Key Stage 3 Music - African Music

In this topic you will learn how African Music uses:

• Call and Copy
• Call and response
• Improvisation
• Syncopated Rhythms
• Polyrhythms

By the end of this topic, you will be able to:

• Compose, plan and play different rhythms with 4 beats in a bar.
• Explain how African Traditional music is traditionally performed.
• Identify key musical features of African music through practical tasks.
• Compose and perform your own stylistic African drumming piece using a djembe as part of a group.
• Sing a traditional African song and hold your own part as part of a group.

Understanding

- You can understand musical instructions in a class ensemble and identify simple repeated patterns heard in African music. 

- You can understand how the musical elements can be used to create different moods and effects in African music. 

- You can understand how musical devices are used to create expressive African songs. 

- You can understand the musical processes and contexts of African music. 

Skills - Music Making

• You can perform as part of a group
• You can sing with a sense of the shape of the melody
• You can repeat short rhythmic and melodic patterns
• You can sing in tune with expressions or perform rhythmically simple parts to a steady pulse
• You can arrange an African drumming piece within simple structures (e.g. beginning, middle, end)
•  You can maintain your own part in an African ensemble performance performing by ear or by simple notation
• You can combine some musical elements and devices successfully and develop your ideas
•  You can maintain your own part with an awareness of how the different parts fit together, adapting your part to achieve a stylistic effect
• You can combine musical elements and devices and develop ideas stylistically, showing a clear understanding of African music.