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Primary School Resources

FREE KS1 / KS2 Music Curriculum Resource

These are 6-lesson Youtube-based resources based on the LM Primary Scheme of Work Unit Themes of Pitch and Music Technology.

(As these were developed during Lockdown - before our change to Leicestershire Music, they show our previous branding.)

Unit 4 - PITCH

What is it?
A weekly 6-lesson Youtube based resource for use at school or at home based on the LM Scheme of Work Unit 4 theme of PITCH. The pupils will learn about pitch, as well as dynamics, tempo and the basics of timbre, through exploration of sounds in school and/or the home and outside. They will create music to accompany an already written story and will create their own music based on their favourite story, poem, or range of emotions.

What will you get?
A free weekly video resource with accompanying resources for 6 lessons of music learning. Links to the accompanying resources are included in the video descriptions on Youtube.

Support from Leicestershire Music during use of the resource as and when required.

What do schools need to do?
Share the resources with pupils with in your home learning pack and/or with the teachers in school delivering face to face lessons.

Enjoy watching and listening to any of the musical outcomes the children send to you at the end of the 6 weeks, if you require them to do so. There is reference in the videos to record their work and send to their class teacher if required.

Information for parents and carers?
The pupils may need a little adult supervision while the children look for things to create sounds with in the home and the kitchen (lessons 1 and 4), and with some of the voice work (lesson 2).

KS1
LESSON 1
LESSON 2
LESSON 3
LESSON 4
LESSON 5
LESSON 6

KS2
LESSON 1
LESSON 2
LESSON 3
LESSON 4
LESSON 5
LESSON 6

Unit 5 - MUSIC TECHNOLOGY

What is it?
A weekly 6-lesson resource for use at school or at home based on the LSMS Scheme of Work Unit 5 theme of Music Technology. Over the 6 weeks pupils will learn how to use a range of fun, interactive and free web based applications. Each of these pieces of software will encourage musical learning and exploration and the sessions themselves will build upon previous knowledge as well as introducing pupils to musical structures.

What will you get?
A free weekly video resource including tutorials for all the new pieces of web-based musical software.

Support from LSMS during use of the resource as and when required.

What do schools need to do?
Share the resources with pupils with in your home learning pack and/or with the teachers in school delivering face to face lessons.

Enjoy watching and listening to any of the musical outcomes the children send to you throughout the 6 weeks, if you require them to do so. There is reference in the videos to record their work and send to their class teacher or musictech@leics.gov.uk (to perhaps feature on future videos).

Information for parents and carers?
Younger pupils may need adult supervision when using the internet-based searches for software and when recording and sending their pieces to their teacher / musictech@leics.gov.uk.

Resources will be added each week as they become available.

KS1
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3

Lesson 4
Lesson 5
Lesson 6

KS2
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 5
Lesson 6


LM Musical Activities to Support Children's Wellbeing

Children need time for play, curiosity & nurture, and even more so during the present times coping with the pandemic and loss of learning in school for many children. Ideally children need 30 minutes at the start of the day and 10 minutes at the end of the day to spend time being curious, playing and being creative. Without this opportunity children may find engaging with lessons more difficult and, in some cases, no learning will be able to take place.

Young People need access to activities that support their biochemistry of wellbeing. Activities linked to these chemical endorsing needs can be offered as a musical activity, along with other art forms, and is a good tool for giving pupils these creative experiences, to help them settle into learning each day.

These musical activities are taken from the Wellbeing resource on our website but have been updated for ease of immediate use by teachers, parents and carers alike.

Please click on a week to access the relevant resource sheet.

(As these were developed during Lockdown - before our change to Leicestershire Music, they show our previous branding.)

Week 1

Week 1 music
Polaris One 'Shimmer' is an original R'n'B instrumental piece of music, written at 60BPM in 2014. 60 Beats Per Minute is said to reflect the heart beat of human beings in a relaxed state.

