Music and Media

Music and Media (Ages 12-13)

This scheme of work teaches students to interpret music at a basic level and how to incorporate it into their own performance work. They will learn how music can be linked to exaggerated movements by watching a cartoon orchestra in action and will understand how music is used by the media to help advertise products. A number of video clips and musical pieces are included with this scheme of work.

The scheme of work contains 6 drama lesson plans.

Lesson 1: Exaggerating Body Language. Students develop awareness of non-verbal communication through the activities ‘Mirror Exercise’, ‘The Orchestra Game’ and Mime.
Lesson 2: The 7 Levels of Tension. Students explore the use of music as a performance script and look at the idea of tension.
Lesson 3: Developing Awareness of Physical Movement. Physical acting skills are developed through the class activities ‘The Opposites Game’ and ‘Invisible String’, along with additional group work.
Lesson 4: Interpreting Music. Visualisation of a piece of music is used to help students understand mood and atmosphere, followed by mime to different musical styles.
Lesson 5: Interpreting the Mood of Music. By watching and interpreting the rhythm, pace, mood, changes of emotion and comic characters in a classic cartoon clip, students devise an original scene set to music.
Lesson 6: Assessment – Adverts. Observations of classic TV commercials are used to develop a new improvised piece for assessment.

Supporting materials include

6 musical pieces of different styles
4 video clips (1 full cartoon, 3 adverts)

Additional resources are included in the appendices

7 Levels of Tension
Basic Drama Skills
End Of Unit Self-Assessment Form

The document is supplied as a ZIP file. It contains the scheme of work (PDF, readable on most computers) along with 6 music files (MP3 format) and 4 video clips (MP4 format). This is a large file ~100Mb.