Year 9 Keyboard Solo Performances

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Year 9 at Lansdowne have been learning about musical scales and the order that the notes appear on the keyboard as part of our music learning over recent weeks. Many different activities have been organised by Miss H to help with this learning.

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Each lesson is usually started with a warm-up activity to help refresh the existing knowledge that the pupils already have. Each class member was presented with a large picture of a keyboard. We also had individual note letter names. The challenge was to compete against the clock and place the correct note letter names on the correct keys.

We counted which pupil had the highest number in the correct order in the quickest possible time. Praise postcards were handed out. These can be exchanged for items at break time in the Lansdowne School healthy tuck shop.

The main musical learning throughout the term has been to use this keyboard knowledge to allow the pupils to play a solo performance in front of our other friends. Different targets have been set for each class member, depending on the high expectations that we have.

This is also a great activity to help develop the fine motor skills of the pupils. Some of the songs requite some very intricate keyboard playing. Miss H has been helping each pupil to use their full range of fingers, rather than just playing with a single index finger.

Slowly the names of the musical notes have been removed from the class keyboard. The students should now know which key represents which note. The end result is some incredibly impressive solo keyboard performances, as you can see from the videos below.

Our musical learning will continue in Year 9 after the Easter break. The knowledge and skills from the keyboard work will be supplemented by adding in other instruments such as a xylophone and the drums. The end result will be a musical group performance from the class.

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