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 Teacher's Notes.
1. Rock the ship. collection
An upbeat rock song to open. In the story we meet Prospero and Miranda and witness the storm he conjures.

2. Set me free. collection
A gentle calypso sung by Ariel. In the story Prospero explains his reasons for conjuring the tempest.

3. Full fathom five. collection
A jazzy song. In the story we meet the courtiers - Alonso, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, Antonio and Sebastian.

4. Toledo steel. collection
A rap with a Latin style chorus. In the story Antonio tries to persuade Sebastian to kill King Alonso.

5. Barracuda. collection
A comic song for Stephano and Trinculo. In the story they with Caliban and plan to kill Prospero.

6. Brave new world. collection
A slow romantic song for Ferdinand and Miranda...who have fallen hopelessly in love.

7. Spellbound. collection
A song with an African flavour. How should Prospero deal with the courtiers: punishment or forgiveness?

8. Sea change. collection
A celebratory gospel song. Prospero chooses forgiveness and the island is left to Caliban and Ariel again.

The Tempest - Clips. collection
All video and audio clips from The Tempest on a single page.


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
- Music to display or
- 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 s page where you can 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 ages or activities in groups. Refer to the Teacher's Notes 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.
ing the SFX files
You can the SFX file 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 you should be able to resolve the issue as follows:
- Google Chrome. Right click on the 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 link. When you see a message that the file ‘Can’t be ed securely’ click on the 3 little dots and select ‘Open s page’. On the s page click on ‘Keep’. When you see another message that ‘This file can’t be ed securely’ click ‘Keep anyway’.
- Firefox. Click on the link. When the dialogue box appears click the small arrow to the right of the file name and select ‘Allow ’.

Series resources
Teacher's Notes. document
Guidance on all of the content (pdf)

The playscript. document
Stage a your own performance of our specially-written musical (pdf)

Music / SFX for playscript
music / SFX for the playscript (75MB .zip)

Pupils' pamphlet. document
Lyric sheets and activities (pdf)

Carrie's vocal warm-up. video
Carrie Grant for her short vocal warm-up.

Meet the characters. image
A visual guide to the characters in the story with descriptions of them


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