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National Standards for Music Education

Ages 2-4

The years before children enter kindergarten are critical for their musical development. Young children need a rich musical environment in which to grow. The increasing number of day-care centers, nursery schools, and early-intervention programs for children with disabilities and children at risk suggests that information should be available about the musical needs of infants and young children and that standards for music should be established for these learning environments as well as for K-12 settings.

The standards outlined in this section reflect the following beliefs concerning the musical learning of young children:

1. All children have musical potential

2. Children bring their own unique interests and abilities to the music learning environment

3. Very young children are capable of developing critical thinking skills through musical ideas

4. Children come to early-childhood music experiences from diverse backgrounds

5. Children should experience exemplary musical sounds, activities, and materials

6. Children should not be encumbered with the need to meet performance goals

7. Children's play is their work

8. Children learn best in pleasant physical and social environments

9. Diverse learning environments are needed to serve the developmental needs of many individual children

10. Children need effective adult models

Curriculum Guidelines

A music curriculum for young children should include many opportunities to explore sound through singing, moving, listening, and playing instruments, as well as introductory experiences with verbalization and visualization of musical ideas. The music literature included in the curriculum should be of high quality and lasting value, including traditional children's songs, folk songs, classical music, and music from a variety of cultures, styles, and time periods 2.

Play is the primary vehicle for young children's growth, and developmentally appropriate early music experiences should occur in child-initiated, child-directed, teacher-supported play environments. In the prekindergarten, the teacher's role is to create a musically stimulating environment and then to facilitate children's engagement with music materials and activities by asking questions or making suggestions that stimulate children's thinking and further exploration.

Children also need group music time to experience the important social and musical aspects of sharing music and making music together. Ideally this should be delivered by either early-childhood arts specialists employed as staff members in child-care centers and preschools or by visiting music specialists with training in child development to provide musicality and creativity and to serve as models and consultants for the child-care staff.

Effective music teaching in the prekindergarten should:

1. support the child's total development--physical, emotional, social, and cognitive

2. recognize the wide range of normal development in prekindergartners and the need to differentiate their instruction

3. facilitate learning through active interaction with adults and other children as well as with music materials

4. consist of learning activities and materials that are real, concrete, and relevant to the lives of young children

5. provide opportunities for children to choose from among a variety of music activities, materials, and equipment of varying degrees of difficulty

6. allow children time to explore music through active involvement

Assessment

The assessment of prekindergarten children provides special challenges. A substantial body of music education research has determined that young children know and understand much more about music than they can verbalize. Also, young children have not yet developed the ability to respond in a paper-and-pencil testing format. Another factor that affects their assessment is the very wide range of individual developmental differences displayed by young children.

Because of these characteristics, methods of assessment that are most appropriate to assess young children's music knowledge, skills, and attitudes include: (1) checklists or anecdotal reports completed by teachers, parents, or aides to record and describe verbal and nonverbal behavior; (2) systematic observation documenting such behavior as time on task, number of instances of an event or behavior, and participation tendencies over time; and (3) rating scales to provide data related to quality of responses, such as degrees of accuracy, originality, or involvement. Finished products and correct solutions are not the only criteria for judging whether learning has occurred. Audiotaping and videotaping are recommended methods of gathering samples of children's musical behavior for assessment and of examining growth and development over time. In order to develop a profile of each child's musical responses, representative samples of assessment materials should be placed in a music portfolio that is maintained for each child, beginning with the child's entrance into an educational/child-care setting and culminating with entrance into kindergarten.

Music Experiences for Infants and Toddlers

Infants and very young children experience music by hearing it, by feeling it, and by experimenting with pitch and timbre in their vocalizations. Children should experience music daily while receiving caring, physical contact. Adults can encourage the musical development of infants by:

1. singing and chanting to them, using songs and rhymes representing a variety of meters and tonalities

2. imitating the sounds infants make

3. exposing them to a wide variety of vocal, body, instrumental, and environmental sounds

4. providing exposure to selected live and recorded music

5. rocking, patting, touching, and moving with the children to the beat, rhythm patterns, and melodic direction of music they hear

6. providing safe toys that make musical sounds the children can control

7. talking about music and its relationship to expression and feeling

Musical Experiences for Two-, Three-, and Four-Year-Old Children

Two-, three-, and four-year-old children need an environment that includes a variety of sound sources, selected recorded music, and opportunities for free improvised singing and the building of a repertoire of songs. An exploratory approach, using a wide range of appropriate materials, provides a rich base from which conceptual understanding can evolve in later years. A variety of individual musical experiences is important for children at this age, with little emphasis on activities that require children to perform together as a unit. As a result of their experiences with music, four-year-olds should initiate both independent and collaborative play with musical materials, and they should demonstrate curiosity about music.

