KS 3 Curriculum Overview 2016 to 2017 KS3 at Brighouse High School Music Year 8 Curriculum Overview Topic title Topic programme of study Offbeat This unit explores reggae music and the culture it comes from. After exploring the origins of reggae music as a one of a number of different styles of Caribbean music, pupils learn about the importance of bass lines in reggae music and how offbeat chords are a key feature of music in this genre. Pupils explore the strong and weak beats of the bar, syncopation and the effect that this has on reggae music before looking at how “fragmented” melodic parts can be used as bass line riffs and melodic hooks. Pupils look at the famous reggae musician, Bob Marley and his influence on Rastafarianism to a worldwide audience. Pupils explore the different textural layers which make up reggae music before exploring the different themes used in traditional reggae lyrics. Music and Space This unit begins by exploring Holst’s “The Planets” to explore the connection between Music and Space and to provide a stimulus for creative composition work. Pupils explore how Holst uses musical elements and features, including the use of an Ostinato, in “Mars”, before using these features to compose their own “Mars, The Bringer of War” programmatic pieces. Pupils learn about the use and manipulation of dynamics including gradations of dynamics and the use of crescendo, performing a theme from “Jupiter” and listening to other movements from Holst’s suite. The use of Music Technology (Audacity®) allows pupils to compose an electronic soundscape - “The Missing Moon” which builds on skills and concepts learnt about during the unit.