Building Your Brand

Introduction

This 8-week program, with two 60-minute classes per week, has been meticulously designed to align with the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA) Version 9.0, Year 11, "Building Your Brand" (Music, Unit 1). This course allows students to explore the creation of personal identity as musicians and how they can present themselves strategically to external audiences. The program develops students' knowledge and skills in music performance, composition, and branding while fostering their critical thinking and creativity.

Curriculum Focus

Strand: Making and Responding
Substrands: Music Practices and Music in Context

This course aligns with Year 11 Music Unit 1 objectives, particularly focusing on the following curriculum standards:

Achievement Standards Focus

• Analyse the ways art music evolves and communicates different contexts and purposes, drawing on historical and cultural perspectives.
• Develop personal musical performance and demonstrate technical practice.
• Present their own works and explore identity, style, and branding as relevant to their creative goals.

---

Week 1: Introduction to Branding in Music

Lesson 1: "What Is Your Identity?"

Objective: Students will explore the concept of personal identity in music and reflect on how this links to their performance style, genre, and voice.
Duration: 60 minutes

1.1 Warm-Up (10 minutes)

• Engage with the students by listening to 30-second excerpts from three distinct artists across genres (e.g., Tame Impala, Sia, Yothu Yindi).
• Facilitate class discussion: “What makes these artists recognisable within 5 seconds?”
• Encourage students to brainstorm personally resonant styles or identities they connect with.

1.2 Activity - Identity Wheel (20 minutes)

• Students create an "Identity Wheel" worksheet with categories like "Preferred Genre," "Inspirations," "Personal Story/Local Connection," and "Projected Sound."
• Share their wheels with the class for early peer feedback.

1.3 Group Discussion (15 minutes)

• Discuss the importance of having a unique "sound" as a brand.
• Pose reflection questions: “How can your identity influence your future music?”

1.4 Exit Task (5 minutes)

• Students write a 2-sentence summary of a key realisation that connects their identity and music interests.

---

Lesson 2: "What Makes a Brand?"

Objective: Understand the basics of branding and its application in music.
Duration: 60 minutes

2.1 Warm-Up (5 minutes)

• Present three Australian music logos/brand visuals (e.g., Midnight Oil, Hilltop Hoods, Courtney Barnett). Ask: “What story do these visuals tell?”

2.2 Activity - Mood Boards (25 minutes)

• Students create digital or physical mood boards using magazines, drawings, or Canva.
  • Include influences, colour tones, typography, genres, and personal symbols.
• During presentations, peers provide one piece of positive feedback about the clarity of the "message" conveyed.

2.3 Skill - Short Artist Bios (15 minutes)

• Teacher models writing an engaging 50-word "brand bio" for a hypothetical artist (e.g., "Amari Belt - a Sydney-based indie-pop artist inspired by bedroom intimacy, urban tension, and harmonic textures inspired by 90s grunge").
• Students write their bios and share them for peer review.

2.4 Homework (5 minutes)

• "Refine your brand bio and turn your mood board into a digital PDF or slideshow to be shared next week."

---

Week 2: Music as Product

Lesson 3: "Shaping Your Sound"

Objective: Analyse musical style and refine students’ performance identity.

Warm-Up (10 minutes)

• Class sings or plays (if instrumentalists) a collective favourite Australian song (e.g., Nick Cave, TROYE SIVAN). Discuss what makes its sound uniquely Australian.

Advanced Goal Activity Mark