Creative Arts - Music

Year 7 Music learning was centred on the development of keyboard and guitar skills. Students performed songs individually and as part of a small group. Students learnt about the different families of instruments and ways of categorising instruments depending on their sound production method.

Year 8 Music learning activities focused on  the development of guitar and keyboard skills. Students studied The Blues characteristics and performed the 12 Bar Blues chord progression on keyboard and guitar as well as improvised blues melodies on keyboard. The concepts pitch, texture and structure were a focus in the context Music for Radio, Film and Television.

Year 9 Music completed performance, listening and composition learning activities focused on the musical concepts and their treatment in Jazz and The Blues. Songs analysed included the PostModern Jukebox traditional jazz version of Love Yourself and Backwater Blues by Bessie Smith. Students created and performed a small group arrangement of Backwater Blues including call-and-response, improvisation, Blues scale notes and walking bass line.

Year 10 Music performed songs based on Popular Music and analysed the effects of loop pedals on the treatment of the concepts of music in popular music styles.

Year 11 Music completed the topic Music for Small Ensembles with a focus on Pop and Rock and Power Ballads. The students performed songs by ABBA, Heart and Bon Jovi and composed an arrangement of a popular melody for a small ensemble as an assessment using the computer notation program Sibelius.

Year 12 Music were lucky enough to travel to Sydney recently to see and hear the 2017 ENCORE performance at the Sydney Opera House. This included around 20 of the best H.S.C performances and compositions from last years H.S.C exams. This was a great experience and will give students a clearer picture and different ideas of what they can perform for their H.S.C in Term 3. They were also able to hear a performance of “Mama Mia” the musical at the Capitol Theatre prior to ENCORE. This was a great experience for the students, particularly as some of these students are involved in the Mater Dei production of “We Will Rock You”. Year 12 have also completed assessments in Composition and Musicology. We now look forward as they start to rehearse their practical programs for the Music HSC exams later in the year.