What is it?

The “World Music” collection of resources includes topics such as African music, reggae, instrumentation, performance and composition, and even some traditional Scottish music.

How to use it

As a potential introduction there is a Teachers TV video of staff at the Brit School in Croydon discussing the importance of world music. There are also many different resources focusing on specific types of world music or music from particular places. To complement this, Laura MacMillan has uploaded a Word file that pupils can use as their world music “passport”, ticking off different countries and instruments as they learn about them.

For lessons focusing on African music, there are several resources, including worksheets on African instrument categories, plus an activity where pupils write down a key term and its definition and pass it on to another pupil for marking (both supplied by Caroline Firman). Various resources are attached to the set work Yiri, by Koko: practical tasks based around the key aspects; a workseet to help pupils work out which key terms they understand well; and starter activities related to key terminology for the set work. Caroline Firman has uploaded a mind map where pupils can record their thoughts upon first listening to the piece.

Closer to home, there is a worksheet for pupils to complete when they first listen to a set work by Capercaillie, Skye Waulking Song. Children identify the instruments and the style of music they hear, pick the kind of scale the melody is based on and describe the traditional and modern aspects of the work.

Where to find it

This collection of resources can be found at www.tes.co.ukworld-music.