Kindergarten is a year of exploration in music. Students explore movement, listening, instruments, and singing through play. Comparatives, such as fast/slow, high/ low, long/ short, smooth/ choppy, and loud/quiet are introduced and practiced through various mediums. The four voices (speaking, whispering, shouting and singing) and steady beat are introduced and practiced. Singing games and song material is repeated to create a foundation for future learning.
First grade music students take the exploration and abstract learning, concepts, and ideas experienced in kindergarten and transfer this knowledge to concrete musical concepts. Rhythmically, quarter, eighth, and quarter-rest is presented (ta, ti ti, and rest, respectively). Students can read, speak, perform, improvise, write, and dictate rhythmic patterns containing these three rhythmic values. Melodically, sol, mi, and la are presented. Students learn where these pitches are on the staff and their relation to read and sing in tune, as well as how to improvise and dictate these pitch relations. Other musical elements presented are dynamics, 4 voices, ostinato, and form. Kindergarten comparatives are labeled: fast/ slow is tempo, high/ low becomes sol and mi and other melodic pitches, long/ short become rhythmic values ta and ti ti, smooth/ choppy become legato and staccato, and loud/ quiet become forte and piano.
Second grade musicians build on their first grade knowledge and add the rhythmic concepts of half note (ta-o) and half rest, and the melodic concepts of do and re. Again, students can read, write, perform, improvise with, dictate, sing in tune, and write on the staff these musical concepts. Playing simple accompaniments on the xylophones and singing partner songs and vocal rounds is introduced to create initial polyphony. Instrumental and vocal timbre, movement, and appropriate connections between sounds and movement is introduced. Folk dancing in sets is expanded and performed. Form, or sections/ patterns in music, is expanded to include binary (AB), rounded binary (ABA), and rondo (ABAC).
Like the second graders, third grade musical concepts build upon second grade concepts. Rhythmic values of sixteenth note and eighth-two sixteenth notes (tiki tiki and ti tiki), and melodic pitches low la and low sol are added to the repertoire and students can read, write, perform, improvise with, dictate, sing in tune, and write on the staff these musical concepts. Staff reading on absolute pitches in the treble clef is introduced and practiced extensively. Accompaniment work on xylophones, hand chimes, and vocal ostinato is expanded. Rounds and partner songs are also sung extensively in preparation for McGlee Club and independent singing.
In fourth grade, students add rhythmic values or two sixteenth-eighth note, eighth-quarter-eighth, and dotted quarter-eighth (tiki ti, ti ta ti, and tam ti respectively), and melodic pitch high do to their musical vocabulary and skill set. As in previous grades, students can read, write, perform, improvise with, dictate, sing in tune, and write on the staff these musical concepts. Accompaniments on xylophones are layered in, so students are not all playing the same pattern, but are starting to create polyphony. Reading traditional notation on the staff in treble clef is practiced, as is relationships and connections between rhythmic, and solfege/ melodic pitches on the staff.
Fifth grade musicians are comprehensive musicians. Rhythmic values eighth-dotted quarter and dotted eighth-sixteenth (tam ti and tim-ka) and solfege pitches fa and ti are added to complete the diatonic scale. As always, students can read, write, perform, improvise with, dictate, sing in tune, and write on the staff these musical concepts. Modes and scales (ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolyidan, aolean, locrean), chords, and intervals are introduced and practiced. Bass clef staff reading is introduced and practiced. Multiple layer xylophone accompaniments continue, as does playing melodies on xylophones. Conducting beat patterns, folk dancing, musical composition, and instrument timbre is a component to fifth grade music classes. Performance and critically evaluating musical performances is emphasized.
This scope and sequence is based on a Kodaly Sequence as presented at Colorado State University's Kodaly Institute. To see the Colorado Department of Education Standards for Music Education, please click here: http://www.cde.state.co.us/coarts/statestandards#Music