Year 9 get devising....

For their first assessed performance, Year 9 will devise a short combined arts piece which demonstrates skills which have been worked on in lesson time.

 

Today is their first independently led planning and preparation session and they've started with dance : choreographing a dance sequence which will take place as part of their performance narrative.

 

 

Their performance will take place on the evening of 7th December as part of the main School Concert. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Year 7 Conducting

In Year 7, we look at the elements of music, learn the basic rules and key terminology and then have a go putting all this into practice.

To test out our new knowledge and understanding, we became conductors. We learned about time signatures, what a downbeat or upbeat is, and the directions a conductor should move their arm(s) on each beat of the bar. Once our conducting skills were polished, we had a go a conducting the rest of the group whilst singing or using percussion. 

We quickly found that the conductor has control of everything. When leading the group could control the tempo, dynamics, texture, on/offset of the music. We could get the music to start and stop with just one movement, and could instruct individual musicians to join or drop out through simple eye contact. 

The key to being a successful musical leader was confidence and authority. We discussed body language and what kind of stance/presence means that a person might be a successful leader or conductor.

Here's some pictures of our budding conductors...

'Gamelan' Style

Year 8 are taking a musical trip around the World. Today we stopped in Indonesia (Bali) where we learned about Gamelan music. After seeing a Gamelan performance on YouTube, we took off our shoes and stepped into the Drama Room where Miss Emma had assembled Tenby's very own make-shift gamelan.

We considered the musical techniques we had observed in the YouTube video (ostinato/ antiphony/ slendro scale/ unison/ polyrhythms/ motif) and composed our own gamelan piece of music to reflect the Great Storm of Miri which swept through school yesterday.

Movement 1 - The Calm Before The Storm

Movement 2 - The Elements Rage

Here's the YouTube video that inspired our performance:

Where next on our Musical World Tour??

IGCSEs...

 

Year 9:

This year you will select which subjects to study at IGCSE level.

Speak to Miss Emma if you are interested in either Music, Drama or both!

What goes on in Performing Arts?

A busy first year in Performing Arts at Tenby, Miri.

See the kind of things our students have been doing here...

Superheroes!

Year 8 Drama students have been working tableaux (still images) and how we can manipulate pictures to depict a narrative.

Lessons have been spent using our superpowers to fight evil and bring down the villains! All in a day's work at Tenby!

School of Rock

This term Year 7 and 8 will study Rock and Pop Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

In this project we'll listen to and discuss different rock and pop music from the last 60 years, examine how it has developed and the impact of culture, politics, technology on music and vise versa.

Students will form their own bands, performing and recording their own rock/pop compositions and covers of existing songs. They'll learn the basics on typical band instruments (guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, drums) and everyone will sing lead and backing.

Looking forward to hearing what they come up with! Watch this space!

Year 7 and 8 - if you play any band instruments outside of school, feel free to bring them into school on the day of your lesson!

If you want a little preview of what we'll be listening to, google/youtube;

• The Beatles
• The Beach Boys
• Queen
• Pink Floyd
• Green Day
• Nirvana
• Don McLean
• Abba
• Beyonce
• Moby
• Adele
• Coldplay
 
....and have a listen to any related bands recommended by YouTube

Rock on.

Sporcle: Music Symbols Challenge

Think you know all the musical symbols and what they mean? Check out this sporcle puzzle where you have to name each symbol as quickly as possible (yes, spelling matters!)

http://www.sporcle.com/games/g/musicsymbols

Try to beat Miss Emma's record time (30 seconds!)

Have fun!

Year 7 Ground Bass

Year 7 Make Some Noise!

Members of year 7 were given the task of creating a musical composition set over a given ground bass. They could use any instrument in the music department and tried to include a variety of timbres.

Some students played the ground bass, whilst others tried broken chords and one or two attempted to improvise a melody in tune with the ground bass chords.

Mr Colum could hear the awesome sound from his library and came down to see what all the noise was. Once he was here, he couldn't help joining in!

Year 8 Canon Project

Year 8 hard at work....

Year 8 are working a ground bass project: they are creating a dance track inspired by the famous Pachelbel's Canon in D.

Other artists such as Coolio, Pet Shop Boys, Green Day and Oasis have used the same bassline.

Students are building a musical construction based upon the same ground bass. Their construction must include;

• bass
• sustained chords
• broken chords
• ostinato rhythms
• a lyrical melody
• drum beat

Finished products will be posted here!

Musical Magic

Years 7 and 8 Harry Potter Task

As a way of getting used to how Cubase works, Years 7 and 8 were given the task of becoming film composers.

They watched the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but the sound had been edited out. Their task was to compose, record and edit a suitable musical accompaniment to the action using Cubase.

Students had to identify important dramatic hitpoints in the trailer, and consider how the music could support and enhance the audience's response to the drama. When composing, students had to think about;

• mood
• instrumentation
• texture
• timbre and contrast
• pace
• tonality

This is just one example of the work produced!

Check out this awesome video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M

When we've used instruments in class, you're encouraged to try and use the instrument in as many ways as possible (eg - tapping, plucking bowing, scratching), experimenting with the different sounds.

Here, the group are using just one guitar in loads of different ways. Can you pick out the different layers of sound?

Incredible voices too!

Welcome to Tenby International School's Music Department.

On this blog you can keep up with every happening in the Music Department. Click back here for pictures, videos and sound clips of students' work, as well as news from the department, homework information, revision help and latest news from the world of Music and Performing Arts.