Key Stage 1 and 2 Music Learning Outcomes and Objectives

1. Beat & Rhythm

Learning objective:
Children can demonstrate the difference between the beat and rhythm
through movement and through explanation.

Beat: A unit of measurement to describe the speed of music. The amount of

time between each beat is the same if the music is playing at a constant
speed.

Learning outcome:
If children are feeling the beat they will be tapping or marching evenly
with each tap remaining the same.

I use ideas from this film in lessons to help them learn about the beat:
https://youtu.be/RXB67nHnty0?t=24s

Rhythm: The flow of music through time or how music works against the
beat. Rhythm refers to the length (duration) of notes (sounds) and the
length of space in between notes and how these group together.

Learning outcome:
Children should be able to clap a rhythm and explain that it is different to
the beat because some claps are closer together or further apart in time.

When children are clapping the syllables of words they are clapping a
rhythm. https://youtu.be/U2462p5IF3A

I quite often use basket balls with children and ask them to count the beats
and bounce the ball on beat number one, or pass it on beat number 5 etc.

We also play games like tag where children are only allowed to move on
beat 1.
notes:
- Children will, pretty quickly, be able to show you the beat either by marching
or tapping it out, when they listen to a piece of music. However, it becomes a
massive challenge when you ask a child to explain what the beat is.
- When we say a piece of music has a nice beat we are actually referring to the
rhythm. We talk about the drummer playing a rock beat or a funk beat, this
again is referring to a rhythm.
- Pulse is quite often used to mean the same thing as beat.

2. Duration

Learning objective:
Children can demonstrate and explain what is duration.
 Duration: is the term in music to describe the length of a sound or silence.

Learning outcome:
Children should be able to play a sound that lasts for a long time or a short
time. They should be able to distinguish between hearing two instruments
play different length notes and be able to say which lasted for the longer
duration. They should be able to play sounds for a specific number of
beats.

I have a great game called Ta Ta Kidi, which demonstrates the beat,

rhythm and duration.

There are great imaginative play activities where children can pretend to be
different animals to explore duration. An eagle soaring could be described
as having a longer duration of fewer sounds or a rabbit running as having a
shorter duration of lots of sounds.

3. Tempo 

Tempo refers to overall speed of music. How fast or slow the beat is.

Learning objective:
Children should be able to describe a piece of music as having a fast or a slow
tempo and should be able to distinguish whether one piece of music is faster or
slower than another and also whether the music’s tempo is getting
faster/slower/staying the same.

I think it is important that children think about how the tempo affects their
bodies and emotions. How does a fast piece of music make them feel? How
does a slow piece of music make them feel?

4. Pitch 

Pitch: the musical term to refer to how high or low a sound is.

Learning objective:
Children should be able to say whether an instrument is playing high sounds or
low sounds. Children should be able to hear whether a series of notes is getting
higher or lower. Children should be able to think about the use of low sounds
or high sounds when creating a piece of music. In Saint Saen’s L’Elephant the
double bass, a low sound, is used to represent the elephant.
https://youtu.be/f1nVDoCnsNk
I use lots of Dalcroze games to explore pitch. I’ll play an improvised piece
either on piano or guitar and ask the children to pretend to different animals
depending on how high or the low the music is. They might be fish swimming
in the sea and if the music gets higher the reach to the sky or if it gets lower
they swim down low so they are embodying the idea of pitch to help them
learn.
5. Melody

Melody: a melody is the main theme of a musical piece, a succession of tones

or notes arranged rhythmically. It could be played by instruments or sung.

Learning objective:
Children should be able to recognize/identify the melody within a chosen song.
Children should be able to compose/improvise a simple melody.

KS1 – I play a simple game called the human piano where each child has a
single note, usually a hand bell, and one child is chosen to be the composer.
When the composer taps a child on the head that child is allowed to play their
note. This creates a complete improvised melody.

KS2 – We quite often limit the notes children can choose to a diatonic scale C-
c without accidentals. We then use an alphabet grid to translate children’s
names into melodies, or number the notes 1 – 8 and use telephone numbers to
generate melodies. Children can then attach rhythms to each of these notes to
make them more complicated.

6. Texture & harmony

Texture refers to the layers of sound we can hear playing and harmony refers
to whether the melody is accompanied by a complimentary melody or chord
sequence.

Learning objectives:
Can children identify how many instruments are playing together in a chosen
piece of music? The more instruments we can hear the thicker the texture.
Children should be able to identify when a chord changes in a piece of music.
Although it is not expected, in KS2, children should be able to create chords in
C Major using triads and should be able to determine which notes might
accompany a melody given basic mathematical rules.

When I’m teaching I do a lot around the 4 chord trick I, V, VI, IV where I get
children to work out the notes in each chord and then create harmonies that
fulfill the chord sequence. We then try singing recognizable melodies over the
top. https://youtu.be/oOlDewpCfZQ

In KS1 we might create a weather composition where children think about

combinations of percussion instruments or other sounds to mic the weather.
Here we might introduce the idea around a thick texture for a thunderstorm
combining bass drums, with cymbals and shakers.

7. Dynamics 

The volume of the music or a specific sound usually described using quiet/soft
and loud.

Learning objective:
Children should be able to describe whether a piece of music is soft or loud. Or
whether it is getting louder or quieter. They should be able to control their
voices or instruments when playing in response to written or conducted cues.

We might play games where children have to tip toe when music is played
softly or stamp when music is played loud. We then play games where children
have to play a chime softly if I am tiptoeing or loud if I’m stomping. We also
play a game where children take it in turns to conduct the rest of the class
using arm movements horizontally in and out to allow the rest of the class to
play soft or loud.

8. Feel & Emotion

This is by far the most important part of being musical. Music offers
children/people a way of expressing our feelings and emotions that goes
beyond the use of words. https://youtu.be/3yRMbH36HRE

Emotion in music is completely individual and it is wrong to suggest to

children that a piece of music should make them feel a certain way. Having
said this there is some interesting research that suggests that the shape of
melodies can affect our emotions in relation to the sound babies make. When a
bay cries they quite often cry with a falling pitch contour suggesting that when
a melody descends it might make us sad. Listen to this article on 6music with
Adam Ockleford: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p058v23z

I play a game with children where I play a piece of music and ask for how it
makes them feel. I then give them a different piece of music and ask again for
a different emotion. I then ask the children to act out (silently) this emotion
whenever I play the corresponding piece.

Learning objective:
Children should be able to talk about how a piece of music makes them feel.
They should be able to understand and articulate the impact music can have on
our feelings for instance within film music.

9. Notation 

Ways of which we write music down.

This could be western notation, tablature or any form of graphic score.

Learning objective:
Children should able to talk about why they might want to write music down
instead of learning a piece aurally. What are the advantages of being able to
write music down and what are the advantages of learning a piece aurally.
Children should be able to create their own graphic scores. Children should be
able to use basic Western notation - they should be able read the notes on a
treble clef stave and be able to write and read rhythms using semi-breves,
minims, crotchets and quavers and equivalent rests.

10. Performance 

Learning objective:
Children should be able to perform music accurately as individuals and in
ensembles.