KS3 Secondary unit comes complete with 6 fully-resourced lesson plans, each containing a Lesson Plan, Worksheet (where applicable) and PowerPoint Presentation with all embedded audio and video files (also available separately as MP3/MP4 and WAV files).  
 
This unit has been designed to be used at the very start of KS3 Year 7 to allow both pupils to engage in active music making and teachers to baseline assess pupil’s prior skills and understanding in terms of: musical knowledge, performing, composing, improvising, and critical engagement: listening and responding. 
 
Pupils immediately become ‘sound detectives’ by listening, analysing, singing and performing a popular song to learn how the elements of music have been used.  
 
A bassline assessment (not included) is undertaken in lesson 2 and pupils add instrumental textural layers and harmony to the popular song from lesson 1.
 
Lesson 3 explores graphic scores and how the elements can be used to realise a graphic score and pupils match examples of music from China to graphic scores.  
 
Pupils undertake a short film soundtrack task in lesson 4, using the elements to create an effective soundtrack to a short film, introducing them to "Music and the Media" at an early stage.  An improvisation task is also included to introduce spontaneous creation and performance.  
 
Lesson 5 is all about singing and using the elements of music vocally to create harmony and texture: drone, call and response and vocal ostinati.  
 
Finally, lesson 6 allows pupils to use the elements of music for effective performance technique as they perform Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his Symphony No.9.
 
It is hoped that this unit will develop pupil’s understanding of the elements of music providing them with a foundation of musical vocabulary for use at KS3, which can be developed for GCSE Music and beyond.  By working through the unit, pupils will know, understand, distinguish between and describe the elements of music, drawing on these as a resource when composing, creating and improvising in response to different stimuli and responding to them effectively when performing and singing.  Pupils will recognise and describe how the elements of music have been used from music from different times and places.