Beginning with our transitional kindergarten, students are taught to play instruments, read music and to understand phrasing, rhythm, harmony and tempo. Our Yamaha Keyboard Lab is used extensively to teach and reinforce our music curriculum. Performances are planned throughout the year so that students can exhibit their talents and develop their stage presence.
All students (TK-5) sing age-appropriate and seasonal songs, listen to music, and play rhythm band instruments to experience the following concepts:
Transitional Kindergarten – First Grade
- Move to and identify beat and perform to simple rhythm patterns
- Identify same or different sounds, vocals and melodies
- Recognize and imitate concepts of soft/loud, fast/slow, short/long, and high/low
- Study Prokofiev's “Peter and the Wolf” (First Grade)
Second Grade & Third Grade
- Perform rhythm patterns adding half and dotted half notes
- Identify pitches and musical alphabet
Classify orchestral instruments into four families- Read, identify, and play simple musical notation and C major scale
- Sing 2-part harmony using patterns with melody
Fourth Grade & Fifth Grade
- Analyze, read, perform and compose simple and uneven rhythm patterns and melodies (including one sharp or one flat)
- Perform counter-melodies to create harmony using resonator bells, glockenspiels, autoharp, recorders, and keyboards
- Sing in 2 and 3-part harmony and play recorder duets
- Study composers and various forms of music from each period of music history
