Year 7 Music
The Year 7 Music course is designed to engage students in music making by developing basic practical skills in relation to drums, guitar, trumpet and clarinet. We believe, as research shows, children who study music tend to have larger vocabularies and more advanced reading skills. We also believe that children who study a musical instrument are more likely to excel in all of their studies, work better in teams, have enhanced critical thinking skills, stay in school longer and pursue further education. St Brendan's College offers a unique program in Year 7 utilising cajons, a Peruvian box-shaped percussion instrument to teach rhythm to an entire class at the same time.
Long-term Head of Music, Mr Jack Ingram explains: "With the introduction of Year 7 into secondary school, we were given approval by our Principal to explore how we could present music to our new junior cohort, and we wanted to move away from the traditional theory and musicianship that many schools teach,” Mr Ingram said.
“We thought, how can we teach rhythm to twenty or more twelve year olds all at once?” he said.
“Cajóns, the Peruvian box-shaped percussion instrument seemed to be the answer we were looking for, so our Manual Arts Department went above and beyond and made our first class set of 30, and now with the support of our local volunteer Men’s Shed we have a significant asset of 90 cajóns to use within our music program.”
The Year 7 course focuses on rhythmic music notation and the skills required to play the instruments:
- Cajón - rhythmic grooves and subdivisions along with basic drum techniques
- Guitar - chords, finger technique and Tabs
- Clarinet - creating the correct embouchure and technique to play the first five notes
- Trumpet - creating the correct embouchure and technique to play the first five notes.
Year 7 students use cajons to learn ryhythm in the classroom.