KS2 Music: The Tempest

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Welcome to The Tempest. Whatever your musical experience these resources can help you and your pupils enjoy learning music - and then put on a stunning musical performance based on Shakespeare’s play! There are eight songs and vocal coach Carrie Grant is here to help you learn them. The styles range from rap to rock anthem to ballad and back. There’s an African vibe, lots of opportunity for percussion and some very tongue-in-cheek romance. Each song links to a separate episode of the story and these can be explored alongside the songs as you learn.

Full details in the .

Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'

The Tempest dates from 1610/11 and is generally accepted to be Shakespeare's last play. The action begins out at sea before continuing on a remote island. Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo and Ferdinand are nobles returning to Italy from a wedding in Africa when their ship is struck by a terrible storm and wrecked. The storm has been conjured up by Prospero who explains to his daughter, Miranda, how they came to be living on the island and the significance of the people who will be washed ashore.

Using 'The Tempest' web pages

The content for The Tempest is structured on the eight songs to learn. Each song appears on its own dedicated page and includes the following resources:

Song tutorial video (in two parts, each 5 - 7 minutes in length)
Karaoke full vocal version of the song (for rehearsal)
Karaoke backing track version of the song (for performance)
A video of the story episode that links to the song
Lyrics to display or download
Music to display or download
A transcript of the story episode
Notes describing the content of the tutorial and how best to use it
The Pupils' Pamphlet with all lyrics, information and activities

Additionally there is a Clips page where all of the video content has been aggregated and an Audio downloads page where you can download mp3 files of the vocal and backing track versions of the songs.

Use the Tutorial video to begin learning each song: Carrie Grant guides pupils through each song methodically, giving extra attention to any difficult passages or activities in groups. Refer to the for each song to establish whether the class needs to be split into groups before starting the tutorial (for example to sing in harmony).

Use the Story video to watch an episode of the story. Each episode links to the song on the same page and is about 6 minutes long.

Use the Full vocal and Backing track versions of the songs to revise them in preparation for a performance.

Downloading the SFX files

You can and use the cues for your performance of our Tempest musical. The cues have been labelled to match the titles used in the playscript.

If the SFX .zip file refuses to download you should be able to resolve the issue as follows:

Google Chrome. Right click on the download link and select ‘Open link in new window’. Make sure the link address is highlighted in the search window and press return.
Microsoft Edge. Click on the download link. When you see a message that the file ‘Can’t be downloaded securely’ click on the 3 little dots and select ‘Open downloads page’. On the downloads page click on ‘Keep’. When you see another message that ‘This file can’t be downloaded securely’ click ‘Keep anyway’.
Firefox. Click on the download link. When the dialogue box appears click the small arrow to the right of the file name and select ‘Allow download’.