Terms identified by an asterisk (*) are explained in the glossary. The standards in this section are intended for age 4. The skills of young children develop along a continuum, and developmentally appropriate activities should be used at earlier levels. Age 5 is included in the K-4 section.

Content Standard 1: Singing and playing instruments.

Achievement Standard a. Children use their voices expressively as they speak, chant, and sing.

Achievement Standard b. Children sing a variety of simple songs in various keys, meters, and *genres,3 alone and with a group, becoming increasingly accurate in rhythm and pitch.

Achievement Standard c. Children experiment with a variety of instruments and other sound sources.

Achievement Standard d. Children play simple melodies and accompaniments on instruments.

Content Standard 2: Creating music.

Achievement Standard a. Children improvise songs to accompany their play activities.

Achievement Standard b. Children improvise instrumental accompaniments to songs, recorded selections, stories, and poems.

Achievement Standard c. Children create short pieces of music, using voices, instruments, and other sound sources.

Achievement Standard d. Children invent and use original graphic or symbolic systems to represent vocal and instrumental sounds and musical ideas.

Content Standard 3: Responding to music

Achievement Standard a. Children identify the sources of a wide variety of sounds. 4

Achievement Standard b. Children respond through movement to music of various tempos, meters, dynamics, modes, genres, and *styles to express what they hear and feel in works of music.

Achievement Standard c. Children participate freely in music activities.

Content Standard 4: Understanding music

Achievement Standard a. Children use their own vocabulary and standard music vocabulary to describe voices, instruments, music notation, and music of various genres, styles, and periods from diverse cultures.

Achievement Standard b. Children sing, play instruments, move, or verbalize to demonstrate awareness of the *elements of music and changes in their usage 5.

Achievement Standard c. Children demonstrate an awareness of music as a part of daily life.

Notes:

1. "MENC Position Statement on Early Childhood Education," MENC Soundpost 8, no.2 (Winter 1992): 21-22.

2. "MENC Position Statement on Early Childhood Education," 21.

3. E.g., folk songs, ethnic songs, singing games

4. E.g., crying baby, piano, guitar, car horn, bursting baloon

5. E.g., changes in rhythm, dynamics, tempo

Grades K-4

Performing, creating, and responding to music are the fundamental music processes in which humans engage. Students, particularly in grades K-4, learn by doing. Singing, playing instruments, moving to music, and creating music enable them to acquire musical skills and knowledge that can be developed in no other way. Learning to read and notate music gives them a skill with which to explore music independently and with others. Listening to, analyzing, and evaluating music are important building blocks of musical learning. Further, to participate fully in a diverse, global society, students must understand their own historical and cultural heritage and those of others within their communities and beyond. Because music is a basic expression of human culture, every student should have access to a balanced, comprehensive, and sequential program of study in music.

Terms identified by an asterisk (*) are explained in the glossary. The standards in this section describe the cumulative skills and knowledge expected of all students upon exiting grade 4. Students in the earlier grades should engage in developmentally appropriate learning experiences designed to prepare them to achieve these standards at grade 4. Determining the curriculum and the specific instructional activities necessary to achieve the standards is the responsibility of states, local school districts, and individual teachers.

Content Standard 1: Singing alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

Achievement Standard a. Students sing independently, on pitch and in rhythm, with appropriate timbre, diction, and posture, and maintain a steady tempo.

Achievement Standard b. Students sing *expressively, with appropriate dynamics, phrasing, and interpretation.

Achievement Standard c. Students sing from memory a varied repertoire of songs representing *genres and *styles from diverse cultures.

Achievement Standard d. Students sing ostinatos, partner songs, and rounds.

Achievement Standard e. Students sing in groups, blending vocal timbres, matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor.

Content Standard 2: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

Achievement Standard a. Students perform on pitch, in rhythm, with appropriate dynamics and timbre, and maintain a steady tempo.

