Music Curriculum

2018-19 Music Curriculum

Objective: To unify, focus, and intensify music curriculum between specialists and classroom teachers across all age levels.

Implementation: Rock and Roll Daycare specialists and teaching staff will implement a joint music theory curriculum. Each 2-month-long period will focus on one of six music theory concepts that will repeat again at the end of each twelve month cycle.

Curriculum Concepts:

1. RHYTHM (Sept-Oct) / FRANCE

• Steady pulse
• Note duration
• Meter
• Rhythm notation
• Rhythm call and response
• Rhythm in language
• Rhythm in movement
• Percussion instruments
• Rhythm improvisation

2. PITCH (Nov-Dec) / ISRAEL

• Matching pitches
• Scales
• Solfege
• High vs. low
• Intervals
• Intro to reading pitch on the staff
• Clef symbols
• Melodic vs. percussion instrument
• Size of instrument/range

3. DYNAMIC & TEMPO (Jan-Feb) / SOUTH KOREA

• Gradations of dynamic (pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff)
• Shifting dynamic (crescendo, decrescendo)
• Accents/emphasis
• Shifting dynamic marks (sforzando, fortepiano/pianoforte, accelerando)

4. MELODY & HARMONY (Mar-Apr) / JAMAICA

• Singing sections of scales
• Tetrachord singing
• Melodic improvisation
• Identifying common melodies w/different lyrics (Twinkle/Baa Baa Black Sheep/ABC)
• Assonance / dissonance
• Interval singing & analysis
• Major vs. minor

5. TIMBRE & ORCHESTRATION (May-June) / CAMBODIA

• Discriminating qualities of sound
• Identifying sounds of instruments
• Hearing same notes/melodies played by different instruments
• Discriminating and identifying instruments in an ensemble

6. AESTHETICS & IMAGE (July-Aug) / BRITAIN

• Feeling and mood of music
• Lyrical storytelling
• Musical storytelling
• Songwriting/lyric improvisation
• Visual images paired with music