Life at Hutchesons’

From the Rector Request a Prospectus Academic
Success Getting to Hutchesons’

Music

The busy and vibrant Music Department at Hutchesons' combines its passion for the underlying principle of ‘Music for All' with a commitment to excellence in performance.

A significant number of pupils go on to study academic music and performance at Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Birmingham Universities as well as the RSAMD, RNCM and other music conservatories.

In addition to the six classroom teachers who deliver music to pupils from P1 to S6, there is a peripatetic staff of 26 teaching instrumental music.  

Class music is taught through the practical idiom with our courses giving a very good grounding in the basics of pitch, timbre, rhythm, structure and dynamics as well as a rich experience of a very wide range of musical genres and much more.

Extra-curricular music is represented by many different ensembles, including orchestras, jazz bands, wind bands, chamber ensembles, a Pipe Band and rock bands. There are also several choirs including the Senior, Chamber, Girls' and Junior choirs.

S1 and S2

Pupils study Music for 1 hour per week in S1 and S2.

In S1 and S2 the department aims to encourage our pupils' natural enthusiasm for music and harness it to a sound understanding of the grammar of music. This translates into the following topics in practice: The Basics! (Pitch, rhythm, structure, dynamics), Musical Timbre (instruments and voices);  Scottish Music (dances, instruments, vocal, ensembles); Musicals; Blues and Jazz; Roots of Popular Music; We're on Form (Symphony, Concerto, Overture, Opera).

S3 and S4

Pupils enrol in a two-year Standard Grade Course, a natural progression from the groundwork covered in S1 and S2. Three distinct activities, performing, inventing and listening, form the basis of the course. These activities are interdependent as each relies on aural perception, musical imagination, sensitivity and discrimination, the development of which is promoted by active engagement in music. Thus the main emphasis is on practical musical activity. The assessable elements of the course are Solo Performing, Group Performing, Inventing and Listening. The elements Solo Performing and Listening are assessed externally by the Board; the teacher assesses Group Performing and Inventing. The overall award for the subject is the mean of the element grades, each element having equal weighting.

Higher Music

The Higher course evolves naturally from Standard Grade with the development of breadth of musicianship. The course consists of three 40 hour units. All candidates must take two mandatory units in Listening and Composing, plus one optional unit in Performing or Performing with Technology. To gain an award of the course, the pupil must pass all the Unit Assessments as well as the external Assessment. In the Performing Unit, the pupil will require to perform on two instruments or one instrument and voice to a visiting examiner. In the inventing unit pupils are required to demonstrate their inventing skills by compiling an audiotape of two compositions of at least 2 minutes' duration in total. In the Listening element, listening skills are assessed by an aural examination of about one hour's duration.

Advanced Higher Music

The course at Advanced Higher sets out to provide students with opportunities to develop interests which contribute to personal development and provide the skills and knowledge required for further study and enjoyment of music. It is therefore designed to serve the needs of students who wish to study the subject as part of a general education or intend to follow a career in music. As with the Higher syllabus, all candidates must take two mandatory units in Listening and Composing, plus one optional unit in Performing or Performing with Technology. To gain an award of the course, the pupil must pass all the Unit Assessments as well as the external Assessment.

Watch a video showing an Advanced Higher music composition class.