Instruments and Music Theory

Students are grounded in musicality from a young age using Orff and Kodály methodologies. By the time they graduate 8th grade they are fluent in basic music theory.

Topics by grade:

Pre-Kindergarten & Kindergarten: expressive movement, reading & creating rhythms, percussion instruments, pitch matching, beginning solfege, worship songs, and many playful games.

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

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

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

7th & 8th Grade: play 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!