New Colorado P-12 Academic Standards

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Employ musical skills through a variety of means, including singing, playing instruments, and purposeful movement
• Demonstrate the processes of development of musical literature from rehearsal to performance, exhibiting appropriate interpersonal and expressive skills, both individually and within ensembles
• Demonstrate the expressive elements of music - including melody, harmony, rhythm, style, genre, texture, voicing/instrumentation, mood, tonality, and form - through voice, musical instruments, and/or the use of electronic tools

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Perform expressively

Inquiry Questions:

1. Why is music sung using different types of voices?
2. Does everyone feel the same way when they hear different kinds of music?

Relevance & Application:

1. Performing nursery rhymes, counting songs, letter songs, holiday songs, patriotic songs, and other songs leads to engagement and building early skills and sequencing ability.
2. Using songs, singing games, and dances from various cultures, genres, and styles aids in cultural awareness.
3. Audio devices can be used to play various types of music for a variety of purposes.

Nature Of:

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

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Perform music with appropriate technique and level of expression at an appropriate level of difficulty in sight reading and prepared performance
• Demonstrate the processes of development of musical literature from rehearsal to performance, exhibiting appropriate interpersonal and expressive skills, both individually and within ensembles

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Respond to rhythmic patterns and elements of music using expressive movement

Inquiry Questions:

1. Why do people move to music?
2. Is there a right way to move to music? Why or why not?

Relevance & Application:

1. Using developmentally appropriate movements in responding to music from various cultures, genres, and styles aids in cultural awareness.
2. Music software and electronic keyboards can be used to adjust tempo, meter, and styles for student response and movement.

Nature Of:

1. Responding to music through movement and dance is an important part of all cultures.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Display instrumental or vocal improvisation skills by performing extemporaneously what is created in the mind
• Create music by composing and/or arranging what is heard or envisioned, in notated or non-notated form, with or without the use of music technology, demonstrating originality and technical understanding

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Improvise movement and sound responses to music

Inquiry Questions:

1. Why does movement change when music changes?
2. Can music tell a story?

Relevance & Application:

1. Using video devices to demonstrate how people respond to music with movement can provide a more global connection to music and movement
2. Demonstrating ways movement changes when music changes gives young people an opportunity to express what they are feeling without words.
3. Creating an original piece of artwork based off of music (such as short/fast strokes for short/fast music; long, wavy strokes for smooth musical phrases) provides an assessment of musical awareness.

Nature Of:

1. Music can move us.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Read and employ the language and vocabulary of music in discussing musical examples and writing music, including technology related to melody, harmony, rhythm, style, genre, voicing/orchestration, mood, tonality, expression, and form

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Describe and respond to musical elements

Inquiry Questions:

1. How does music make you feel?
2. What elements of a piece of music contribute to changes in mood?

Relevance & Application:

1. The ability to identify dynamics and tempo changes are the beginning foundational skills to understanding the elements in music.
2. Describing what one hears when listening to diverse samples of music builds a foundational skill of responding verbally to a musical feeling.

Nature Of:

1. The application of expressive elements enhances musical performance.
2. Specific vocabulary is necessary to describe music.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Demonstrate melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic aural skills through identification, transcription, and vocalization or instrumental playback of aural musical examples

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Recognition of a wide variety of sounds and sound sources

Inquiry Questions:

1. Why do instruments and voices sound different?

Relevance & Application:

1. Exploration of what kind of sound comes from what sources builds a foundational understanding of the relationship between the nature of sources and the product that results.
2. Allowing the use of invented symbols to represent sounds gives developmentally appropriate, preparatory practice to understanding the structure of musical notation.

Nature Of:

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

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Demonstrate a nuanced understanding of aesthetics in music, appropriate to the particular features of given styles and genres, as it relates to the human experience in music
• Know the place of each of the participants in the performance environment and practice appropriate audience participation; recognize the place and importance of music in life

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Demonstrate respect for music contributions

Inquiry Questions:

1. When is it appropriate or not appropriate to talk while music is being heard?
2. What does it mean to be respectful of others?

Relevance & Application:

1. Discussing ways to listen to music (headphones, in an audience, on the computer, or on an audio device) provides a connection to the many purposes and functions music serves in daily life.

Nature Of:

1. The role of the audience in a musical performance includes being respectful of others.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Make informed, critical evaluations of the effectiveness of musical works and performances on the basis of aesthetic qualities, technical excellence, musicality, or convincing expression of feelings and ideas related to cultural and ideological associations

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Express feeling responses to music

Inquiry Questions:

1. What are some specific elements of music that can change the feelings that are communicated?
2. How do people decide what movements to make to music?
3. Why is experiencing music fun?

Relevance & Application:

1. Establishing a fundamental understanding of the connection of feelings and music builds foundational skills to apply to emotion and mood created through music.
2. Discussing how and where music is heard establishes a connection to music in everyday life.

Nature Of:

1. People express their feelings through music.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Know the place of each of the participants in the performance environment and practice appropriate audience participation; recognize the place and importance of music in life

Concepts and skills students master:

3. Recognition of music in daily life

Inquiry Questions:

1. How does music that is composed for various purposes contribute to a specific experience?
2. How do people describe the sounds of the instruments of various instrument families?
3. How do people describe the different kinds of movement they make to music?

Relevance & Application:

1. Identifying examples of music as live or recorded music builds a fundamental skill of listening for detail.
2. Using developmentally appropriate movements in responding to music from various genres, styles, and periods establishes a foundational understanding that music is an individual experience and possesses societal value and purpose.

Nature Of:

1. Describing music in their own words helps people to understand music.