Music
Music at Harris Dulwich Boys is about nurturing each student’s creativity, confidence, and musicianship.
Our curriculum balances practical music-making with muscial theory, allowing students to engage deeply with music as performers, composers and critical listeners.
From the moment students enter the classroom, they are treated as musicians – encouraged to explore their musical identity, work collaboratively and take creative risks.
Through a wide range of genres, instruments, and technologies, students gain a broad and inclusive musical education that reflects the diverse world they live in. This holistic approach ensures that all students leave with not only the technical skills and knowledge to succeed, but also a lifelong appreciation for the role music can play in their lives.
Why Music matters
Alongside musical ability, our curriculum fosters a wide range of transferable skills that support students’ personal and academic development. Through rehearsing, composing, and performing (often in ensemble settings) students learn the value of teamwork, discipline, perseverance, and mutual respect.
Music provides a powerful outlet for self-expression and creativity, helping students to process emotions and build emotional intelligence. It plays a key role in promoting wellbeing and self-esteem, giving students a sense of achievement and belonging.
The subject also contributes significantly to the cultural life of the school through concerts, productions, and showcases, creating a vibrant community spirit.
Year 7 - strong musical foundations
Students begin their musical journey at HBAED by developing core musical foundations. Using their voices and body percussion, they explore key concepts such as pulse, rhythm, dynamics, and texture. These activities help them internalise the beat, develop coordination, and begin to understand how musical elements work together. Through call-and-response, rhythm games, and ensemble work, students build their confidence as performers while developing their listening and ensemble skills.
Year 7 students also develop their keyboard skills, beginning with correct hand position and finger technique. This deepens their understanding of pitch, rhythm, and notation by applying it directly to performance. They learn to read from a simple musical score, play with both left and right hands, and perform short pieces with accuracy and fluency. This unit not only builds instrumental confidence but also lays the groundwork for independent music-making and future ensemble performance.
Students also develop a comprehensive understanding of the different instruments of the orchestra – strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion – learning to identify a wide range of instruments by sight and sound. They explore how each instrument produces sound, its role within the orchestra, and how composers use these timbres to create contrasting moods in music.
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” Plato
Years 8–11 – developing your musicality
Year 8 and Year 9 students build on the skills and knowledge developed in Year 7. For example, in Year 9, they revisit and extend their keyboard skills through a more advanced project that challenges them to perform with greater fluency, accuracy, and musicality. Students are also introduced to new instruments such as the ukulele, where they develop chord playing and ensemble skills, and digital audio workstations (DAWs), where they begin to compose and structure music using music technology.
Throughout Key Stage 3, students explore an increasingly diverse range of musical styles and genres – from classical to contemporary, and from global traditions to popular music – deepening their cultural understanding and broadening their musical horizons. This varied and progressive curriculum ensures that all students continue to grow as confident, creative, and knowledgeable musicians.
In Years 10-11, students who choose Music for GCSE follow the OCR GCSE Music course. Throughout the course, students focus on performance, composition, and appraising across five areas of study, including Classical, Popular, and World Music. As part of coursework, students complete two compositions and two performances (solo and ensemble), while preparing for the listening exam.