Instruments and Music Theory

Students learn to read rhythms as early as Junior Kindergarten, and by the time they graduate 8th grade they are fluent in basic music theory. Here are some of the skills we focus on in each grade:

Junior-Kindergarten & Kindergarten: expressing music with movement, reading & creating rhythms, playing percussion instruments, pitch matching, solfege, worship songs, and many playful games.

1st & 2nd Grade: playing xylophones, solfege, rounds & partner songs, Ghanaian drumming, instruments of the orchestra, reading & creating rhythms, improvisation, and following the conductor.

3rd & 4th Grade: playing recorders, solfege, reading pitches and rhythms, time signatures, composing music to match a mood, Polynesian stick games, and worship & patriotic songs.

5th & 6th Grade. playing pianos, tone chimes, history of European Classical music (Medieval to Modern), musical structures (scales, chords, intervals, solfege, text painting, etc.), piano composition, and choral singing.

7th & 8th Grade: playing guitars, American music (Appalachian, Shape Note, Blues, Ragtime, Jazz, Rock 'n' Roll, Rap, and Broadway), more musical structures (themes, key signatures, articulations, intervals, solfege), directing music, song composition, and choral singing.

Students develop discipline, hand-eye coordination, an affection for music, and the experience of being part of a team through our work with instruments.

Students are reading sheet music by 3rd grade, as well as writing down the notes they hear. 8th graders graduate with a solid foundation in music theory that will serve them well in all musical endeavors, amateur or professional!