Music Curriculum

Pre-Kindergarten & Kindergarten
Instruction time: 2 Music classes per week, 1 dance class per week (Pre-Kindergarten)

Music Theory

• Write and recognize by sight and ear half-, quarter-, and eighth note
• Echo simple melody patterns using solfege syllables and hand signs

 

Music History

• Study composers and their compositions (e.g., Carnival of the Animals, Green Eggs and Ham)
• Learn about individual instruments in the orchestra

 

Musicianship

• Sing unaccompanied, accompanied and unison songs (focus on folksongs and traditional children songs)
• Play rhythm instruments responsibly
• Move responsibly to music

 

Grade One

Instruction time: 2 Music classes per week

 

Music Theory

• Write and recognize by sight and ear whole, half-, quarter-, and eighth note
• Know that music is written on five lines and that notes tell pitch and rhythm
• Echo and sight-sing simple melody patterns using solfege syllables and hand signs

 

Music History

• Study composers and their compositions 
• Study genres of classical music, especially program music (e.g. Pictures at an Exhibition) and concerto
• Learn to differentiate between classical and secular music
• Learn about individual instrument families in the orchestra (e.g. Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra)

 

Musicianship

• Sing unaccompanied, accompanied, and unison songs (focus on one-part and rounds)
• Play rhythm instruments at a steady beat (solo and accompanying)
• Move responsibly to music

 

Grade Two

Instruction time: 2 Music & 2 Violin class(es) per week

Music Theory

• Write and recognize by sight and ear all note values and rests
• Write and recognize notes in treble clef
• Echo and sight-sing melody patterns using solfege syllables and hand signs

 

Music History

• Study composers and their compositions, with a focus on composers of the Romantic time period
• Study specific genres of classical music, especially the symphony and the oratorio
• Learn about each individual instrument and their respective families (e.g. Peter and the Wolf)
• Recognize instrument families by ear

 

Musicianship

• Sing unaccompanied, accompanied, unison, and simple two-part songs (focus on folksongs, hymns, and spirituals)
• Develop a healthy vocal technique
• Play violin responsibly (group violin class)
• Move responsibly to music

 

Grade Three

Instruction time: 2 Music, 2 Violin, & 1 Sing-a-long class(es) per week

Music Theory

• Write and recognize by sight and ear all note values and rests
• Write and recognize notes in treble clef and bass clef
• Understand the use of time signature
• Introduction to intervals
• Understand the concept of ‘theme and variation’ and ‘ostinato’
• Echo and sight-sing complex melody patterns using solfege syllables and hand signs

 

Music History

• Introduction to time periods of classical music
• Study composers and their compositions from the Baroque and the Classical time period
• Study specific genres of classical music, especially the symphony, the oratorio, and the concerto
• Study roots of American music (spirituals, Native American, Jazz)
• Introduction to the history of ballet (visit a live ballet performance)
• Study patriotic music (vocal & orchestral music)

 

Musicianship

• Sing unaccompanied, accompanied, unison, and simple two-part songs
• Sing as a leader and soloist
• Develop a healthy vocal technique
• Play violin responsibly (group violin class)
• Move responsibly to music

 

Grade Four

Instruction time: 4 Music & 1 Sing-a-long class(es) per week

Music Theory

• Write and recognize by sight and ear all note values and rests
• Write and recognize notes in treble clef and bass clef, including notes on ledger lines
• Understand the use of time signature
• Recognize major, minor, and perfect intervals by sight and ear
• Understand the use of accidentals and be familiar with enharmonics 
• Recognize and use Major keys (up to two accidentals)
• Complete melodic -, rhythmic -, intervallic dictation
• Read and write in Gregorian Chant notation
• Echo and sight-sing complex melody patterns using solfege syllables and hand signs

 

Music History

• Study composers and their compositions
• Listen to compositions and place music into appropriate time period
• Study music of the Medieval time period, in specific Gregorian Chant
• Study opera, including all voice parts
• Review instrument families and individual instruments

 

Musicianship

• Sing unaccompanied, accompanied, unison, and simple two-part songs
• Sing as a leader and soloist
• Develop a healthy vocal technique
• Introduction to vocal anatomy
• Introduction to conducting
• Understand and demonstrate outstanding rehearsal and performance behavior

 

Grade Five

Instruction time: 5 Choir, 1 Musicianship & 1 Music Theory class(es) per week

Music Theory

• Write and recognize by sight and ear all note values and rests, including 32nd notes
• Understand the use of simple and compound time signature
• Understand the use of tuplets 
• Transpose by octave (clef transfer, review of ledger lines)
• Recognize intervals by sight and ear, including augmented and diminished intervals
• Understand the Circle of Fifths (up to 4#s and 4bs)
• Recognize and use minor keys (a, e, d - natural, harmonic, melodic)
• Complete melodic -, rhythmic -, intervallic dictation
• Understand the use of double-#s and double-bs
• Understand how triads are built (major, minor, diminished, augmented)

