• Mrs L MacLean - Principal teacher
• Mr S Gray
• Ms F Johnston - PT Raising Attainment

Miss J Clarke (Woodwind Instructor)

Mr. D Prentice (Brass Instructor)

Mrs N Presavage (Percussion Instructor)

Mrs L Sherry (Woodwind Instructor)

Miss L Smith (Bass Guitar Instructor)

Mr. R Thomson (Guitar Instructor)

Music Performance

During their Broad General Education phase pupils are given the opportunity to learn the basics of singing and playing Bass Guitar, Drum Kit, Glockenspiel, Guitar, Keyboard, Penny Whistle, Ukulele and Xylophone. Pupils then select two of these instruments to specialise on, or another instrument they already receive tuition on, to play during the National courses and beyond. The Music department has an extensive bank of progressively difficult pieces including pieces that staff have written or arranged and graded pieces from Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), Rockschool and Trinity Guildhall. Many of our pupils go on to sit externally-accredited exams on their instruments and Theory of Music through ABRSM, Rockschool and Trinity Guildhall in addition to the SQA courses which they are presented in.

Composing

Pupils are taught how to read and write music from S1, when pupils learn basic pitch and rhythm recognition, through to S3-S6, where pupils write their own pieces of music. Pupils learn how a range of compositional methods and music concepts can be combined to create different sounds and different styles of piece. Through experimenting with sounds in creative ways, pupils develop, refine and create original music for instruments of their choice in styles of their choice. Pupils also learn how to input their hand-written notation into Sibelius software which allows them to hear their music played by synthesised instruments and produce professional quality music scores.

Understanding Music/ Listening course

Pupils are introduced to Music terminology and concepts from S1. The concepts enable pupils to describe the music they are listening to in terms of speed, pitch and how the sounds were created.

The Music Department also offers the following courses to Senior pupils:

• Higher Music Performing Unit
• Advanced Higher Music Performing Unit