Spring term music at the Prep
The Prep School Music Department is back in full swing and the sweet sounds of group ensembles, choirs, orchestras and varying music lessons have been a delight to hear. Below is a brief summary of what the girls have been up to in their lessons.
Reception and Year 1 have been learning how to read music and play the keyboard and really enjoyed showing their parents how much they had learnt, in their recent ‘Keyboard, dogs and birds lesson‘. Year 2 have been very busy, rehearsing songs for their entertaining ‘Pirates versus Mermaids’ musical, which parents enjoyed watching live on 10th February. The girls have also started their carousel of instruments, where they learn to play the Violin, Recorder and Trumpet. They have really enjoyed their first couple of lessons and hopefully they will continue their practice in the years to come.
Year 3 have been learning about guitars alongside their English Topic about the singer-songwriter Elizabeth Cotten and they are so excited to meet and listen to a professional guitarist who will be visiting in March. In Year 4 instead the focus has been on Chinese music and the girls celebrated Chinese New Year through their lessons about the Chinese melody, Jasmine Flower. The girls performed the song in three parts on the keyboard and have input the melodies into Chrome Music Lab on their school iPads.
Year 5 have been getting creative with Bizet’s ‘Habanera’ from ‘Carmen’. They were having a great time experimenting with the voice sounds and backing tracks on the keyboards. They are also eagerly awaiting their trip to see ‘The Magic Flute’ at the Oxford Playhouse.
Year 6 have been studying the History of Music and have composed a medieval melody, learnt a dance, performed Pacabel’s ‘Canon’ as a whole class and performed presentations of Classical music composers. Before half term, they headed over to the Senior School’s recording studio to produce their own playlist, incorporating music from all the historical periods, Medieval, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern.
The music department has also been a hive of activity with individual instrumental lessons and the girls have been busy practising for the recent Piano concerts held earlier this week. Amy Evetts, Head of Music said “I am so pleased that there were over 120 pupils performing over the last two days. Everyone has done brilliantly. It has been so wonderful to get back to performing live to an audience again.”
