Unpacked Content
Essential Questions
EU: Musicians' creative choices are influenced by their expertise, context, and expressive intent.
EQ: How do musicians make creative decisions?
EQ: How do musicians make creative decisions?
Skills Examples
Performing
- Perform two to three pieces in contrasting styles (level comparable to Hal Leonard Piano Lessons Book A and B, Magrath Masterwork Classics Levels 1-2, American Popular Piano Repertoire Books 1 and 2, etc.).
- Guitar: Perform solo, accompanied, or in ensemble.
- Piano: appropriate level scales and arpeggiated chords (comparable to AMTA requirements to Level I, by age level, on p. 11
- http://www.almta.org/AMTA_Member_Handbook.pdf.
- Compose a simple melody of at least eight measures.
- Harmonize the melody using primary chords I IV V or V7 and/or vi.
- Notate a simple self-composed melody using notational software.
- Sight read an appropriate piece selected by the teacher.
- Analyze and grade various performances (other students in class, YouTube videos, a video of your own performance, etc.) using a rubric.
Vocabulary
Rhythm
- Beat (steady beat, rit., accel., fermata)
- Meter (2/4, 3/4, 4/4, barline, pickup measure)
- Notes and rests (quarter, half, dotted half, whole)
- Tempo (metronome markings = beats per minute; basic Italian and English terms, e.g., slow, fast, allegro, andante, largo)
- Other (ties)
- Scales (pentatonic, major, natural minor)
- Intervals (half step, whole step; second, third, fourth, fifth, octave)
- Staff notation (treble and bass clefs, grand staff, lines, spaces, ledger lines, treble G, bass F, sharps, flats, key signatures)
- Melodic figures (step/leap, arpeggio, phrase)
- Intervals (half step, whole step; second, third, fourth, fifth, octave; also, M3, m3)
- Triads (root, third, fifth; major and minor qualities)
- Function (tonic, dominant)
- I-IV-V7-I cadences
- Form (phrase, ostinato)
- Texture (melody, bassline, accompaniment)
- Notation (phrase mark, double bar, repeat sign)
- Dynamics (soft/loud, p, mf, f)
- Articulation (staccato, legato)
- Historical significance of instrument
- Posture, hand position, finger numbers, basic playing techniques
Anchor Standards
Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