Gymnopodie No.2 by Erik Satie This is the second in a set of 3 Gymnopodies written in the 1880's by Erik Satie, a French composer and pianist.

KS1 Week 1 worksheet
KS2 Week 1 worksheet

Week 2

Week 2 music

Activity 1 – KS1 and KS2
The backing track is a 'funk beat drum track'. It is at a steady beat to enable pupils to tap or clap along to, with scope for them to create more complicated rhythms afterwards.

Activity 2 – KS1 and KS2
The music used for activity 2 is The Four Seasons written by the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi. It is a set of four violin concertos – a string orchestra with a violin soloist - each taking the name of one of the four seasons and depicting that season through music. They were written around 1716-1717 but are still listened to regularly today and have been used in numerous films and TV adverts.

The pupils will choose which season they listen to, depending on the season it is when they complete the activity.

KS1 Week 2 Worksheet
KS2 Week 2 Worksheet

Week 3

Backing track – Slow 12-bar Blues in C at 60bpm - The 12-bar blues is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a distinctive structure of lyrics, phrase, chords, and length. A basic 12-bar blues if based on chords I, IV, and V

E.g. C C C C/F F C C /G G C C

VeggieTales: The Blues with Larry
This song is a fun way to learn about the structure and theme of the lyrics of the blues songs. The first two sentences repeat, with a different third line, with this pattern shown by the letters AAB

E.g. the first lyrics of Larry's Blues:

All sunshine and roses, no rain came my way (A)
All sunshine and roses, no rain cam my way (A)
My dad bought me ice-cream, oh happy, happy, happy day (B)

KS1 Week 3 Worksheet
KS2 Week 3 Worksheet

Week 4

Week 4 - Chill

Underneath the Sun composed by Faro – This relaxing track is from Faro's 'Dreaming in Orange' album released in 2011. It is also found on several 'Chillout' albums such as 'Chillout Paradise Vol.4'. Recorded at 60bpm, a tempo associated with resting heart rate & elevated states of consciousness.

When questioned about his music, faro said "[My]…music (or at least much thereof) belongs to the ethnic/tribal/oriental lounge category in terms of sound, but feels more like the score from a dramatic, and perhaps a bit adventurous, movie. My songs usually aim to gently carry the listener into a relaxing hammock". Find out more about Faro here, in an interview with Inside the Rift

Mindfulness Meditation Music – a collection of piano music recorded at 60bpm, The first track 'Space' promotes meditation & breathing, guiding the body to calmly build energy.

Music for Wellbeing KS1 wk4
Music for Wellbeing KS2 wk4

Week 5

Week 5 – Funk

Chameleon by Herbie Hancock –

The original version of Chameleon lasted for 15 minutes 44 seconds! The song has a characteristic bass line and is set to a funk beat (ref: Wikipedia)

Herbert Jeffrey Hancock is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer, and actor. Hancock started his career with Donald Byrd. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. In the 1970s, Hancock experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles (ref: YouTube).

Relaxing Jazz Music - Background Chill Out Music - music for relaxing, working or studying. Compiled by Cafe Music BGM channel on YouTube.

Music for Wellbeing KS1 wk5
Music for Wellbeing KS2 wk5

Week 6

Week 6 – Film Music

The three tracks chosen for this week's wellbeing activities come from three well-known and recent films – Iron man, Mowgli and Captain America. Find out more about the people who wrote this music below:

Iron Man – 'Mongers Attack' by Ramin Djawadi – Ramin was born in Germany to a German mother and Iranian father in 1974. He is a soundtrack composer who studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, USA and plays the piano, keyboard, synthesiser and guitar. He has written music for a number of films, TV programmes and video games, including Game of Thrones (Ref: Wikipedia)

'Kaa's Lair' from Mowgli, written by Nitin Sawhney – Nitin was born in 1964 to Punjabi immigrant parents, he grew up in Rochester, Kent and learnt to play the piano, classical and flamenco guitar, sitar and tabla. He is one of the most distinctive and versatile musical voices around today, is established as a world-class producer, songwriter, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, orchestral composer and cultural pioneer. He has written approximately 60 films, numerous TV series including BBC's the Human Planet, over 20 studio albums 0 11 in his own name – and extensive pieces for theatre, dance and video games. (Ref: Wikipedia & www.nitinsawhney.com).

