Year 1 Music

Music lessons in year 1...

By the end of Year 1 children will 

Autumn Term

Autumn 1 - Keeping the pulse (My favourite things)


To demonstrate an understanding of pulse using parts of the body.

To keep a pulse and show a sound pattern using bodies and voices.

To explore using a thinking voice to show the pulse

To play short rhythms in time with the pulse

To demonstrate an understanding of pulse through performance.


Autumn 2 - Tempo (Snail and Mouse)

To explore using voices and bodies expressively.

To practise a rhyme using fast and slow beats on instruments.

To use voices to perform a song with a fast and slow beat.

To use singing voices and an instrument to perform a song with a fast and slow beat.

To demonstrate fast and slow beats within the context of a story.

Spring Term

Spring 1 - Dynamics (Seaside)

To understand how music can be used to represent an envirnonment

To understand how music can represent changes in an environment.

To explore using instruments, body and voice to create a seaside soundscape.

To explain what texture and structure are

To understand key musical vocabulary; dynamics, pitch, pulse, rhythm, structure, tempo, texture, timbre

Spring 2 - Timbre and rhythmic patterns (Faitytales)

To use voices expressively to speak and chant.

To select suitable instrumental sounds to represent a character

To compose and play a rhythm.

To recognise how timbre is used to represent characters in a piece of music.

To keep the pulse using untuned instruments.

Summer Term

Summer 1 - Pitch and Tempo (Superheroes)

To understand the concept of pitch.

To create a pattern using two pitches.

To understand the concept of tempo.

To create a superhero theme tune.

To perform confidently as part of a group

Summer 2 - Vocal and body sounds (By the sea)

To understand that music can be used to represent an environment.

To understand how music can represent changes in an environment.

 To select instruments to match seaside sounds.

To recognise and use dynamics and tempo.

To write music down and perform from a graphic score.