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Assessment materials for year 8 term 2 'The Blues'

KS3 assessment materials

Specialist teaching resource

Language for Learning: Melodic movement: scalic, moving by step, conjunct, moving by leap, triadic, disjunct, chromatic, ascending, descending, repeating, phrase, improvisatory. Pitch: low, mid, high, note-bending, blue note. Notation: ‘seen v heard’ - written versus implied pitch and rhythm. Texture: melody and accompaniment, ‘call and response’, solo, unison. Rhythm: on-beat, off-beat, swung, triplet, syncopation, up-beat, down-beat, improvisatory, ‘playing in the cracks’, walking bass. Harmony and tonality: triad, chord extension, 7ths, functional harmony, primary triads, key, cadence, consonance, dissonance, tonic, sub-dominant. Timbre/Forces: voice styles and instruments associated with Blues and their techniques - note bending, scat, improvisation. Structure: 12 bar Blues, ‘the head’, 'the top', ‘stop chorus’, AAB phrase structure.

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Measuring musical attainment and progress at KS3. How do you know when students are making musical progress, rather than just going through the motions of completing tasks and collecting a bunch of marks?

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Four-part harmony exercise 25

Suitable for all exam boards that have an SATB J.S.Bach chorale four part harmony question

classwork, tests, cover, homework, revision

Minor chorales and the partnership between the home key and its relative major. In minor chorales, there’s a really strong pull towards the relative major, so this example and exercise is all about the partnership between the home (minor) key, its relative major, and the relative major’s relatives.

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Four-part harmony exercise 26

Suitable for all exam boards that have an SATB J.S.Bach chorale four part harmony question

classwork, tests, cover, homework, revision

Opening phrases and making decisions about keys. The exercises in this resource remind students how important it is to consider how one phrase moves to the next, both in terms of part-writing and in the handling of the beautiful modulatory language of this genre.

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Four-part harmony exercise 24

Suitable for all exam boards that have an SATB J.S.Bach chorale four part harmony question

classwork, tests, cover, homework, revision

Beautiful bass lines part 2. There are certain melodic shapes that are perfect for ‘set piece’ bass lines that move by step. In this example, the thing to look for is a repetition of the mediant on the downbeat that is quitted conjunctly.

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Four-part harmony exercise 23

Suitable for all exam boards that have an SATB J.S.Bach chorale four part harmony question

classwork, tests, cover, homework, revision

Beautiful bass lines part 1. This exercise features an example and exercise that illustrates how Bach sometimes harmonises adjacent chords with the same chord, in the same position, and disguises the repetition by walking between and away from the onbeats with AUX and UPNs.

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Assessment materials for year 9 term 3 'EDM'

KS3 assessment materials

Specialist teaching resource

Language for Learning: Melodic movement: scalic, modal, moving by step, conjunct, moving by leap, triadic, disjunct, ascending, descending, repeating, modified, improvisatory, fixed, repetitive, motivic development. Pitch: low, mid, high, tessitura, register. Notation: piano roll, score, bpm, note names, note values. Texture: melody and accompaniment, unison, octaves, solo, layering, doubling, heterophony, tutti, countermelody. Rhythm: regular pulse, ostinato, on-beat, syncopated, 4-on-the-floor, augmentation, diminution. Harmony and tonality: major, minor, modal. Timbre/Forces: acoustic, live, looped, synthesized, sampled. Structure: ostinato, cyclic, based on gradual/dramatic change, motivic development, countermelody, elaboration, fragmentation. Dynamics: loud, strong, forte, quiet, soft, piano, crescendo, diminuendo, fade-in, fade out. DAW: real-time/ step-time recording, sequencing, editing, quantising, balancing, attack, decay, sustain, release, sample, loop, mix-down, panning, sweep.

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Assessment materials for year 9 term 2 'Minimalism'

KS3 assessment materials

Specialist teaching resource

Language for Learning: Melodic movement: scalic, modal, moving by step, conjunct, moving by leap, triadic, disjunct, ascending, descending, repeating, modified, improvisatory, fixed, repetitive, slowly evolving. Pitch: low, mid, high, tessitura, register. Notation: score, metre, note names, note values. Texture: melody and accompaniment, unison, octaves, solo, counterpoint, canon, overlapping, phasing. Rhythm: regular pulse, repeating patterns, interlocking patterns, on-beat, syncopated, strict, metric clarity/obscurity/symmetry/asymmetry. Harmony and tonality: major, minor, diatonic, modal, pedal, inverted pedal, drone. Timbre/Forces: ‘like’ forces, live, looped, synthesized, sampled. Structure: ostinato, cyclic, loop, phrasing. Dynamics: loud, strong, forte, quiet, soft, piano, crescendo, diminuendo. DAW: real-time/ step-time recording, sequencing, editing, quantising, balancing, attack, decay, sustain, sample, loop, mix-down.

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Assessment materials for year 9 term 1 'Ground Bass'

KS3 assessment materials

Specialist teaching resource

Language for Learning: Melodic movement: scalic, moving by step, conjunct, moving by leap, triadic, disjunct, ascending, descending, repeating, modified, improvisatory, fixed, repetitive, sequence. Pitch: low, mid, high, tessitura, register. Notation: score, metre, note names, note values, bar, beat, line, part, voice, system. Texture: melody and accompaniment, homophony, homorhythm, unison, octaves, solo, block chord, broken chord, imitation, imitative counterpoint, layering, doubling. Rhythm: regular pulse, ostinato, on-beat, syncopated. Harmony and tonality: major and minor, chord, triad, inversion, cadence, consonance, dissonance. Timbre/Forces: orchestral strings, piano, harpsichord. Structure: ground bass, chordal ostinato, cyclic. Dynamics: loud, strong, forte, quiet, soft, piano. DAW: real-time/ step-time recording, sequencing, edit, quantise, balance, loop, duplicate, mix-down.

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Assessment materials for year 8 term 3 'The Four Chord Trick'

KS3 assessment materials

Specialist teaching resource

Language for Learning: Melodic movement: scalic, moving by step, conjunct, moving by leap, triadic, disjunct, chromatic, ascending, descending, repeating, phrase, improvisatory, is it a melody or just a broken chord? Pitch: low, mid, high, octave, in 3rds. Notation: stave notation, chord symbols, Roman numerals, slash/inversion chords. Texture: melody and accompaniment, melody, bass and chords, broken chords, octave doubling. Rhythm: on-beat, off-beat, syncopation, up-beat, down-beat, improvisatory. Harmony and tonality: triad, functional harmony, primary triads, key, cadence, consonance, dissonance, tonic, dominant, sub-dominant, I, IV, V, VI, pedal notes. Timbre/Forces: voice types and functions, rhythm section, horn section, strings. Structure: chordal ostinato, intro, verse, chorus.