New
New
Lesson 2 of 5
  • Year 10
  • OCR

South Asian and Celtic musical fusions

I can explain that fusions of musical styles are varied and draw on musical influences from around the world.

Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and

Copyrights help
Lesson 2 of 5
New
New
  • Year 10
  • OCR

South Asian and Celtic musical fusions

I can explain that fusions of musical styles are varied and draw on musical influences from around the world.

Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and

Copyrights help

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. There are many examples of musical fusion between Western musical styles and music from the Indian subcontinent.
  2. These usually mix typical instruments (such as sitar, tanpura and tabla), rhythms and melodies from the styles.
  3. The same is the case with the traditional Celtic music of Scotland and Ireland.
  4. Celtic melodies and instruments including the fiddle, tin whistle and accordion are used in fusion with other styles.
  5. Jazz, rock and electronic are some of the more common Western styles that are fused with Celtic and South Asian styles.

Keywords

  • Indian subcontinent - The Indian subcontinent is a region in South Asia that consists primarily of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

  • Tabla - A tabla is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Its distinct timbre includes high and low tones.

  • Sitar - A sitar is a stringed instrument from the Indian subcontinent that is often used in specific styles.

  • Tanpura - A tanpura is a stringed instrument that creates a constant 'drone' sound. This is common in some styles of Indian music.

  • Celtic - Scotland, Ireland and Wales are often referred to as the Celtic nations, due to their historical links with the Celtic people.

Common misconception

South Asian (or Indian) music is a genre itself.

South Asian music is as diverse as European music. There are many different styles linked to different groups of people, places and traditions. What we are looking at here are a few ways that South Asian genres have been fused with Western genres.


To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: South Asian and Celtic musical fusions, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Files needed for this lesson

  • 10FUSL2 Celtic fusion melody 493.18 KB (MP3)
  • Celtic fusion template 224.06 KB (ZIP)

Download these files to use in the lesson.

For the activity, choose whichever is most suitable for your pupils/resources. The easiest task will be an EDM fusion using the imported melody audio file. Encourage pupils to consider the 'feel' of their fusion - does it 'feel' like that new style? If not, how can they make it do so more?
Teacher tip

Equipment

DAW and/or class instruments

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Sign in to continue

Our content remains 100% free, but to access certain copyrighted materials, you'll need to sign in. This ensures we’re both staying within the rules.

P.S. Signing in also gives you more ways to make the most of Oak like unit downloads!

An illustration of a hijabi teacher writing on a whiteboard