The national curriculum for Music aims to ensure that all pupils:

• perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians.
• learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence.
• understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations. 

Key Stage 1

Pupils should be taught to:

• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes.
• play tuned and untuned instruments musically.
• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music.
• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music. 

Key Stage 2

Pupils should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory. 

Pupils should be taught to:

• play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression.
• improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music.
• listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory.
• use and understand staff and other musical notations.
• appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians.
• develop an understanding of the history of music. 

Year 1

Improvisation Skills

*Use the improvisation tracks provided. Begin to improvise using the three challenges:

*Clap and Improvise – Listen and clap back, then listen and clap your own answer (rhythms of words). 2. Sing, Play and *Improvise – Use voices and instruments, listen and sing back, then listen and play your own answer using one or two notes.

Improvise! – Take it in turns to improvise using one or two notes.

Year 2

Improvisation Skills

*Use the improvisation tracks provided. Improvise using the three challenges with increasing confidence:

*Clap and Improvise – Listen and clap back, then listen and clap your own answer (rhythms of words).

*Sing, Play and Improvise – Use voices and instruments, listen and sing back, then listen and play your own answer using one or two notes.

Year 3

Improvisation Skills

*Improvise using instruments in the context of the song they are learning to perform. Using the improvisation tracks provided, children will complete the Bronze, Silver or Gold Challenges:

Bronze Challenge:

Copy Back – Listen and sing back

Play and Improvise – Using instruments, listen and play your own answer using one note.

Improvise! – Take it in turns to improvise using one note.

Silver Challenge:

Sing, Play and Copy Back – Listen and copy back using instruments, using two different notes.

Play and Improvise – Using your instruments, listen and play your own answer using one or two notes. ○ Improvise! – Take it in turns to improvise using one or two notes.

Gold Challenge:

Sing, Play and Copy Back – Listen and copy back using instruments, two different notes.

Play and Improvise – Using your instruments, listen and play your own answer using two different notes.

*Improvise! – Begin to take it in turns to improvise using three different notes.

Year 4

Improvisation Skills

*Improvise using instruments in the context of a song they are learning to perform. Use the improvisation tracks provided and improvise using the Bronze, Silver or Gold Challenges.

Bronze Challenge:

Copy Back – Listen and sing back melodic patterns

Play and Improvise – Using instruments, listen and play your own answer using one note.

Improvise! – Take it in turns to improvise using one note.

Silver Challenge:

Sing, Play and Copy Back – Listen and copy back using instruments, using two different notes.

Play and Improvise – Using your instruments, listen and play your own answer using one or two notes.

Improvise! – Take it in turns to improvise using one or two notes.

Gold Challenge:

Sing, Play and Copy Back – Listen and copy back using instruments, two different notes.

Play and Improvise – Using your instruments, listen and play your own answer using two different notes.​​​​​​Improvise! – Take it in turns to improvise using three different notes with confidence.

Year 5

Improvisation Skills

Year 6

Improvisation Skills

*Improvise using instruments in the context of a song to be performed. Use the improvisation tracks provided and improvise using the Bronze, Silver or Gold Challenges.

Play and Copy Back:

Bronze:

*Copy back using instruments. Use one note.

Silver:

*Copy back using instruments. Use the two notes. ○

Gold:

*Copy back using instruments. Use the three notes.

*Play and Improvise You will be using up to three notes:

Bronze:

*Question and Answer using instruments. Use one note in your answer.

Silver:

*Question and Answer using instruments. Use two notes in your answer. Always start on a G.

Gold:

*Question and Answer using instruments. Use three notes in your answer. Always start on a G.

*Improvisation! You will be using up to three notes. The notes will be provided on-screen and in the lesson plan:

Bronze:

*Improvise using one note.

Silver:

*Improvise using two notes.

Gold:

*Improvise using three notes. Classroom Jazz 2 – Improvise with a feeling for the style of Bossa Nova and Swing using the notes D, E, G, A + B (pentatonic scale/a five-note pattern).