ESP Software for use across the curriculum

ESP software is designed to support a wide range of curriculum subjects. Music is at the heart of our software and the Music curriculum is, of course, an important subject in its own right. Music can also be a very effective way of helping to teach almost every subject on the curriculum!
Music, as a curriculum subject, is often neglected in an attempt to deliver the core subjects. By integrating musical activities across the curriculum music can be delivered in a way that often adds interest and excitement to other curriculum subjects.
Using Compose World, The Dums and Rhythm Maker we can provide useful ways of enhancing many cross curriculum subjects.
Not only does this help to support curriculum teaching it also helps to make sure music is taking place throughout the school and not just isolated activities when the music specialist is available.

		Music Our software directly supports the central aspects of the Music Curriculum: Performing For many pupils and teachers, the performance of music is the area that presents a significant barrier that stops them getting involved in music. We have found that using the computer to perform music provides a very powerful way of supporting both teacher and pupil to explore their own performance skills alongside the computer. In other words the computer can help the novice to gain confidence in live instrumental skills. We directly encourage the use of traditional instruments and singing alongside the software based activities that we provide. In fact, we regard it as level of success to see a class activity that has started alongside the computer to move to a situation where all the music is being performed live and the computer has been turned off! Composing Children have huge amounts of creative skills and are very capable of composing their own music. The computer offers support in the process by enabling the pupil to try out different combinations until they find the one that works well for them. Our Compose World suite of programs is directly designed to encourage composition skills using musical building blocks in much the same way as you might use clip art on the computer. As the composition develops we encourage children to develop their own ideas in the form of words to a song, percussion accompaniment, melodic accompaniment and dance. Appraising Using technology to control musical activity is a great support to appraisal. Different sections of the music can be played on their own and changes made easily to see find out how they work. Listening and applying One of the first things children do with our software is listen. It might be to a musical phrase in Compose World or a unfamiliar instrument in The Dums, or a drum pattern in Rhythm Maker. They can then make a decision about how to use this sound and apply what they have heard to a particular task.