Home  National Standards  Fine Arts  Music Standards Grades 5-8

Achievement Standard:

• Students sing accurately and with good breath control throughout their singing ranges, alone and in small and large ensembles
• Students sing with expression and technical accuracy a repertoire of vocal literature with a level of difficulty of 2, on a scale of 1 to 6, including some songs performed from memory
• Students sing music representing diverse genres and cultures, with expression appropriate for the work being performed
• Students sing music written in two and three parts
• Students who participate in a choral ensemble sing with expression and technical accuracy a varied repertoire of vocal literature with a level of difficulty of 3, on a scale of 1 to 6, including some songs performed from memory

Achievement Standard:

• Students perform on at least one instrument (e.g., band or orchestra instrument, keyboard instrument, fretted instrument, electronic instrument) accurately and independently, alone and in small and large ensembles, with good posture, good playing position, and good breath, bow, or stick control
• Students perform with expression and technical accuracy on at least one string, wind, percussion, or classroom instrument a repertoire of instrumental literature with a level of difficulty of 2, on a scale of 1 to 6
• Students perform music representing diverse genres and cultures, with expression appropriate for the work being performed
• Students play by ear simple melodies on a melodic instrument and simple accompaniments on a harmonic instrument
• Students who participate in an instrumental ensemble or class perform with expression and technical accuracy a varied repertoire of instrumental literature with a level of difficulty of 3, on a scale of 1 to 6, including some solos performed from memory

Achievement Standard:

• Students improvise simple harmonic accompaniments
• Students improvise melodic embellishments and simple rhythmic and melodic variations on given pentatonic melodies and melodies in major keys
• Students improvise short melodies, unaccompanied and over given rhythmic accompaniments, each in a consistent style, meter, and tonality

• Students create and arrange music to accompany readings or dramatizations
• Students create and arrange short songs and instrumental pieces within specified guidelines (e.g., a particular style, form, instrumentation, compositional technique)
• Students use a variety of sound sources when composing

Achievement Standard:

• Students read whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, and dotted notes and rests in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, 3/8, and alla breve meter signatures
• Students read at sight simple melodies in both the treble and bass clefs
• Students identify and define standard notation symbols for pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, articulation, and expression
• Students use standard notation to record their musical ideas and the musical ideas of others
• Students who participate in a choral or instrumental ensemble or class sight-read, accurately and expressively, music with a level of difficulty of 2, on a scale of 1 to 6

Achievement Standard:

• Students describe specific music events (e.g., entry of oboe, change of meter, return of refrain) in a given aural example, using appropriate terminology
• Students analyze the uses of elements of music in aural examples representing diverse genres and cultures
• Students demonstrate knowledge of the basic principles of meter, rhythm, tonality, intervals, chords, and harmonic progressions in their analyses of music

Achievement Standard:

• Students develop criteria for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of music performances and compositions and apply the criteria in their personal listening and performing
• Students evaluate the quality and effectiveness of their own and others' performances, compositions, arrangements, and improvisations by applying specific criteria appropriate for the style of the music and offer constructive suggestions for improvement

Achievement Standard:

• Students compare in two or more arts how the characteristic materials of each art (that is, sound in music, visual stimuli in visual arts, movement in dance, human interrelationships in theatre) can be used to transform similar events, scenes, emotions, or ideas into works of art
• Students describe ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with those of music (e.g., language arts: issues to be considered in setting texts to music; mathematics: frequency ratios of intervals; sciences: the human hearing process and hazards to hearing; social studies: historical and social events and movements chronicled in or influenced by musical works)

Achievement Standard:

• Students describe distinguishing characteristics of representative music genres and styles from a variety of cultures
• Students classify by genre and style (and, if applicable, by historical period, composer, and title) a varied body of exemplary (that is, high-quality and characteristic) musical works and explain the characteristics that cause each work to be considered exemplary
• Students compare, in several cultures of the world, functions music serves, roles of musicians (e.g., lead guitarist in a rock band, composer of jingles for commercials, singer in Peking opera), and conditions under which music is typically performed