Our Further Learning Recommendations
We have shared additional curriculum resources to help your child excel in their learning.
Doing
Put your theory into practice with lots of fun tasks www.musictheory.net
Compose and mix your own music! Download free DAW software such as Audacity or Cakewalk (for PC) of Garageband (Mac)
Teach yourself’ books online or in print (there are many to choose from!)
Watching and Listening
Listen/Watch The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten
Learn the Music Elements Song
- BBC Radio 1-latest charts/pop music
- BBC Radio 2-retrospective popular music
- BBC Radio 3-Classical Music and Jazz
- Classic FM-Classical Music
- BBC 6 Music-contemporary up and coming artists
- Various Radio stations that focus on different decades (70s, 80s etc.)
Reading
- Music Theory for Beginners by Emma Danes
- First Steps in Music Theory by Eric Taylor
- The Elements of Music; Melody, Rhythm and Harmony by Jason Matineau
Doing
Lots of fun exercises to improve your understanding of theory
Compose and mix your own music! Download free DAW software such as Audacity or Cakewalk (for PC) of Garageband (Mac)
Create your own minimalist music with the composer Steve Reich
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z6h7jhv
Watching and Listening
Watch a full performance of Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’ and read about the theories behind who ‘Elise’ was rumoured to be
Try listening to the Radio! Broaden your musical horizons.
- BBC Radio 1-latest charts/pop music
- BBC Radio 2-retrospective popular music
- BBC Radio 3-Classical Music and Jazz
- Classic FM-Classical Music
- BBC 6 Music-contemporary up and coming artists
- Various Radio stations that focus on different decades (70s, 80s etc.)
Reading
- Music; A Very Short Introduction by Nicholas Cook
Interesting book about what music actually is in terms of its social and cultural place in societies across the world
- How Music Works by John Powell
Ever thought why music makes us feel the way we do when we hear it? Fascinating look at the science of the power of music
Doing
Lots of fun exercises to improve your understanding of theory
Compose and mix your own music! Download free DAW software such as Audacity or Cakewalk (for PC) of Garageband (Mac)
Free version of Dorico software (Dorico SE) from the Steinberg website
Free Demo projects for Cubase on the Steinberg website
Watching and Listening
Watch a full performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto Number 5. This video includes movements 1 and 2 as well as our set work movement 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIgqeA76cdU
Watch Daniel Barenboim a very famous concert pianist perform our set work; The Pathetique Concerto by Beethoven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrcOcKYQX3c
Watch a performance of our set work Killer Queen from 1974
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZBtPf7FOoM
Try listening to the Radio! Broaden your musical horizons.
- BBC Radio 1-latest charts/pop music
- BBC Radio 2-retrospective popular music
- BBC Radio 3-Classical Music and Jazz
- Classic FM-Classical Music
- BBC 6 Music-contemporary up and coming artists
- Various Radio stations that focus on different decades (70s, 80s etc.)
Reading
- Music; A Very Short Introduction by Nicholas Cook. Interesting book about what music actually is in terms of its social and cultural place in societies across the world
- How Music Works by John Powell. Ever thought why music makes us feel the way we do when we hear it? Fascinating look at the science of the power of music
- Becoming Bach by Tom Leonard
- Johann Sebastian Bach (Getting to know the world’s greatest composers series) by Mike Venezia
Find out more about the composer of our Piano Sonata set work:
- Ludwig Van Beethoven and the Chiming Tower Bells by Opal Wheeler
- Ludwig Van Beethoven (Getting to know the world’s greatest composers series) by Mike Venezia
Freddie Mercury (Little People Big Dreams) by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara. Fascinating insight into the life of the leader of the band Queen
Doing
- Join the choir or one of our musical ensembles
- Create a timeline of the main musical features of each historical period – Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Twentieth Century.
- Research the differences between Latin musical dance styles – Tango, Salsa, Samba and Bossa Nova.
- Go to a concert or workshop in York. Classical | Visit York
- Write a song based on the topic you are currently studying.
- In the style of…Compose a short minimalist piece in the style of John Adams or Steve Reich.
- Do an audition
- Audition for a County or Music School group or choir.
- Enter a Competition. Enter the Cambridge composer, the Herts Songwriter, BBC Young Composer or the St Albans Young Musician of the year competition
Watching and Listening
- The Story of Music. Watch any of the Howard Goodall documentaries from his series ‘The Story of Music’.
- Watch and then write a review of the 1984 version of the film musical ‘Little Shop of Horrors’.
- Compare two greats
- Listen to Pie Jesu from Faure’s Requiem and compare it to Verdi’s Pie Jesu.
- Listen to Santana – Listen to the album, Supernatural by Santana
- Aaron Copland – Listen to Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. What is the most striking musical feature?
Reading
- Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting by Pat Pattison
- In a lighthearted, engaging way, Pat Pattison shows how a detailed songwriting process can become second nature, until every lyric you write is powerful and professional and has audiences clinging to your every word. You’ll examine 17 extraordinary songs to discover what makes them so effective.
- The Story of Music, Howard Goodall . The non-fiction book The Story of Music covers the history of largely Western classical music from pre-history to 2012. The book is associated with the 2013 BBC2 documentary series Howard Goodall’s Story of Music.
- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Classical Music… But Were Too Afraid to Ask by Sam Jackson & Darren Henley.
- Darren Henley and Sam Jackson have set out to make the world of classical music accessible to all. Three sections steer you through the terminology and etiquette of classical music, open the fascinating history of the genre and its key figures over the last 1,000 years, and provide a detailed reference guide.
- Musical Theatre: A History by John Kenrick – Like every art form, musical theatre has been changing and evolving since its inception more than 2000 years ago. This book presents a history of stage musicals from the earliest accounts of the ancient Greeks and Romans, to Jacques Offenbach in Paris during the 1840s, to Gilbert and Sullivan in England, to the rise of music halls and vaudeville traditions in America, and eventually to “Broadway’s Golden Age”.