Key Stage 2 music · Performing

KS2 music: ensemble performance, a guide for parents

An ensemble is any group that performs together, from a class playing recorders to a school choir or a small band. The Key Stage 2 curriculum says children should play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression, and sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. Playing in a group asks for something solo playing does not: listening to everyone else as closely as you listen to yourself.

Ensemble performance, explained

Most children first meet ensemble playing in a whole-class lesson on one instrument, or in the school choir, and then in assemblies and concerts. The group might all play the same tune, which is called playing in unison, or each section might have a different part. Schools choose the instruments and the music. What matters is that the group sounds like one thing rather than a number of people playing near each other.

The first skill is keeping a shared pulse. Everyone needs to feel the same beat, usually set by a count-in from a leader, who might be the teacher, a conductor or a child. The second is listening. Children learn to hear the whole group while they play, noticing whether they are with the pulse, too loud, too quiet or covering someone else. This is balance: in a good ensemble the tune can be heard above the accompaniment. A third is starting and finishing together, which needs everyone to watch the leader and follow a clear signal.

Later in Key Stage 2, children often take on parts that are different from their neighbours’. One group may play a steady beat on a drum, another repeat a short pattern (an ostinato), and a third play the tune; or a song may be sung as a round, with groups starting at different times. Keeping to your own part while others do something different is harder than it sounds, and it is a mark of progress. The layers together make the texture of the music, which links with work on the interrelated dimensions.

Ensemble work also builds accuracy, fluency, control and expression in a shared setting. Children rest, counting silent bars until their part comes in. They decide together how loudly and quickly to play. They give each other feedback after a run-through, saying things like, “The drums were too loud at the start, so we couldn’t hear the melody.” These are skills of listening and cooperating as well as of music, and teachers value them as much as correct notes. They also lay the groundwork for the more ambitious ensemble playing in Key Stage 3.

Words your child will hear

Ensemble: A group of people who sing or play together.
Unison: Everyone singing or playing the same notes at the same time.
Part: The notes or rhythm that one player or group is responsible for.
Balance: Making sure each part can be heard as it should be, with no one covering the others.
Ostinato: A short pattern repeated again and again, usually as an accompaniment.
Round: A song where groups sing the same tune but start at different times.
Count-in: A few beats counted aloud or tapped to set the speed before a piece begins.

What the National Curriculum says

In Key Stage 2, pupils should be taught to:

Play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
Sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: a three-part piece for the class

A class is asked to perform a short piece in three parts: one group keeps a steady beat on drums, one group plays a repeating two-bar pattern on tuned percussion, and the rest sing or play the tune. How should they rehearse it?

Learn each part separately. Each group practises its own part on its own until it can play it without help. The drummers should be able to keep a steady beat without watching anyone.
Add the parts one at a time. Begin with the beat, add the repeating pattern, then bring in the tune. A leader gives a four-beat count-in so that everyone starts together at the same speed.
Listen for balance. Stop and ask, “Can we hear the tune? Can we hear the beat?” If the drums cover the tune, the drummers play more quietly. Children make the decision, not just the teacher.
Keep going if something goes wrong. If one group loses its place, the others carry on, and the group that slipped listens for the beat and rejoins at the next bar. Practise this deliberately.
Finish together and review. The leader gives a clear signal to stop. Afterwards the group says one thing that worked and one thing to improve, such as starting together more cleanly.

A good performance has a steady pulse that does not speed up, all three parts audible, a tune that stands out clearly, and a tidy start and finish. The children’s own review might be: “The pattern stayed steady, but we rushed in the middle and the tune was too quiet. Next time the drummers will listen and stay at the same speed.”

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking that playing loudly makes you sound more confident or helps the group

In a large group it is easy to feel you cannot be heard, and loud feels brave. Children who are not yet sure of their part may also play loudly to hear themselves.

What helps: Explain that in an ensemble you should be able to hear the others as clearly as you hear yourself. Ask, “Who is the tune right now? Is that part covering it?” and practise playing at different levels.

Speeding up as the music gets exciting

Excitement and nerves tend to push the speed up without anyone noticing, and in a group others are pulled along by the loudest or fastest player.

What helps: Practise with a steady pulse, such as a drum or a foot tap, and play through passages slowly. Counting the beat silently in the head helps keep the speed stable.

Stopping when someone else makes a mistake, or when you do

In a solo lesson, a mistake is a reason to stop and try again. In a group, stopping makes the problem worse for everyone.

What helps: Make a game of carrying on: the group agrees that mistakes happen and that the rule is to keep the beat going and rejoin at the next bar.

Believing that being in a group means everyone plays the same thing

Most early experience of singing is in unison, so children assume that is what ensembles do.

What helps: Try a simple two-part piece, such as a round or a beat plus a melody. Show that different parts together sound richer than the same part, and that the player’s job is to hold on to their own.

How to help at home

Sing a round. A short traditional round that most people know, such as “London’s Burning” or “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, works well. Start with one person, bring in a second after a few bars, and see whether each can keep going when the others start. Take it in turns to lead.
Be the pulse keeper. One person claps or taps a steady beat on a table while another taps a different rhythm over it. Swap round. Keeping a steady beat while someone else does something different is the heart of ensemble playing.
Family rhythm band. Give everyone a tub, a wooden spoon or a tin with a lid, and agree one pattern for each person. Choose a leader to count in and to cut off the group, and swap leaders after each go.
Follow one instrument. Listen to a recording of a band or an orchestra and choose one instrument to follow all the way through. Then switch to another. It trains the ear to pick out one part from many, which is what ensemble players do.
Listen back after a group performance. If your child has been in a concert or assembly, ask what the group did well and what they would change. They may say something like “we all started together”, which is a real musical skill.

Builds on

Key Stage 1: Singing songs
Key Stage 1: Chants and rhymes

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Solo performance
Key Stage 3: Ensemble performance