MUSIC CONTENT STANDARDS

Standard 1: Students, alone or with others, sing and/or play instruments, using a varied repertoire of music.

Standard 2: Students read and notate music.

Standard 3: Students create music.

Standard 4: Students listen to, respond to, analyze, evaluate, and describe music.

Standard 5: Students understand music in relation to history and a variety of cultures.

Standard 1: Students, alone or with others,

sing and/or play instruments,

using a varied repertoire of music.

Benchmarks – Grades 5-6

As students refine singing and/or playing skills, they will

A. sing and/or play music in two or more parts using literature of progressive difficulty (for example, with a recommended minimum level of difficulty (on a scale of I to VI);

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Sing choral music with two independent parts

B. Demonstrate knowledge of proper breathing techniques and correct body and instrument position;

Example for meaning:

5-8. Warm up, using varied breathing exercises to increase control, speed, and duration of air.

C. sing and/or play with expression and technical accuracy;

Example for meaning:

5-8: Perform, with rhythmic and melodic accuracy, a musical selection with proper dynamics, phrasing, articulation, and tone quality.

D. sing and/or play an expanding repertoire of music representing diverse cultures, genres, and styles;

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Sing in Hebrew and/or play "Hashivenu" as a three-part round.

E. perform more complex rhythmic, melodic, and chordal patterns accurately on rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic instruments;

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Play the 12-bar blues pattern on chording instruments (for example, autoharps, tone bars, keyboards, handbells/chimes).

F. respond to conducting cues with increased awareness of musical elements such as tempo, dynamics, and style; and

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Mirror conducting patterns in 4, 3, and 2.

G. demonstrate improving ensemble skills.

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Sing in a voice that blends with the group.

Standard 2: Students read and notate music.

Benchmarks—Grades 5-8

As students refine skills in reading and notating music, they will

A. identify and read rhythmic patterns using whole, half, dotted half, quarter, dotted quarter, eighth, triplet eighth, and sixteenth notes and rests in varied meter signatures;

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Play a short melodic pattern on handbells/chimes, tone bars, or recorders using whole notes, then half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes.

B. identify, read, and notate melodic and rhythmic patterns using current music technology, traditional and, when appropriate, nontraditional music notation;

Example for meaning:

5-8: Play or sing a pattern while a partner notates the pattern.

C. identify the notes on a staff using the appropriate clef (for example, violinists read treble clef trombonists read bass clef male changing voices learn bass clef);

D. identify sharp signs, flat signs, natural signs, and key signatures, and their functions in music being performed;

E. identify and apply symbols and traditional terms that refer to dynamics, tempo, meter, and articulation; and

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Contrast legato (smooth, connected) and staccato (short; disconnected) by playing handbells legato and martellato.

F. demonstrate ability to apply reading and notating skills to sight-reading.

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Learn a new song by first clapping the rhythm, then singing or playing the melody.

Standard 3: Students create music.

Benchmarks–Grades 5-8

As students continue to develop musical creativity, they will

B. create short compositions or arrangements using rhythmic, melodic, and/or harmonic patterns; and

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Create harmonic patterns on chording instruments (for example, autoharps, tone bars, keyboards, handbells/chimes, and voices) using I, IV, and V triads.

C. improvise rhythmic, melodic, and/or harmonic patterns.

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Improvise Latin rhythmic accompaniments to a class song.

Standard 4: Students listen to, respond to,

analyze, evaluate, and describe music.

Benchmarks – Grades 5-8

As students demonstrate increased skills in listening, responding to, analyzing, evaluating, and describing, they will

A. listen to and identify a variety of musical styles and genres;

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Listen to and compare three stylistic versions of the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (for example, "Roll Over Beethoven," "A Fifth of Beethoven, "and the first movement of Symphony No. 5).

C. identify more advanced musical elements and expressive qualities using appropriate musical vocabulary;

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Arrange dynamic markings in order of softest to loudest

D. describe and respond to specific music events within a given work;

Example for meaning:

5-8: Graph each entrance of the subject in Bach's "Little Fugue in G Minor. "

E. describe contrasts of timbre;

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Use an oscilloscope and tell how the sound wave pattern of a string bass differs from an amplified jazz flute.

G. demonstrate appropriate audience behavior.

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Applaud when the conductor lowers his or her hands and faces the audience.

Standard 5: Students understand music

in relation to history and a variety of cultures.

Benchmarks—Grades 5-8

As students refine their understanding of music in history and a variety of cultures, they will

A. participate in cultural activities in an appropriate manner;

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Perform Tinkling dance steps.

B. describe how distinguishing characteristics of quality music are used in examples from various cultures; and

Examples for meaning:

5-6: Learn the Renaissance song "Greensleeves." Compare to Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Greensleeves.