United Kingdom Year 6 National Curriculum - Music

This curriculum focuses on developing musical skills and knowledge through performing, composing, and listening and appraising.

Performing

Students learn to sing and play instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control, and expression. They perform both solo and in groups, developing improvisation and composition skills. Performance skills are developed through playing tuned and untuned instruments and developing vocal techniques.

Composing

Students create and develop musical ideas, exploring various musical dimensions:

• Pitch: The highness or lowness of a sound.
• Duration: The length of a sound or silence.
• Dynamics: The loudness or softness of a sound.
• Tempo: The speed of the music.
• Timbre: The quality of a sound that distinguishes one instrument or voice from another.
• Texture: The layers of sound in a piece of music (e.g., monophonic, polyphonic).
• Structure: The overall form or organization of a piece of music.

Students learn appropriate musical notation to document their compositions.

Listening and Appraising

Students develop critical engagement with music by listening attentively and identifying musical features. They learn to describe how these features create different moods and effects. They also explore a range of musical contexts and traditions.