Teaching Materials

Edexcel AoS6 New directions: John Cage

What is music? What is composition? What is a ‘new direction’ in music? Who is John Cage? These are the topics I'll cover in this resource on John Cage's Three Dances for two prepared pianos, one of...

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Graphic scores

There are many advantages to exploring graphic notation in the classroom. It's a fact that most of our young students will only have a limited experience of working with and understanding standard...

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Teaching variations at KS3

Teaching variations gives a lot of bang for your buck: you can explore many musical concepts through a unit on variations in a relatively short space of time. These include meaty compositional...

Teaching Materials

Computer gaming music: composition

Following an earlier resource on gaming music (AQA AoS2: Computer gaming music, Music Teacher, November 2018), here I'm going to consider ways of teaching computer game music using composition. This...

Teaching Materials

A Christmas miscellany

Christmas-themed Music Teacher resources have become something of an annual tradition, much like advent calendars or leaving out mince pies for Santa. In previous years, there have been some...

Teaching Materials

Christmas around the world

It’s that time of year again. The end of a really long term, one often filled with the need for cover work or room changes as concert rehearsals and mock exams take place. But how can you keep classes...

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A cross-curricular Christmas (KS5)

In a number of schools, music teachers will need cover in order to meet the demands of the festive season. When cover is required, a teacher from another department will inevitably end up in your room...

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Getting the most out of your rehearsals

From time to time, our rehearsals can have a little too much of the ‘harrowing’, or even of the ‘hearse’ to them. This resource is about revitalising our approach within a school context. It looks at...

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Teaching the elements of music at KS3

The elements of music have long been an important component of KS3 music. However, the elements of music are really just a set of labels and concepts under which sits a wealth of musical...

Teaching Materials

AQA AoS2: Computer gaming music

This resource looks at AQA's Area of Study 2, specifically computer gaming music since 1990. It will help with the study of computer gaming music, but will also consider some of the ways in which we...

Teaching Materials

Edexcel A level: Wider listening

In this resource, I will consider what ‘wider listening’ means, and how we can approach it in our teaching. There are some barriers that can easily be broken down, and some misconceptions that can...

Teaching Materials

AQA AoS1: The operas of Mozart

This resource aims to provide resources and strategies for how to approach the area of study with your classes. These will include ideas for where to start with tackling the context of Classical...

Teaching Materials