Cover lesson · Music · Year 10 · Intermediate

Music sequencing plan

DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content

Name: Class: Date:

Cover teacher — you need no subject knowledge

Print: this sheet, one per pupil. No computers, no instruments and no headphones needed. This is the planning lesson that normally gets skipped: pupils leave with a grid a producer could actually build from. Every fact they need is in the facts box below, and the arithmetic in Part A has single right answers.

Run: 5 min — read the brief and the facts box · 8 min — Part A timing sums · 15 min — Part B, fill the 16-bar arrangement grid · 10 min — Part C, the one-bar drum grid · 7 min — Part D, sound choices · 5 min — swap and check against the criteria. If a pupil finishes the grid in five minutes they have not used the four-bar phrase rule; send them back to it.

Collect: this sheet. The class teacher will have pupils build these grids in the sequencer next lesson, so the grids must be readable by somebody else.

The brief

You are planning a 16-bar backing track in 4/4 at 120 beats per minute for the school film's opening titles. You are not making the music today — you are producing the plan that somebody else could load into a sequencer and build without asking you a single question.

Facts box — everything you need

4/4 means four crotchet beats in every bar.
120 BPM means 120 beats per minute, so one beat lasts 60 ÷ 120 = 0.5 seconds.
A 16-step grid splits one bar into 16 equal sixteenth notes. Steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 are the four main beats.
Most pop and dance music is built in four-bar phrases. A 16-bar plan is four phrases: bars 1–4, 5–8, 9–12, 13–16.
A usable chord loop in A minor: Am – F – C – G, one bar each. The notes are Am = A C E, F = F A C, C = C E G, G = G B D. All of them come from the A natural minor scale (A B C D E F G), which is why the loop sounds settled.
Arrangement words: intro (thin, sets the mood), build (parts added), drop or hook (fullest point), break (parts taken away to create space).

Step by step

5 min — Read the brief and the facts box.
8 min — Part A: work out the timings. Show your working; the numbers must agree with each other.
15 min — Part B: shade or tick the arrangement grid so each four-bar phrase does something different.
10 min — Part C: mark the drum hits on the 16-step grid for one bar.
7 min — Part D: name the sound for each track and say why it suits the film.
5 min — Swap. Could your partner build your track from this sheet alone? Tell them the one thing that is missing.

Part A — The timing sums

Question	Answer and working
How many beats are there in 16 bars of 4/4?
How long does one beat last at 120 BPM?
How long does one bar last?
How long does one four-bar phrase last?
How long is the whole 16-bar track, in seconds?
How many sixteenth-note steps are there in the whole 16 bars?
The titles sequence on the film is 35 seconds long. Does your track cover it? If not, what is the smallest number of extra bars you need?

Part B — The 16-bar arrangement grid

Put a tick in every bar where that track is playing. Leave it blank where it is silent. Silence is a decision: if every row is full for all 16 bars, you have not arranged anything.

Track	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Kick drum
Snare and clap
Hi-hats
Bass
Chords (pad)
Melody
Chord this bar
Section name

Part C — The drum grid for one bar

Sixteen steps, one bar. Mark an X on every step where that drum sounds. The main beats are steps 1, 5, 9 and 13.

Drum	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Kick
Snare
Closed hi-hat
Open hi-hat

How long does one step last at 120 BPM? Show the sum.

Part D — Sound choices

Track	The sound I want (name it as you would search for it)	Why it suits the opening titles
Bass
Chords (pad)
Melody
One extra sound of your choice

Success criteria

I can work out the length of a bar, a four-bar phrase and the whole 16 bars from the tempo, and my numbers agree with each other.
My arrangement is planned in four-bar phrases, and each phrase adds or removes something rather than repeating the last one.
My drum grid places the kick and snare on real beats and I can say which step numbers the four main beats are.
I name the chord in every bar and my chords come from the key I said I was in.
My plan is complete enough that somebody else could build the track from this sheet without asking me anything.

If you finish early

Rewrite Part A for 90 BPM. Which numbers change and which stay the same? Explain why the number of beats does not change.
Write out a two-bar drum fill for bars 15 and 16 using the step numbers, so a producer could type it in.
Swap the chord loop to Am – G – F – E. Which of those four chords is not in the A natural minor scale, and what does that change about the mood when the loop comes back round to Am?