Online Teaching Materials
Downloadable resources for music teachers
Teaching materials are an integral part of a music teacher's practice. Every month Music Teacher publishes downloadable materials for KS3, 4 and 5, offering complete units of work, GCSE and A Level set-work guidance, and practical ideas across all levels for both classroom and peripatetic teachers. All materials are written by experienced teachers and examiners and provide indispensable content for your teaching.
If you would like to see an example of a Teaching Material, please click here.
SubscribeCreative responses to the new Edexcel GCSE set works
Secondary education KS 4 Archive
This resource draws on the techniques of an ‘animateur’ (workshop leader) and puts them in the context of the curriculum, considering practical ways to approach features in all eight of the set works...
AQA & OCR: John Adams
Secondary education KS 5 Archive
Many music departments include modules on minimalism in their KS3 and KS4 schemes of work. A contemporary musical style that uses simple repetitive diatonic phrases with catchy rhythms and engaging...
AQA, Edexcel & OCR: Olivier Messiaen
Secondary education KS 5 Archive
As a teacher, Olivier Messiaen taught many of the figures who became giants in the post-war avant-garde – among them Boulez, Stockhausen and Xenakis. And as a composer, he sits on a line from Debussy...
Unfamiliar listening in the new GCSE specifications
Secondary education KS 4 Archive
The new GCSE music specifications have ensured that all four boards now expect students to be confident listening to and appraising unfamiliar music. With three of the boards providing students with...
AQA, OCR, Edexcel & Eduqas: a Jazz Primer, part 1
Secondary education KS 5 Archive
Jazz is an important area of study for A level across several of the boards. This first part traces jazz history from its ‘raggedy’ beginnings in the 1890s through to the gloss and sophistication of...
AQA GCSE AoS2: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Secondary education KS 4 Archive
‘It was 20 years ago today…’ sang the Beatles on the opening track of their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. And it is now actually 50 years ago that they first sang these words. So it's a...
Edexcel AS and A level Music: Appraising - an introduction
Secondary education KS 5 Archive
The new AS and A level qualifications from Edexcel are set up in a very similar structure to the legacy course - which many of us are still teaching to our Year 13 students. We still have three...
OCR AoS6: Innovations of the 20th Century, part 1
Secondary education KS 5 Archive
This is the first of two Music Teacher resources covering OCR's AoS6. Here, we'll look at Late-Romantic, largescale symphonic works; Impressionism; and Expressionism, atonality and serialism. We'll...
Edexcel A level: Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring
Secondary education KS 5 Archive
This resource focuses initially on the context for Stravinsky's breakthrough, situating it among other musical innovations at the turn of the century. Stravinsky's early career and writing style are...
OCR AoS2: The Concerto Through Time - the Romantic concerto
Secondary education KS 4 Archive
This month we will focus on the Romantic concerto. Specifically, students need to understand how the concerto developed through the 19th century, and how the role and instruments of the orchestra and...