Topic title: Gamelan
Year group: 7
When taught: May half term – Summer
What are we learning?
• About music from other cultures. Here we are looking at Indonesian Gamelan
• Continuing to develop our skills with notation identification, keyboard skills and singing.
• Continuing to develop out ensemble performance skills
• About developing texture and structure in our compositions
Why is this important to know?
• As citizens of the world understanding features of other cultures is key to being an understanding world citizen.
• Finding new and exciting styles of music to be inspired by gives pupils a broader musical understanding and opens up their thoughts when creating original music.
• Pupils will continue to develop their skills in notating, building on creating original melodies and rhythms with less specific constraints than in previous compositions. This encourages them to be freer and more independent in this process.
• Pupils can begin to layer musical ideas in a more complex way, learning to hold parts against each other, learning to listen at the same time as performing. Not only is this useful for development of musical ability but also encourages the skills for collaborative creation, learning to listen to others in teamwork situations.
• Being able to express yourself by playing and writing music is a fundamental skill that we have used to relate to one another throughout human history. Learning to express your emotions and share that with others begins with performance and composition.
• Effective compositions need every element of music to be considered. Up until this point we have focused on melody, rhythm, dynamics, articulation and repetition and development. The next steps are to consider how to create pieces that are longer involving creating structure and variety within structure using texture to build the ‘shape’ of the piece.
Where does this link into our past and future learning?
• Pupils will sing in this topic as they have in our previous ones, building up their singing skills this time using direct harmony. Until this point, we have sung rounds and countermelodies, allowing pupils to build confidence in singing in small groups and holding parts against each other. In the direct harmony singing in this topic, pupils are having to listen to each other whilst holding their own part. This piece is an Indonesian piece and encourages pupils to sing in other languages.
• We use tuned percussion (glockenspiels and xylophones) alongside the keyboard skills and vocal skills we have worked on in our other topics. This links back to our work on the orchestra percussion.
• We use the skills from our notation and rhythm topics to create ‘free’ compositions without prewritten rhythms for support as we have in our Oompa Loompa and fanfare compositions.
• Our next topic is on bass riffs. We look at creating original bass lines and combining these with chords and melodies on our own in performance. In our Gamelan topic we complete these skills as part of a group, learning how they sound and fit together.
• In Year 8 will build on our skills of performance and composition with layering parts such as basslines chords and melodies. In this topic we really look at layering parts in performance and in composition in a controlled manner using pentatonic scales before we move into more diatonic work needing more understanding of harmony (year 8 and above). We work on these skills one at a time through year 7 with those pupils who are ready to combine skills earlier taking on some of these challenges in year 7.
• In year 9 we look at Fusions music and having experience of music from other cultures opens up opportunities for original composition.
• This topic continues to use MADTSHIRT and builds in specific vocabulary as described below to help describe texture and structure.
How will we be assessed on this topic?
• This topic is practically assessed on the composition of their Gamelan piece. Pupils will receive feedback on their group performance of this piece too.
• Please see the attached vocabulary and assessment sheet for more information.
What makes a strong piece of work in this topic? What are teachers hoping to see?
• Being able to create an eight to sixteen bar composition following the specific rules for creating an effective melody as described on the topic and assessment sheet attached.
• Thinking carefully about the structure you use, how many times are you going to repeat a part before it changes? Have you used textural changes to make it clear when we have changed from one section to another?
• Have you included a variety of textures?
• Please see the attached documents for more information.
What key words are there in this topic?
What can I try if I want to stretch and challenge myself on this topic?
• Book into a practice room and practice your singing or work on your composition and performance of your Gamelan piece.
• Borrow pieces from the extension library – these are pieces you can use to practice your playing more and building your skills. Feel free to take these home, come and use the keyboards to practice in music tech or book a practice room to work more on your skills.
• Try to create a piece with a variety of textures included, with a clear structure that is well rehearsed throughout. You can add difficulty to your piece by considering adding singing for one section of the piece to further develop the texture and show off your skills.
What wider reading can be done on this topic?
• Get to know more about Indonesian Gamelans, have a go at playing the instruments and create your own Gamelan compositions using: Philharmonie de Paris
Ongoing music learning
• Signing up for Duolingo music. This is free and can be used on any touchscreen device. This teaches notation reading, rhythming reading and keyboard skills, along with performing in time.
• Using the games on musictechteacher.com to help with learning the notes on the keyboard and stave.
• Music Learning Community – music games to practice your skills
• Theta Music Trainer – more music games
• Musictheory.net
• Teoria.com
• Tonesavvy.com
Supporting document/links:
Gamelan keywords and assessment document
Support sheet for KS3 books
