General Music I
Recommended Prerequisite: None
Grades Offered: 9 – 12
Credits: ½ - 1
SDE Course Code: 3505
MNPS Course Code: MUS2171
Course Description
This is a course in the basic understanding of the development of music with emphasis on style, for, history and repertoire.
Course of Study
- Singing
- Sing a solo with expression
- Sing in an ensemble with expression
o Play a solo melody with expression
o Play in an instrumental ensemble with expression
- Improvising
- Explore improvising short melodic passages
- Use rhythmic skills to improvise a variation on a well-know melody
- Use rhythmic skills to improvise an accompaniment for a well-know melody
o Compose in groups, pieces effectively demonstrating the use of the
elements of music to achieve unity and variety
o Arrange in groups, pieces effectively demonstrating the use of the
elements of music to achieve unity and variety
- Reading and Notating
- Accurately interpret notated musical examples that include rhythm, pitch, melody, harmony, and symbols of musical expression at level of difficulty of 2, on a scale of 1 to 6
- Use standard notation, notate rhythm melody (treble and bass clef) and symbols of expression in musical examples
o Listen to and describe music using the technical vocabulary of music
o Analyze musical examples of different styles and describe the devices that make them unique
o Compare and contrast the compositional devices that provide unity and variety in two similar musical examples
- Evaluating
- Identify appropriate criteria for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of music compositions
- Identify appropriate criteria for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of music performances
- Interdisciplinary Connections
o Compare characteristics of music and those of another art discipline within a particular historical period, and style
o Explore the commonalities of the principles and subject matter of an academic discipline outside the arts and those of music
o List presences and uses of music in everyday life and culture
Standards
MNPS Music Standards
http://www.mnps.org
National and State General Music Standards
http://www.state.tn.us/education/ci/standards
Textbook
Fowler, Charles. Music! Its Role and Importance in Our Lives
New York, New York: Macmillan/McGraw-HIll, 1994.
Recommended and or Required Resources
CDs to Music! Its Role and Importance in Our Lives
Videos/DVDs of performances
Live performances
Professional musicians
Musicologists
Instruments for performance purposes (piano or guitar lab)
Music writing software