This is a busy, vibrant, diverse and very happy department!

We are extremely proud of our musical tradition here at St James. Our mission is to get you involved in any aspect of music, and of course to have fun.

Music at St James is delivered through classroom lessons, extra-curricular activities, performances and visits. It is enhanced by instrumental lessons delivered by Dudley Performing Arts as well as visiting bands and professionals.

Extra Curricular Music

We strive to give our pupils as many opportunities as possible through regular performance and extra-curricular activity. These include:

• Termly music concerts
• Visiting primary schools and other places in the community
• Various school trips
• Visits to Base Studios to record coursework and experience being a musical ensemble
• Visiting DPA staff for one to one lessons and small ensembles
• Extra curricular activities such as guitar club, samba band and glee club.

Accommodation and Resources

Music is housed in two very well resourced rooms with four practice rooms adjacent.

• Music 1: PC suite running Cubase, Reason and Sibelius 7.5 with Oxygen 15 Midi keyboards.
• Music 2:  15 Yamaha audio keyboards and arrange of percussion, guitars and recording capabilities.

Both rooms have interactive whiteboards with iPad capability.

• Practice 1: Acoustic room with digital upright Yamaha Piano.
• Practice 2: Acoustic room with guitar and bass racks, Upright Piano.
• Practice 3: Ibanez Acoustic Guitar Rack, Yamaha Stage Custom Drumkit with American Audio DJ Decks.
• Practice 4: Acoustic room with Brass Instrument storage.

There are three studio quality iPad docks used to record digital music.  We also use Macbooks to create music using Garageband.