Chris Fower chats to Lucy Pankhurst about the creation of free whole-class pBuzz resources for KS2 children.
I was lucky to recently meet the award-winning composer and leading brass educationalist Lucy Pankhurst.
During our conversations about the numerous and exciting projects that Lucy is involved with she mentioned a new, free resource that she has created as part of an Erasmus+ project, focusing on whole class instrumental learning at KS2.
The collection of 25 original compositions is called "Puzzle Pieces". Each piece has been composed and orchestrated by Lucy with parts for a host of instruments which can be pieced together to create almost any mixed ensemble, including pBuzz. Alongside this, Lucy has created multiple, levelled parts for each instrument so players of different abilities or stages in their development can perform the works together. These differentiated parts provide appropriate challenges for each instrument rather than being generic, simplified parts.
Each of the 25 pieces is in a different genre ranging from modern to traditional and has its own backing track.
Alongside the Puzzle Pieces, Lucy has created an introduction and instruction document, teaching notes, warm-ups and composition projects, a suggested two-year delivery plan, and links to the National Curriculum for Music and the Model Music Curriculum. This suite of works and its accompanying support materials makes a superbly usable and flexible teaching resource for whole-class music-making.
"Puzzle Pieces" gives teachers an astonishing level of flexibility in both orchestration and differentiation whilst allowing children to explore new styles of music and learn in genres they understand and love.
Fully funded by Erasmus+ "Puzzle Pieces" is completely free to download and use.
I thoroughly recommend you go and look at these resources and would love to hear your thoughts, questions or feedback, please don't hesitate to get in touch!
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