Standard 1.1

Inquiry Questions:

1. How does performance in an ensemble encourage teamwork?

2. How does correct posture, breathing, and diction affect a performance?

3. Why is it important for the performer to watch the conductor?

Relevance and Application:

1. Concepts in mathematics, reading, and other contents can be taught through simple musical compositions.

2. Understanding similarities and differences between music prevalent in Colorado and other regions of the United States gives insight to Colorado history.

3. Demonstration of responsible personal and social behaviors in musical settings can be used to assess a fundamental understanding of societal norms in performance.

Nature of Music:

1. Musicality is the ability to perform and respond to music in meaningful way.

Standard 1.2

Inquiry Questions:

1. How do changes in rhythm change a message in music?

2. How do accompaniments affect music?

Relevance and Application:

1. Patterns in rhythm changes can be related to fractions in mathematics.

2. Music from various cultures, historical periods, genres, and styles vary in their use of melodic and rhythmic patterns.

3. Mass media uses melodic and rhythmic patterns to make music memorable to serve purposes such as selling a product (jingles); create easy auditory recall (theme songs for commercials, news casts, sitcoms, and film); and deliver a message (musical montage of patriotism).

4. Music software, electronic keyboards, and audio devices can be used to play accompaniments, ostinati, and a variety of rhythmic and melodic patterns.

Nature of Music:

1. Musicianship is built upon pattern recognition.

Standard 1.3

Inquiry Questions:

1. What knowledge is needed to read and perform music?

2. How is music like a language that helps people communicate?

Relevance and Application:

1. Math songs, works songs, celebration songs, holiday songs, and patriotic songs can be used to teach a wide variety of content knowledge for easy recall of facts, sequence, and process.

2. Music software and audio devices can be used to isolate particular measures in songs to highlight unique qualities in pitch, rhythm, and expressive qualities.

Nature of Music:

1. Musical compositions often demonstrate the main idea of a message through the melody.

Standard 2.1

Inquiry Questions:

1. How does improvising music create a unique sound?

2. Is it easier to improvise with an instrument or with a voice? Give a rationale for the belief.

3. Why is improvisation important?

Relevance and Application:

1. Application of select criteria builds the ability to judge the quality of improvisation.

2. Software and other tools of technology aid in improvising music.

3. Explanation of the importance of the mathematical pattern in a diatonic scale demonstrates the depth of understanding in how a diatonic scale is constructed.

Nature of Music:

1. Creating music is a form of self-expression.

Standard 2.2

Inquiry Questions:

1. How is writing music related to writing stories?

2. Why is knowing prescribed criteria important when writing music?

3. Do different cultures notate music differently?

Relevance and Application:

1. Understanding the basic structural elements used to write short musical phrases provides a foundation to understanding the structural elements of more complex musical compositions.

2. Musical notation can be compared with notation of other disciplines (such as theatre stage directions, mathematical notation, vocal diction notation (IPA), dance notation)

3. Discussing the common criteria used to notate music in at least one historical era (classical, baroque, etc.) provides insight into key differences in varying styles and genres of music.

Nature of Music:

Musicians rely on knowing and understanding various notations and terms to write and create music.

Standard 3.1

Inquiry Questions:

1. When people listen to a piece of music, what are they listening for?

2. Why are musical opposites important?

3. Why do composers usually use a combination of dynamics in a piece of music instead of using just one?

Relevance and Application:

1. Identification of similarities and differences in ways mezzo piano/mezzo forte, andante/presto, and accelerando/ritardando are used in various cultures, historical pieces, genres, and styles allows a novice listener to build musical literacy.

2. Understanding that most musical terms are Italian builds context for the source of contemporary, western music terminology.

3. Musical vocabulary has a strong correlation to adverbs in literature. The ability to explain how duple and triple meters compare to the base ten mathematics pattern gives insight to the mathematical nature of music.

Nature of Music:

1. Music uses specific vocabulary and expressive elements.

Standard 3.2

Inquiry Questions:

1. Why do composers rely on theme?

2. What is the purpose of a theme or variation?

3. Why are interludes important?

4. What part of a song is usually the most catchy or most important?

Relevance and Application:

1. Music from various cultures, historical periods, genres, and styles have specific and identifiable themes and variations.

2. Mass media uses identifiable themes and variations when determining theme songs for commercials, television shows, etc.

3. Theme and variation are used throughout the arts and among many disciplines and vocations (such as visual art, dance, literature, interior design).

Nature of Music:

1. Musical compositions have a specific structure that is defined by the use of elements.

Standard 3.3

Inquiry Questions:

1. Why does each voice and instrument have its own timbre?

2. How have historical events influenced musical styles?

3. How has the impact of technology and mass media affected band and orchestral music?

4. How do different styles of music affect audience response?

Relevance and Application:

1. Choices made in instrumentation reflect the composer’s emotions, ideas, imagination, and cultural context.

2. Video and audio clips assist in isolating instruments in a band or orchestra to identify the instrument’s unique sound.

3. Marketing companies make choices on music to use in marketing campaigns based on instrumentations that would appeal to their target audience. (Orchestral instrumentation sends a message of high quality, jazz instrumentation sends a sultry or moody message, and popular music appeals to a youthful audience.)

Nature of Music:

1. Unique tone qualities are found in varying styles and genres of music.

Standard 3.4

Inquiry Questions:

1. How will identifying melodic and rhythmic patterns improve individual and ensemble performance?

2. What does harmony add to music?

3. How does tonality affect the feeling of a piece of music?

4. Why would a composer use both major and minor tonalities in a composition?

Relevance and Application:

1. Four-beat musical patterns gives insight to poetry patterns in literature, simple contemporary songs, and nursery rhymes.

2. Music from various cultures, historical periods, genres, and styles can be compared based on the use of diatonic scale and four-beat rhythmic patterns.

3. Mass media predominantly employs diatonic scales and four-beat rhythmic and melodic components because they are easily recognizable.

Nature of Music:

1. Music notation is a visual representation of organized sound and silence occurring in discernable patterns.

Standard 4.1

Inquiry Questions:

1. Why is it beneficial to experience a wide variety of musical styles as a listener and a performer?

2. Why is it important to have a variety and diversity of musical styles available to society?

How are preferences better communicated when appropriate music terminology is used?

Relevance and Application:

1. Collaboration in determining musical preferences highlights the similarities and differences among people with individual musical tastes.

2. Ensemble participation develops collaboration and self-direction skills through the demands of discrimination of sound and pitch, following conductor’s cues and listening and adjusting to others.

Nature of Music:

1. Experiences with a variety of musical styles develop an expanded range of personal preferences.

2. Music preferences are sometimes affected by nonmusical but significant factors such as the social meaning of a work at a particular time or for a particular purpose.

Standard 4.2

Inquiry Questions:

1. What historical factors contributed to the development of a “western” style of American music?

2. Who are important past and present musicians of Colorado?

3. Where in Colorado are particular styles of music most prevalent?

4. Is any one kind of music better than any another?

Relevance and Application:

1. Examining and listening to music that is unique to Colorado gives historical context to how culture in Colorado evolved and was reinforced by the music predominantly performed, and provides a comparison to other states in the West.

2. The Internet can be used to investigate the active presence of local or regional live music, identifying musicians’ websites, performance venues, and ticket availability, which provides a more direct link to local and regional music trends and influences.

Nature of Music:

1. Music represents diverse experiences, thoughts, and emotions, and is unique to each individual with regard to values and opinions.

2. Local and regional music groups of all kinds are meaningful sources of culture.