Topic title: Reggae
Year group: 8
When taught: Christmas to February half term
What are we learning?
• About the history, culture and religious background of Reggae
• How to play chords on the ukulele.
• Singing whilst playing chords on the ukulele.
• Performing a full-length piece in an ensemble.
• Starting to learn about the points of the major scale and the roles of primary and secondary chords.
Why is this important to know?
• Reggae is both a popular and world style of music. It is representative of examples of music used as protest songs and was a big cultural development within the UK music scene in the 1970’s.
• Looking at how the skills of playing chords can be achieved on another instrument opens another opportunity for pupils to engage with music.
• Building on our singing skills from year 7 pupils develop confidence to sing as soloists or in small groups performing full length pieces. This builds up stamina in performance and in rehearsal.
• All music focuses around the primary chords in a scale (the tonic, subdominant and dominant) with some secondary chords (supertonic and submediant being the most commonly used). For this we need to learn more about major scales and why these chords are important.
Where does this link into our past and future learning?
• Singing is a fundamental skill in music and is the most common way we interact with music throughout our lives. In year 7 pupils have sung in groups but not a soloist. In this topic pupils are encouraged to sing a section of the song as a soloist in their performances.
• Our next topic looks at song writing. Pupils will have seen examples of effective song structures in this topic and from our blues music topic. They need the knowledge from playing chords and singing together to build their own songs.
• In our next topic on songwriting pupils need to choose appropriate chords and understand their roles in creating phrases (these chord progressions are known at cadences and create punctuation at the end of each phrase).
• In key stage 3, key stage 4 and going forward in their musical futures, being able to play in an ensemble and sing confidently is key.
How will we be assessed on this topic?
• Pupils will be assessed on performance of a Reggae piece both in their singing and in playing the chords on the ukulele.
What makes a strong piece of work in this topic? What are teachers hoping to see?
• Confident and accurate performance on both the ukulele and when singing.
• Aiming to be able to play the chords and either the bass line or improvisation at the same time.
• Confidently identifying features of the Blues whilst listening to a Blues piece.
What key words are there in this topic?
What can I try if I want to stretch and challenge myself on this topic?
• Have a go at playing the more complex reggae pieces with more challenging/more variety of chords.
• Confidently singing and playing in time as a soloist rather than as part of a group
• Learning how to work out the notes of a major scale and the names of the points of the scale.
What wider reading can be done on this topic?
Listen to Reggae pieces on YouTube and having a go at play along pieces.
Using interactive websites such as the following to help with learning the notes in scales and chords.
Tonesavvy.com
Musictheory.net
Teoria.com
Supporting document/links:
