Curriculum
Welcome to an overview of Music at Lossiemouth High School. We are a growing department with two Music teachers – Mr Kenny Garvey and Mr Adam Csenki, plus many instrumental instructors. We aim to give pupils a wide variety of musical activities during their time at school, giving them the opportunity to learn different instruments and take part in wider curricular groups.
Below is an overview of the different courses that we cover during S1 – S3 Music. Pupils are only given one period of Music a week in S1 and S2, so we have tailored our course to cover as much as we can. Every pupil in S1 will be taught the basics for playing the Keyboard, Drum-kit, Guitar, Ukulele, Bass Guitar and Xylophone. These skills will then be expanded on during S2 by looking at different topics in music. Pupils then get to opt for Music in S3 where they receive 3 periods a week, 2 of which are practical music based, expanding their instrumental skills and performing with others in the class. We hope that by the end of S3 all pupils will have learned the necessary skills to take them forward in taking music as an SQA subject.
One highlight of Music in the BGE is the S2 song competition, where every pupil in S2 writes a song with their peers and the winning songs from each class go through to the final in the school hall with our S3 Music class as the judges.
In the Senior Phase pupils receive 5 periods a week of music, and three main elements are covered – Performing, Understanding Music and Composition. We currently offer Music courses for National 4, National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher. We have recently started offering an NPA in Performing and are looking into the Musical Theatre option in the future.
Watch our video on ‘Why you should choose the Performing Arts as a Senior Phase subject’ here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jackpSQB7p8g2Equ6uVj29ZFHRNo5Of4/view?usp=sharing
Concerts
Over the year we aim to put on a variety of different performances to showcase our pupils’ talents. Our two main school events are our Christmas Concert and the Lossie Live Lounge, but we also give other performances, such as performing for the local Derby & Joan group, singing Christmas Carols to shoppers in our local Co-op, and our successful Primary School tour.
The Christmas Concert is a fantastic evening where all our musical groups plus lots of soloists perform. This is a whole school event where other departments showcase their own work at stalls in the interval, and the Home Economics department provide home-made treats!
Our most recent Christmas Concert was a Virtual one which can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0VIB2AF_OQ
The Lossie Live Lounge is a concert planned and run by our Senior Prefects taking place before the Easter holidays. It is an informal concert in the style of an ‘Acoustic Night’ where performers plan their own songs to sing and perform and the audience is sat around tables enjoying refreshments throughout the performance. Our most successful Live Lounge was our Night at the Movies in 2019, and we’re excited for what other themes we can plan for in future years.
Primary School Tour
In the summer of 2019 we took all our music groups on ‘tour’ and gave a performance to our 4 local primary schools. The school choir, Lossie Fiddlers, Woodwind group and Lossie Pipers all performed, giving primary pupils the opportunity to see what music is like at Lossie High. We had every intention of doing this again in 2020 but will make this a priority when we are allowed to perform again.
A video of our tour in 2019 can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnl0ig4NZ24
Instrumental Tuition
Every day we have different music instructors in the department offering tuition to our pupils. We work alongside Moray Music Centre, Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust and our own private instructors to ensure that as many instruments as possible can be taught to our pupils and to help them with their performances for SQA. Many pupils who opt not to take music in S4 – 6 still take instrumental tuition which we encourage.
Mondays and Fridays – Bagpipes with Mrs Fiona Caldwell
Tuesday – Piano with Mrs Helen Watson
Tuesday – Drum-kit and Percussion with Ms Frances Campbell
Tuesday – Brass with Mr James Gray
Wednesday – Guitar with Mr Lewis Anderson
Wednesday – Snare Drum with Mr Douglas Caldwell
Thursday – Violin with Mr Alexander Davidson
Thursday – Woodwind with Mrs Joanne Theron
Friday – Vocal Tuition with Mr Harry Ross
Extra-Curricular Music Groups
We know that playing in a group is a vital part of learning to play an instrument, so we offer as many music groups as we can. This include –
Lossie High Pipes and Drums
Lossie Fiddlers
Woodwind Group
School Choir
School Orchestra
