Music

“Music, Music, Music!”

Music classes can truly “soothe the savage beast” using different approaches to learning. They provide opportunities for students to move, create, perform, compose, express, and listen in addition to mastery of fundamental elements. These elements include melody, rhythm, timbre, tempo, articulation, harmony, meter, dynamics and form. Instruction is developmental and age appropriate but also differentiated for musically gifted students. The North Carolina Standard Course of Study and the National Curriculum for the Arts provide the basis for instruction. Below are specific curriculum concepts as added by grade level and enrichment activities for the musically gifted.

Instrumentation
Kindergarten – 3rd Grade students play a variety of rhythm instruments, barred instruments and authentic instruments from around the world.

Kindergarten
Melody: high, low and repeated pitches
Rhythm: quarter note, quarter rest, and eighth note pairs
Timbre: nature, human and machine sounds
Tempo: fast and slow
Articulation: smooth and choppy
Dynamics: soft and loud
Form: call and response, AB, AAB, ABB, ABA

First Grade
Melody: Do – Do’ scale (1-1’) / stepping, skipping, and repeating
Rhythm: half note
Timbre: wood, skin (such as leather drum heads), metal and string sounds/ female, male
and children’s voices
Tempo: medium
Articulation: legato and staccato
Meter: groups of 2 and 4
Dynamics: piano and forte
Form: verse and refrain, ABC

Second Grade
Melody: line notes and space notes on a five line staff/ the “science” of sound (Grade 2
Science Goal #4)
Rhythm: sixteenth notes, half rest, whole note, whole rest
Timbre: marching band, folk instruments, symphony instruments
Tempo: Andante, Allegro
Articulation: accent marks, string instruments as they are bowed and plucked (arco and
pizzicato)
Harmony: partner songs
Meter: groups of 3
Dynamics: crescendo and decrescendo
Form: repeat signs and rondo form (ABACA)

Third Grade
Melody: pentatonic scale (5 pitches)
Rhythm: dotted quarter note
Timbre: aerophones (air), membranophones (skin), chordophones (string) and
idiophones (other)/ world music instruments
Tempo: Presto
Articulation: marcato
Harmony: canons (singing in a “round”)
Meter: mixed meter/ groups of 2 and 3
Dynamics: mezzo piano (mp) and mezzo forte (mf)
Form: D.C. (da capo/beginning), D.S. (dal segno/the sign), Fine (the end)

Instrumentation
Students in grades 4 and 5 are provided a recorder by the school and earn “Recorder Karate” belts (colored pieces of yarn) as they master notes, songs, and are able to accompany singers. Recorders are taken home at the end of 5th grade as a reward for passing and as an incentive to continue using these skills in middle school in Chorus and Band.

Fourth Grade
Melody: Major/minor scales, names of intervals
Rhythm: dotted eighth notes
Timbre: Woodwinds, Brass, Strings, and Percussion
Tempo: Adagio
Articulation: all with singing voice
Harmony: I and V chords, 2 parts
Meter: mixed meter with groups of 2, 3, and 4/ groups of 6
Dynamics: fortissimo (ff) and pianissimo (pp)
Form: all symbols with guidance from teacher

Fifth Grade
Melody: reading, writing and playing C, G, and F Major
Rhythm: dotted half note and dotted half rest
Timbre: Ranges of voices/ Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass
Tempo: Lento
Articulation: all with recorders
Harmony: IV chords, 3 parts
Meter: eighth note receiving 1 beat as compared to a quarter note receiving 1 beat
Dynamics: all
Form: choral music with instrumental interludes

Enrichment opportunities (4th and 5th graders)

1. Auditions for the State Elementary Honors Chorus (November) which performs at the Music Educators’ State Conference in the Stevens Center (Winston-Salem)
2. Auditions for the System-wide Elementary Honors Chorus (March) which performs in Asheboro for the community