Unit 2: Caribbean (Instrumental lessons)
Learning about the history and features of Calypso music, performing a calypso style song with voices and tuned percussion in multiple parts and playing from staff notation.
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Unit 2: Caribbean (Instrumental lessons)
Unit outcomes
Pupils who are secure will be able to:
- Name some of the key features of Calypso music. Ability to sing the song accurately by the end of the lesson.
- Sing the song accurately, and perform their news headline correctly in the appropriate gap.
- Explain in simple terms why percussion instruments were important in Trinidad.
- Play the Sheet music: What’s the story? (tuned percussion part 1).
- Recognise pairs of quavers on a musical score, and ability to play these in context.
- Create a pentatonic improvisation using mainly one beat notes.
From May 2025, lessons within this unit will be updated to include a Recap and recall section and Kapow’s Presentation mode feature.
Suggested prior learning
Unit 1: South Africa (Instrumental lessons)
Get startedLessons
Lesson 1: What is Calypso?
To understand the main features of Calypso music
Lesson 2: What’s the story?
To improvise a vocal part in the style of a Calypso
Lesson 3: Instrumental Calypso
To understand how and why percussion instruments can be used in Calypso music
Lesson 4: Calypso quavers
To recognise and perform quavers from staff notation
Lesson 5: Pentatonic Calypso
To improvise in a Calypso style using a pentatonic scale
Related content
Resources
Unit resources
Cross-curricular opportunities
PSHE/History/British values: Racism, Slavery, Equality
Geography: Locational knowledge