Achievement Standard b. Students perform easy rhythmic, melodic, and chordal patterns accurately and independently on rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic *classroom instruments.

Achievement Standard c. Students perform expressively a varied repertoire of music representing diverse genres and styles.

Achievement Standard d. Students echo short rhythms and melodic patterns.

Achievement Standard e. Students perform in groups, blending instrumental timbres, matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor.

Achievement Standard f. Students perform independent instrumental parts1 while other students sing or play contrasting parts.

Content Standard 3: Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

Achievement Standard a. Students improvise "answers" in the same style to given rhythmic and melodic phrases accompaniments.

Achievement Standard b. Students improvise simple rhythmic and melodic ostinato accompaniments.

Achievement Standard c. Students improvise simple rhythmic variations and simple melodic embellishments on familiar melodies.

Achievement Standard d. Students improvise short songs and instrumental pieces, using a variety of sound sources, including traditional sounds, nontraditional sounds available in the classroom, body sounds, and sounds produced by electronic means2.

Content Standard 4: Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

Achievement Standard a. Students create and arrange music to accompany readings or dramatizations

Achievement Standard b. Students create and arrange music short songs and instrumental pieces with specified guidelines3.

Achievement Standard c. Students use a variety of sound sources when composing.

Content Standard 5: Reading and notating music.

Achievement Standard a. Students read whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes and rests in 2/4, ¾, 4/4 meter signatures.

Achievement Standard b. Students use a system (that is, syllables, numbers, or letters) to read simple pitch notation in the treble clef in major keys.

Achievement Standard c. Students identify symbols and traditional terms referring to dynamics, tempo, and articulation and interpret them correctly when performing.

Achievement Standard d. Students use standard symbols to notate meter, rhythm, pitch, and dynamics in simple patterns presented by the teacher.

Content Standard 6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

Achievement Standard a. Students identify simple music *forms when presented aurally.

Achievement Standard b. Students demonstrate perceptual skills by moving, by answering questions about, and by describing aural examples of music of various styles representing diverse cultures.

Achievement Standard c. Students use appropriate terminology in explaining music, music notation, music instruments and voices, and music performances.

Achievement Standard d. Students identify the sounds of a variety of instruments, including many orchestra and band instruments, and instruments from various cultures, as well as children’s voices and male and female adult voices.

Achievement Standard e. Students respond through purposeful movement4 to selected prominent music characteristics5 or to specific music events6 while listening.

Content Standard 7: Evaluating music and music performances.

Achievement Standard a. Students devise criteria for evaluating performances and compositions.

Achievement Standard b. Students explain, using appropriate music terminology, their personal preferences for specific musical works and styles.

Content Standard 8: Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

Achievement Standard a. Students identify similarities and differences in the meanings of common terms used in the various arts.

Achievement Standard b. Students identify ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with those of music8.

Content Standard 9: Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Achievement Standard a. Students identify by genre or style aural examples of music from various historical periods and cultures.

Achievement Standard b. Students describe in simple terms how *elements of music are used in music examples from various cultures of the world9.

Achievement Standard c. Students identify various uses of music in their daily experiences10 and describe characteristics that make certain music suitable for each use.

Achievement Standard d. Students identify and describe roles of musicians11 in various music settings and cultures.

Achievement Standard e. Students demonstrate audience behavior appropriate for the context and style of music performed.

1 E.g., simple rhythmic or melodic ostinatos, contrasting rhythmic lines, harmonic progressions, and chords.

2 E.g., traditional sounds: voices, instruments; nontraditional sounds: paper tearing, pencil tapping; body sounds: hands clapping, fingers snapping; sounds produced by electronic means: personal computers and basic *MIDI devices, including keyboards, sequencers, synthesizers, and drum machines.

3 E.g., a particular style, form, instrumentation, compositional technique.

4 E.g., swaying, skipping, dramatic play.

5 E.g., meter, dynamics, tempo.

6 E.g., meter changes, dynamic changes, same/different sections.

7 E.g., form, line, contrast

8 E.g., foreign languages: singing songs in various languages; language arts: using the expressive elements of music in interpretive readings; mathematics: mathematical basis of values of notes, rests, and meter signatures; science: vibration of strings, drum heads, or air columns generating sounds used in music; geography: songs associated with various countries or regions.

