6th Grade Instrumental Music Exploration

Course Guidelines

Goals

Students are introduced to the basic elements of music through watching, listening and playing simple tunes on instruments. They develop skills in reading and writing music notation, meter, rhythm, tempo and common music terms. Music choices and instruments will represent a variety of cultures and musical genres as students relate their learning to other academic subjects.

Skills

1. Reading and writing note values and common music terms.
2. Reading and recognizing pitches names and major/minor scales.
3. Introduce the orchestra instruments (history, sound, function in the orchestra)
4. Use numbers and letters to start reading the notes on the instruments and then smoothly to transfer to real notes reading.
5. Hands on the instruments and teach the basic postures of fingering and bowing to string instruments.

Activities

1. Playing simple melodies on the instrument student choose.
2. Hands on shows during the trimester.
3. The student may be eligible to join major orchestra concert during the year if progress and effort merit.
4. One time judicator duty during the hands on show or one concert participation to advanced orchestra (in school) or professional orchestra (out side school).

Assessment

1. One final hands on test in the end of trimester.
2. Two theory tests.