Captain Marvel: 'I'm all fired up' by Pinar Toprak – Pinar is a Turkish-American female composer for film, TV and video games. She was born in 1980 and raised in Istanbul, Turkey and wrote the music for Captain Marvel (2019), the Superman prequel series Krypton, the Pixar animated short Purl. (Ref: Wikipedia) Find out more at www.pinartoprak.com

Music for Wellbeing KS1 wk6
Music for Wellbeing KS2 wk6

Week 7

Week 7 – African Music

Les Percussions de Kouroussathis video is an example of traditional and cultural African Percussion music performed by musicians from Upper Guinea. They have learnt the African rhythms by the aural tradition and culture – where the music is learnt by ear and not written notation.

Fatoumata Diawara – Nterini - Fatoumata Diawara is a Malian Singer-Songwriter and actress. This rendition of 'Nterini' is from her 2018 album, "Fenfo". Diawara sings mostly in Bambara, the national language of Mali, and builds on the tradition of "songs of advice" from the culture of her ancestral Wassoulou region.

Cee-Roo: Feel the Sounds of Kenya – this track is a compilation of music and visuals from a project in Kenya, by Swiss composer and music producer Cee-Roo, who then edited and produced this video.

African Voices: Obiero – this song was written by Ayub Ogada (a.k.a. Job Seda) and can be found on the album En Mana Kuoyo. He was a Kenyan singer and was known for playing and incorporating into his music the nyatiti, an eight-stringed lyre with its origins credited to the Luo, a tribe in Nyanza Kenya) as his characteristic instrument. His music is known to have a natural feel to it, having songs of birds, the calls of animals and the sounds of children playing in the background.

(Ref: Wikipedia)

Music for Wellbeing KS1 wk7
Music for Wellbeing KS2 wk7


Please click here to access Primary Music Technology Resources


Music Education Hubs East Midlands (MEHEM) Primary CPD 2020

Composing activities and CPD for Primary teachers, presented by Sue Nicholls.

MEHEM is able to bring three CPD videos to support primary generalist teachers in East Midlands schools in their planning and delivery of composing activities in the Music National Curriculum.

The short videos are ideal for use in either weekly staff meetings, CPD days or individual PPA time and accompanying resources can be used to support teachers in the classroom delivery.

Please click here to visit the MEHEM webpage to access resources and further information.

Passwords for these resources have been sent to all Primary Schools. If you cannot locate your password, please click here and request a reminder.


BBC 10 Pieces
Here you will find weekly activities for primary schools, home educators and parents to share with their young people.Each activity includes a Ten Pieces film to watch and enjoy and a linked creative activity that can be completed by children at home without any special materials or preparation! A perfect, simple and easy way to keep listening, enjoying and creating music at this time.

Chrome Music Lab
A fantastic, free website dedicated to fun, engaging games making music! Make music like you've never seen (heard!) before.

Free YouTube sessions with Myleene Klass!

Drumbit
This is a fantastic drum machine! Open it up and create your own rhythms!

Rock Kidz Live
There are plenty of YouTube videos including warm-up, songs, games ... and ROCK!! A raucous alternative to the norm!

Kapow - Year 1
This is a Year 1 unit of work, but other year groups feel free to have a go.
There are helpful 'how to' videos for each lesson, so check those out first!

Kapow - Year 3
This is Year a year 3 unit of work, but other year groups feel free to have a go.
There are helpful 'how to' videos for each lesson, so check those out first!

DCP Drumming tutorials
Have you ever wanted to be a drummer? Learn some drumming skills with these tutorial videos created by DCP