9 E.g., Navajo, Arabic, Latin American.

10 E.g., celebration of special occasions, background music for television, worship.

11 E.g., orchestra conductor, folksinger, church organist.

Grades 5-8

The period represented by grades 5-8 is especially critical in students' musical development. The music they perform or study often becomes an integral part of their personal musical repertoire. Composing and improvising provide students with unique insight into the form and structure of music and at the same time help them to develop their creativity. Broad experience with a variety of music is necessary if students are to make informed musical judgments. Similarly, this breadth of background enables them to begin to understand the connections and relationships between music and other disciplines. By understanding the cultural and historical forces that shape social attitudes and behaviors, students are better prepared to live and work in communities that are increasingly multicultural. The role that music will play in students' lives depends in large measure on the level of skills they achieve in creating, performing, and listening to music.

Terms identified by an asterisk (*) are explained in the glossary. Except as noted, the standards in this section describe the cumulative skills and knowledge expected of all students upon exiting grade 8. Students in grades 5-7 should engage in developmentally appropriate learning experiences to prepare them to achieve these standards at grade 8. These standards presume that the students have achieved the standards specified for grades K-4; they assume that the students will demonstrate higher levels of the expected skills and knowledge, will deal with increasingly complex music, and will provide more sophisticated responses to works of music. Every course in music, including performance courses, should provide instruction in creating, performing, listening to, and analyzing music, in addition to focusing on its specific subject matter. Determining the curriculum and the specific instructional activities necessary to achieve the standards is the responsibility of states, local school districts, and individual teachers.

Content Standard 1: Singing alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

Achievement Standard a. Students sing accurately and with good breath control throughout their singing ranges, alone and in small and large ensembles.

Achievement Standard b. Students sing with *expression and *technical accuracy a repertoire of vocal literature with a *level of difficulty of 2, on a scale of 1 to 6, including some songs performed from memory.

Achievement Standard c. Students sing music representing diverse *genres and cultures, with expression appropriate for the work being performed.

Achievement Standard d. Students sing music written in two and three parts.

Achievement Standard e. Students who participate in a choral ensemble sing with expression and technical accuracy a varied repertoire of vocal literature with a level of difficulty of 3, on a scale of 1 to 6, including some songs performed from memory.

Content Standard 2: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

Achievement Standard a. Students perform on at least one instrument1 accurately and independently, alone and in small and large ensembles, with good posture, good playing position, and good breath, bow, or stick control.

Achievement Standard b. Students perform with expression and technical accuracy on at least one string, wind, percussion, or *classroom instrument a repertoire of instrumental literature with a level of difficulty of 2, on a scale of 1 to 6.

Achievement Standard c. Students perform music representing diverse genres and cultures, with expression appropriate for the work being performed.

Achievement Standard d. Students play by ear simple melodies on a melodic instrument and simple accompaniments on a harmonic instrument.

Achievement Standard e. Students who participate in an instrumental ensemble or class perform with expression and technical accuracy a varied repertoire of instrumental literature with a level of difficulty of 3, on a scale of 1 to 6, including some solos performed from memory.

Content Standard 3: Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

Achievement Standard a. Students improve simple harmonic accompaniments.

Achievement Standard b. Students improvise melodic embellishments and simple rhythmic and melodic variations on given pentatonic melodies and melodies in major keys.

Achievement Standard c. Students improvise short melodies, unaccompanied and over given rhythmic accompaniments, each in a consistent *style, meter, and tonality.

Content Standard 4: Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

Achievement Standard a. Students compose short pieces with specified guidelines,2 demonstrating how the elements of music are used to achieve unity and variety, tension and release, and balance.

Achievement Standard b. Students arrange simple pieces for voices or instruments other than those for which the pieces were written.

Achievement Standard c. Students use a variety of traditional and nontraditional sound sources and electronic media when composing and arranging.

Content Standard 5: Reading and notating music.

Achievement Standard a. Students read whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, and dotted notes and rests in 2/4, ¾, 4/4, 6/8, 3/8, and alla breve meter signatures.

Achievement Standard b. Students read at sight simple melodies in both the treble and bass clefs.

Achievement Standard c. Students identify and define standard notation symbols for pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, articulation, and expression.

Achievement Standard d. Students use standard notation to record their musical ideas and the musical ideas of others.

Achievement Standard e. Students who participate in a choral or instrumental ensemble or class sight-read, accurately and expressively, music with a level of difficulty of 2, on a scale of 1 to 6.

