Theme and Variation: Pachelbel's Canon

This is a scheme of work for KS3 on performance and composition skills on Theme and Variation, exploring Pachelbel’s canon as an example.

Lesson 1/2: History of the piece, what is theme and variation, sing the theme, play the theme on the keyboard
Lesson 2/3: start to create variations on the theme using a keyboard
Lesson 4: Play the theme on the ukulele. This is scaffolded to support lower ability and challenge higher ability learners.
Lesson 5: Optional- can include keyboard arpeggios
Lesson 6/7: group composition task where some students play keyboards/piano and some play ukulele. They create variations together (or individually and string them together) to create a theme and variation composition. I have included an assessment criteria which can be adapted for however you want to use it.