Music
All boys in the Lower 4th (year 7) have an opportunity to learn to play an orchestral instrument as part of our Lower 4th music scheme. In year 7 boys have two music lessons each week, one of which is devoted to learning to play an orchestral instrument. In year 8 boys have 1 music lesson each week. Music is optional in year 9. GCSE music runs in year 10 and 11 (AQA). AS and A2 music are successful courses with boys regularly going on to good universities to study music.
The Lower 4th Music Scheme is unique to Warwick School. It aims to broaden the experiences of musical boys who come here and to open up the world of performing to children who have had little or no previous experience of learning to play a musical instrument. The department has a large stock of instruments which are loaned for the first year.
Many boys in school have instrumental lessons. These are given either by resident Music staff or by a team of 30 visiting teachers. Instrumental Music in school is very strong. Our Wind Orchestras and Jazz Bands compete annually in national competitions. We run a String project which encourages String playing from the earliest days in the Junior School. Choral Music is strong with a dedicated Chapel Choir.
Associated Board Music Examinations play an important part in our work. Each year we host approximately 15 days of examining for about 300 candidates.
There are many concerts each year in which a huge number of boys take part. These include choral and orchestral concerts, instrumental evenings for all year groups in the school as well as chamber concerts.
The music department is really well equipped with a very good and incredibly versatile room, 2 classroms/ensemble rehersal rooms, keyboard room (twenty work stations running Sibelius, Cubase and Music Suite) plus fourteen additional practice rooms each with a good paino. These rooms are used by our teams of 30 instrumental teachers throughout the week, who deliver between them nearly five hundred instrumental lessons on a host of instruments.