Content Standard 6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

Achievement Standard a. Students describe specific music events3 in a given aural example, using appropriate terminology.

Achievement Standard b. Students analyze the uses the *elements of music in aural examples representing diverse genres and cultures.

Achievement Standard c. Students demonstrate knowledge of the basic principles of meter, rhythm, tonality, intervals, chords, and harmonic progressions in their analyses of music.

Content Standard 7: Evaluating music and music performances.

Achievement Standard a. Students develop criteria for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of music performances and compositions and apply the criteria in their personal listening and performing.

Achievement Standard b. Students evaluate the quality and effectiveness of their own and others’ performances, compositions, arrangements, and improvisations by applying specific criteria appropriate for the style of the music and offer constructive suggestions for improvements.

Content Standard 8: Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

Achievement Standard a. Students compare in two or more arts how the characteristic materials of each art4 can be used to transform similar events, scenes, emotions, or ideas into works of art.

Achievement Standard b. Students describe ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with those of music5.

Content Standard 9: Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Achievement Standard a. Students describe distinguishing characteristics of representative music genres and styles from a variety of cultures6.

Achievement Standard b. Students classify by genre and style (and, if applicable, by historical period, composer, and title) a varied body of exemplary (that is, high-quality and characteristic) musical works and explain the characteristics that cause each work to be considered exemplary.

Achievement Standard c. Students compare, in several cultures of the world, functions music serves, roles of musicians,7 and conditions under which music is typically performed.

1 E.g., band or orchestra instrument, keyboard instrument, fretted instrument, electronic instrument.

2 E.g., a particular style, form, instrumentation, compositional technique

3 E.g., entry of oboe, change of meter, return of refrain

4 I.e., sound in music, visual stimuli in visual arts, movement in dance, human interrelationships in theatre.

5 E.g., language arts: issues to be considered in setting texts to music; mathematics: frequency ratios of intervals; sciences: the human hearing process and hazards to hearing; social studies: historical and social events and movements chronicled in or influenced by musical works

6 E.g., jazz, mariachi, gamelan

7 E.g., lead guitarist in a rock band, composer of jingles for commercials, singer in Peking opera

Grades 9-12

The study of music contributes in important ways to the quality of every student's life. Every musical work is a product of its time and place, although some works transcend their original settings and continue to appeal to humans through their timeless and universal attraction. Through singing, playing instruments, and composing, students can express themselves creatively, while a knowledge of notation and performance traditions enables them to learn new music independently throughout their lives. Skills in analysis, evaluation, and synthesis are important because they enable students to recognize and pursue excellence in their musical experiences and to understand and enrich their environment. Because music is an integral part of human history, the ability to listen with understanding is essential if students are to gain a broad cultural and historical perspective. The adult life of every student is enriched by the skills, knowledge, and habits acquired in the study of music.

Terms identified by an asterisk (*) are explained in the glossary. Two levels of achievement, "proficient" and "advanced," have been established for grades 9-12. The proficient level is intended for students who have completed courses involving relevant skills and knowledge for one to two years beyond grade 8. The advanced level is intended for students who have completed courses involving relevant skills and knowledge for three to four years beyond grade 8. Students at the advanced level are expected to achieve the standards established for the proficient as well as the advanced levels. Every student is expected to achieve the proficient level in at least one arts discipline (that is, music, dance, theatre, visual arts) by the time he or she graduates from high school.

The standards in this section describe the cumulative skills and knowledge expected of students exiting grade 12 who have enrolled in relevant music courses. They presume that the students have achieved the standards specified for grades 5-8; they assume that the students will demonstrate higher levels of the expected skills and knowledge, will deal with increasingly complex music, and will provide more sophisticated responses to works of music. Every course in music, including performance courses, should provide instruction in creating, performing, listening to, and analyzing music, in addition to focusing on its specific subject matter. Determining the curriculum and the specific instructional activities necessary to achieve the standards is the responsibility of states, local school districts, and individual teachers.

Content Standard 1: Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

Proficient

Achievement Standard a. Students sing with *expression and *technical accuracy a large and varied repertoire of vocal literature with a *level of difficulty of 4, on a scale of 1 to 6, including some songs performed from memory.

Achievement Standard b. Students sing music written in four parts, with and without accompaniment.