 

Music History

• Listen to compositions and place music intro appropriate time period
• Explore four major time periods, including genres representing those time periods
• Renaissance (polyphonic choral music), Baroque (keyboard music, opera), Classical (Symphony), Romantic (program music, art song)
• Become familiar with repertoire of classical music by attending live concert performances

 

Musicianship

• Participation in the choir program on various levels of ability
• Sing as a committed chorister - show leadership
• Focus on sight-singing
• Develop a healthy vocal technique and understand vocal anatomy
• Understand conducting gestures
• Understand and demonstrate outstanding rehearsal and performance behavior
• Sing and study repertoire unique to the choral tradition of the Roman Catholic Church
• Participate in national and international performance tours to musical centers of historic importance

 

Grade Six

Instruction time: 5 Choir & 1 Music Theory class(es) per week

Music Theory

• Review the use of simple and compound time signature
• Review of major, minor, augmented, and diminished intervals
• Understand the Circle of Fifths
• Understand all minor keys
• Understand the chromatic scale
• Introduction to Alto Clef [H]
• Complete melodic -, rhythmic -, intervallic dictation
• Introduction to the technical names of the scale degrees
• Recognize and write triads on I, IV, V (major and minor)
• Recognize phrase structure by sight and ear (e.g. ABA forms)

 

Music History

• Listen to compositions and place music into appropriate time period
• Explore classical music of the 20th century 
• Explore the history and development of Jazz

 

Musicianship

• Participation in the choir program on various levels of ability
• Sing as a committed chorister -show leadership
• Focus on sight-singing
• Develop a healthy vocal technique
• Understand vocal anatomy
• Understand conducting gestures
• Understand and demonstrate outstanding rehearsal and performance behavior
• Sing and study repertoire unique to the choral tradition of the Roman Catholic Church
• Participate in national and international performance tours to musical centers of historic importance

 

Grade Seven and Grade Eight

Instruction time: 5 Choir & 2 Music History class(es) per week (Electives)

 

Music History and Theory (taught in four semester electives)

• Fall 2025 - Your music! The how-to guide for composition
• Spring 2026 - Opera: Heroes, villains, and the most expensive entertainment on earth
• Fall 2026 - The Symphony: Wrestling with ghosts
• Spring 2027 - What would Jesus sing? Church music through the centuries

 

Your music! The how-to guide for composition 
You’ve sung masses and motets, but what about your music? This class will focus on practical steps to write your own music, and engage with working composers about their lives, and how they get their music into the world. Part music theory, part music technology, and part entrepreneurship, this course will teach you everything you need to know to get your music out there! 

Opera: Heroes, villains, and the most expensive entertainment on earth
Betrayal, murder, love, and loss have been the topics of opera from its very conception in the 17th century. Immerse yourself in this word of big stories, bigger personalities, and the biggest bills ever racked up in the entertainment industry. Through an examination of the opera literature and the opera houses that produce it, students will gain an appreciation, primarily through listening and discussion,  for the artform that in so many ways birthed the modern entertainment industry. 

The Symphony: Wrestling with ghosts
As a composer writes the word “symphony” at the top of their score, they are inviting the ghosts in. The likes of Haydn, Beethoven, and Brahms, all long dead, peer over the composer's shoulder, ready to critique every note; To write a symphony is to invite comparison with the great pantheon of composers who have come before, and to write a “ninth” symphony is to go to battle with the ghost of Beethoven himself. This course will examine the symphonic literature from its baroque beginnings to the present day. Students will gain an understanding, primarily through discussion and listening, about how these composers and their ideas are, in some ways, still very much alive today.  

What would Jesus sing? Church music through the centuries 
Guitars and amplifiers? Organs and choirs? The battle for what Church music should be is as old as the church itself. And at points in its history it's not just been a matter of taste, it’s been a matter of life and death. Explore the story of music in church, from its Jewish roots to its many modern forms, and the politics that drive the story. 

Musicianship

• Participation in the choir program on various levels of ability
• Sing as a committed chorister – show leadership
• Focus on sight-singing
• Develop a healthy vocal technique
• Understand vocal anatomy
• Understand conducting gestures
• Understand and demonstrate outstanding rehearsal and performance behavior
• Sing and study repertoire unique to the choral tradition of the Roman Catholic Church
• Participate in national and international performance tours to musical centers of historic importance