Middle School (Grades 6-8)

Students will sing or play on instruments a varied repertoire of music, alone or with others. 

Students will read and notate music. 

Students will create music

Students will listen to, analyze, evaluate, and describe music 

Students will relate music to various historical and cultural traditions. 

Sing or play in two or more parts, with musical accuracy 

Organize tones on bells or a keyboard instrument in major, minor, chromatic and pentatonic scale patterns 

Identify and respond to all directional words and symbols, including tempo 

 Sing from memory a varied repertoire of liturgical and traditional Catholic music

Use instrumental abilities to accompany school worship assemblies 

Read, notate and perform rhythmic patterns, adding sixteentheighth note combinations, sixteenth rests, and syncopation to the note values already learned 

Read, notate, and perform rhythmic and melodic patterns adding dotted rhythms, mixed meter, chromatics, and other key signatures to those already learned 

Read notes in the appropriate clef for the instrument being played 

Identify appropriate key signatures in the music performed 

Read, notate, and perform all previously learned rhythmic patterns in a variety of meters 

Use standard Catholic repertoire from the parish and school as examples to study in achieving standards for reading and notating music 

Students will create music

Create and play or sing a two measure ending to a musical composition and explain why the notes and rhythms were selected 

Sing or play syncopation in folk, classical, or jazz music 

Improvise simple accompaniments to songs used in worship 

Compose and arrange music for use during liturgical celebrations such as “Alleluia”, “Amen”, or Psalm Antiphons 

Students will listen to, analyze, evaluate, and describe 

Listen to selected music with varied instrumentation and voicing and discuss textures and timbres 

Listen to a musical selection and explain how the composer used the specific musical elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, etc. 

Discuss music from a live performance, film, or video performance as it relates to today’s youth culture

 Identify how a composer used syncopation to create rhythmic excitement in a musical piece 

Listen to a musical selection and study one element in depth 

Develop criteria for evaluating the quality of performances 

Discuss the role of the conductor 

Describe and discuss liturgical music used in actual celebrations in terms of its use of pitch, rhythm, harmony, texture, formal structure, performance medium, and its place and use in the rites of the church. 

Identify specific places in the liturgy where music is used and assign appropriate music to those places 

Listen to short liturgical musical works and discuss the role of music in worship

Study and investigate the elements of jazz

Compare and contrast the use of percussion instruments in varied ethnic cultures

Analyze and contrast the use of form in music from varied world cultures 

Discuss audience behavior and listening criteria for a live performance 

Understand the eras of church history and the way church music reflects those developments

 Identify by style, genre, and composer exemplary works from church music historical periods and explain distinguishing characteristics of liturgical music of Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century Pre-Vatican II and Post-Vatican II periods.1