fourthgrade

The goal for the fourth grade music curriculum is to let the students study basic concepts such as reading music, rhythm, melody, harmony, tone color, vocal technique, form and music appreciation at a more advanced level. The students will also use these skills in preparation and presentation of two musical programs.

RHYTHM

1. Identify and maintain a steady beat

2. Distinguish between beat and off beat.

3. Discover and identify silent beats as rests.

4. Identify strong and weak beats.

5. Understand meter in 2 and 3

6. Show understanding of time signatures.

7. Identify and show contrast between long and short sounds

8. Show understanding of duration of various notes and rests.

9. Show understanding of syncopated rhythms.

10. Distinguish aurally and demonstrate the difference between repeated rhythm patterns, rhythm patterns of long

and short sounds, and even and uneven rhythm patterns.

MELODY

1. Distinguish between high and low registers

2. Distinguish between upward and downward movement

3. Identify melodic shape.

4. Identify intervals that step, skip, or repeat

5. Identify rhythm of a melody.

6. Identify sequence of a melody

7. Identify melodic imitation

8. Identify like and unlike phrases

9. Identify long and short phrases

10. Identify length of phrase

11. Identify phrases that repeat

12. Identify major and minor tonalities.

HARMONY

1. Identify thick and thin texture of harmony

2. Identify difference between unison and choral harmony.

3. Identify and perform ostinato, partner songs, descants, and rounds.

TONE COLOR

1. Identify individual vocal sounds and group vocal sounds.

2. Discover group sounds of duet, trio, and chorus

3. Identify individual vocal sounds (male, female, and child)

4. Discover the difference in sounds of orchestra and band.

5. Identify sections of orchestra (brass, woodwind, string, and percussion)

6. Identify sounds of various instruments.

FORM

1. Identify the introduction of a song.

2. Identify the coda in a piece of music.

3. Identify the theme in a piece of music.

4. Identify solo-chorus song.

5. Identify two sections in a piece of music that are different.

6. Identify AB, ABA, and AABA form.

7. Identify theme variation.

8. Identify rondo form.

MUSIC APPRECIATION

1. Interpret the expressive qualities of a song in terms of style and mood

2. Determine the difference in style by analyzing the song's rhythm, melody, or tone color.

3. Analyze the relationship of words in a song to performance style.

4. Decide upon the appropriate tempo in terms of style of the song.

5. Discover great composers such as: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart.

READING MUSIC

1. Identify a staff as having 5 lines and 4 spaces.

2. Understand that a staff is a means of notating music.

3. Identify and draw the treble and bass clefs.

4. Identify and draw quarter, eighth, sixteenth, half and whole notes and understand their time values.

5. Recite the musical alphabet - ABCDEFG

6. Recite and draw the notes on the treble clef lines (EGBDF) and spaces (FACE).

7. Sight-read simple melodies of 2-3 note range in stepwise motion.

VOCAL TECHNIQUE

1. Understand and show good singing posture

2. Understand and show a good light tone as opposed to a throaty chest tone

3. Understand and show breath support as a necessity to produce a better singing tone.

RECORDERS

Students participate in our Recorder Karate program. This program will teach students to read music and to play a woodwind instrument.