MS General Music

6th Grade: HeaR > Play > Hear, the tools to lifelong musicianship

6th Grade Music seeks to reinforce the basics of music taught in elementary school while exploring two new instruments: Piano and Guitar. Students work at an independent pace to master skills of playing on the right and left hand of piano, and learn the basics of playing chords and their harmonic relations. They continue this knowledge base of melody and harmony as they switch to guitar halfway through the quarter, and explore singing while playing as well as making music with others. Throughout the class students will be exposed to music of several genres, including classical, jazz, rock, and country.

7th Grade: The Blues And Early Rock

Students will continue their 6th grade study of guitar and piano while being immersed in the blues. From it's origins

as simple call-and-response songs, field hollers, work songs and spirituals in the church, 7th graders will take a musical trip to the south and learn the blues. By listening to, studying and learning to play the music of such artists as Ray Charles, Gladys Bentley, Memphis Slim, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Son House and Robert Johnson the students will merge into how rock & roll came to be. Groups are formed early on in the term to form bands. These bands utilize the relative simplistic ingredients of the blues (blues bass line, 3 chords, minor pentatonic scale and the A-A-B form) and compose a blues of their very own. Each student then writes their own verse, to be learned, rehearsed and performed live for parents and the DS community, complete with singing, bass, guitar, piano and improvised solos reminiscent of the original blues of the Mississippi Delta.

8th grade: American Music In Social Context Then & Now

A look at music through the lens of society, from the delta blues of the early 1950s to it's transformation into rock & roll, R&B, The British Invasion, Michael Jackson and the pop music of today. Students will look at how race, politics, war and other social happenings affected history and vice versa, all while learning the music of that time period. Through crating their own bands, choosing a piece, rehearsing and performing, the students will be able to create their own arrangement of a true classic piece of pop music.

The course builds upon the guitar and piano skills learned in 6th and 7th grade, and supplements with bass guitar, drum set and percussion, choreography, as well as instruments the students play on their own and/or their band instrument - which they have been playing since the 4th grade. The course culminates with a live performance complete with amplifiers, mics and a polished arrangement that all parents and members of the school community may attend.