Achievement Standard c. Students demonstrate well-developed ensemble skills.

Advanced

Achievement Standard d. Students sing with expression and technical accuracy a large and varied repertoire of vocal literature with a level of difficulty of 5, on a scale of 1 to 6.

Achievement Standard e. Students sing music written in more than four parts.

Achievement Standard f. Students sing in small ensembles with one student on a part.

Content Standard 2: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

Proficient

Achievement Standard a. Students perform with expression and technical accuracy a large and varied repertoire of instrumental literature with a level of difficulty of 4, on a scale of 1 to 6.

Achievement Standard b. Students perform an appropriate part in an ensemble, demonstrating well-developed ensemble skills.

Achievement Standard c. Students perform in small ensembles with one student on a part.

Advanced

Achievement Standard d. Students perform with expression and technical accuracy a large and varied repertoire of instrumental literature with a level of difficulty of 5, on a scale of 1 to 6.

Content Standard 3: Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

Proficient

Achievement Standard a. Students improvise stylistically appropriate harmonizing parts.

Achievement Standard b. Students improvise rhythmic and melodic variations on given pentatonic melodies and melodies in major and minor keys.

Achievement Standard c. Students improvise original melodies over given chord progressions, each in a consistent *style, meter, and tonality.

Advanced

Achievement Standard d. Students improvise stylistically appropriate harmonizing parts in a variety of styles.

Achievement Standard e. Students improvise original melodies in a variety of styles, over given chord progressions, each in a consistent style, meter, and tonality.

Content Standard 4: Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

Proficient

Achievement Standard a. Students compose music in several distinct styles, demonstrating creativity in using the *elements of music for expressive effect.

Achievement Standard b. Students arrange pieces for voices or instruments other than those for which the pieces were written in ways that preserve or enhance the expressive effect of the music.

Achievement Standard c. Students compose and arrange music for voices and various acoustic and electronic instruments, demonstrating knowledge of the ranges and traditional usages of the sound sources.

Advanced

Achievement Standard d. Students compose music, demonstrating imagination and technical skill in applying the principles of composition.

Content Standard 5: Reading and notating music.

Proficient

Achievement Standard a. Students demonstrate the ability to read an instrumental or vocal score of up to four staves by describing how the elements of music are used.

Achievement Standard b. Students who participate in a choral or instrumental ensemble or class sight read, accurately and expressively, music with a level of difficulty of 3, on a scale of 1 to 6.

Advanced

Achievement Standard c. Students demonstrate the ability to read a full instrumental or vocal score by describing how the elements of music are used and explaining all transpositions and clefs.

Achievement Standard d. Students interpret nonstandard notation symbols used by some 20th- century composers.

Achievement Standard e. Students who participate in a choral or instrumental ensemble or class sight read, accurately and expressively, music with a level of difficulty of 4, on a scale of 1 to 6.

Content Standard 6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

Proficient

Achievement Standard a. Students analyze aural examples of a varied repertoire of music, representing diverse *genres and cultures, by describing the uses of elements of music and expressive devices. 1

Achievement Standard b. Students demonstrate extensive knowledge of the technical vocabulary of music.

Achievement Standard c. Students identify and explain compositional devices and techniques used to provide unity and variety and tension and release in a musical work and give examples of other works that make similar uses of these devices and techniques.

Advanced

Achievement Standard d. Students demonstrate the ability to perceive and remember music events by describing in detail significant events 2 occurring in a given aural example.

Achievement Standard e. Students compare ways in which musical materials are used in a given example relative to ways in which they are used in other works of the same genre or style.

Achievement Standard f. Students analyze and describe uses of the elements of music in a given work that make it unique, interesting, and expressive.

Content Standard 7: Evaluating music and music performances.

Proficient

Achievement Standard a. Students evolve specific criteria for making informed, critical evaluations of the quality and effectiveness of performances, compositions, arrangements, and improvisations and apply the criteria in their personal participation in music.

Achievement Standard b. Students evaluate a performance, composition, arrangement, or improvisation by comparing it to similar or exemplary models.

Advanced

Achievement Standard c. Students evaluate a given musical work in terms of its aesthetic qualities and explain the musical means it uses to evoke feelings and emotions.

Content Standard 8: Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

Proficient

Achievement Standard a. Students explain how elements, artistic processes 3, and organizational principles 4 are used in similar and distinctive ways in the various arts and cite examples.

Achievement Standard b. Students compare characteristics of two or more arts within a particular historical period or style and cite examples from various cultures. 5

Achievement Standard c. Students explain ways in which the principles and subject matter of various disciplines outside the arts are interrelated with those of music. 6

Advanced

Achievement Standard d. Students compare the uses of characteristic elements, artistic processes, and organizational principles among the arts in different historical periods and different cultures.

Achievement Standard e. Students explain how the roles of creators, performers, and others involved in the production and presentation of the arts are similar to and different from one another in the various arts. 7

Content Standard 9: Understanding music in relation to history and culture

Proficient

Achievement Standard a. Students classify by genre or style and by historical period or culture unfamiliar but representative aural examples of music and explain the reasoning behind their classifications.

Achievement Standard b. Students identify sources of American music genres, 8 trace the evolution of those genres, and cite well-known musicians associated with them.

Achievement Standard c. Students identify various roles 9 that musicians perform, cite representative individuals who have functioned in each role, and describe their activities and achievements.

Advanced

Achievement Standard d. Students identify and explain the stylistic features of a given musical work that serve to define its aesthetic tradition and its historical or cultural context.

Achievement Standard e. Students identify and describe music genres or styles that show the influence of two or more cultural traditions, identify the cultural source of each influence, and trace the historical conditions that produced the synthesis of influences.

Notes:

1. E.g., rubato, dynamics

2. E.g., fugal entrances, chromatic modulations, developmental devices

3. E.g., imagination, craftsmanship

4. E.g., unity and variety, repetition and contrast

5. E.g., Baroque, sub-Saharan African, Korean

6. E.g., language arts: compare the ability of music and literature to convey images, feelings, and meanings; physics: describe the physical basis of tone production in string, wind, percussion, and electronic instruments and the human voice and of the transmission and perception of sound

7. E.g., creators: painters, composers, choreographers, playwrights; performers: instrumentalists, singers, dancers, actors; others: conductors, costumers, directors, lighting designers

8. E.g., swing, Broadway musical, blues

9. E.g., entertainer, teacher, transmitter of cultural tradition

Glossary

Classroom instruments. Instruments typically used in the general music classroom, including, for example, recorder-type instruments, chorded zithers, mallet instruments, simple percussion instruments, fretted instruments, keyboard instruments, and electronic instruments.

Elements of music. Pitch, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, timbre, texture, *form.

Expression, expressive, expressively. With appropriate dynamics, phrasing, *style, and interpretation and appropriate variations in dynamics and tempo.

Form. The overall structural organization of a music composition (e.g., AB, ABA, call and response, rondo, theme and variations, sonata-allegro) and the interrelationships of music events within the overall structure.

Genre. A type or category of music (e.g., sonata, opera, oratorio, art song, gospel, suite, jazz, madrigal, march, work song, lullaby, barbershop, Dixieland).

Level of difficulty. For purposes of these standards, music is classified into six levels of difficulty:

• Level 1-Very easy. Easy keys, meters, and rhythms; limited ranges.
• Level 2-Easy. May include changes of tempo, key, and meter; modest ranges.
• Level 3-Moderately easy. Contains moderate technical demands, expanded ranges, and varied interpretive requirements.
• Level 4-Moderately difficult. Requires well-developed *technical skills, attention to phrasing and interpretation, and ability to perform various meters and rhythms in a variety of keys.
• Level 5-Difficult. Requires advanced technical and interpretive skills; contains key signatures with numerous sharps or flats, unusual meters, complex rhythms, subtle dynamic requirements.
• Level 6-Very difficult. Suitable for musically mature students of exceptional competence. (Adapted with permission from NYSSMA Manual, Edition XXIII, published by the New York State School Music Association, 1991.)

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Standard specifications that enable electronic instruments such as the synthesizer, sampler, sequencer, and drum machine from any manufact-urer to communicate with one another and with computers.

Style. The distinctive or characteristic manner in which the *elements of music are treated. In practice, the term may be applied to, for example, composers (the style of Copland), periods (Baroque style), media (keyboard style), nations (French style), *form or type of composition (fugal style, contrapuntal style), or *genre (operatic style, bluegrass style).

Technical accuracy, technical skills. The ability to perform with appropriate timbre, intonation, and diction and to play or sing the correct pitches and rhythms.