Chris Pettitt - Resources for Music Teachers - KS3, GCSE, AS, A2, Music Technology, Instrumental Teachers 

This site is all about music, music that we love and hate as long as it stirs some emotion it is worth listening to and talking about.

Area of Study 3 - Dance Music 1985 - Present Day

    One of the difficulties with the Dance Music component is that different resources will give you conflicting information, particularly when defining a particular style or genre. The reason for this is that Dance Music is in a constant state of rapid evolution and is totally subjective. One man's House may well be another man's Garage, so to speak!

    A Power Point presentation on the topic of dance music can be downloaded below or alternatively as single pictures:

Power point presentation Dance      List of Tracks that cam be used with the dance Power point

Title	Common Features	Specification	Jamaican Dub	Funk
Disco	Euro Synth Pop	House	Garage	Techno
Hip Hop	Drum 'n' Bass	Sample Question

    Student notes for the Dance Music topic and a definition of terms from the Edexcel glossary in Word or Pdf format can be downloaded here:

In Word: Student notes - Dance         In Pdf: Student notes - Dance

    The Definition of terms from the Edexcel glossary on its own can be downloaded here as a Word document:

Dance Music Definitions

Demonstration Dance Track

    For those of you who have a little knowledge of music technology, here are the instructions and resources to build a Dance Music style track using a sequencer. The project was made using Cakewalk SONAR software but should work in most sequencers.

The finished article should sound like this: 

    To build this track for yourself as a demonstration of generic dance music styles for your students, you would require a computer with sequencer software and the following resources:

A "walkthrough" or step by step guide (Word) on how to make the track:    Dance Track Walkthrough

The following samples:     Funky Guitar  &  Piano need to be inserted at various points in the project and I have also supplied the whole vocal track, which must be placed at bar 1 in your sequencer, and can be used as an alternative to the Vocal Forge VSTi used in the "walkthrough". Vocal Track It is nearly 13MB so may take a while to download.

Books, Free Resources, CDs and DVDs

    One of the best resources for the Dance Music component of the GCSE is "The Dance Music Manual - Tools, Toys & Techniques" by Rick Snoman. Although it has been written with the "bedroom" musician in mind, it contains very good information about the various genres of dance music and how they are put together. It comes with a CD-ROM containing audio and MIDI files to help you construct your own tracks. Another good book is "Unlocking the Groove" by Mark J Butler, who is a professor of Music Theory at the University of Pennsylvania, the book contains some excellent material and a CD-ROM of example files. Alternatively, for those with a reasonable knowledge of music technology "Electronica Dance Music Programming Secrets" by Roger Brown and Martin Griese gives a much more in depth insight into the world of the dance music producer, far more than is required at GCSE level.

    A few years ago the BBC / Channel 4 made a couple of documentaries entitled "Pump Up The Volume" which sadly are not available on DVD. However, some kind person has put them on the internet and they can be found  here (Warning :the documentaries contain very strong language and drug references):

Pump up the Volume - Part 1                             Pump up the Volume - Part 2

    The book that accompanied the series is sadly now out of print, although it is possible to pick up second hand copies, the CD "History of House" however is still available. The following links are to CDs that I have found to be very useful in this Area of Study: