Middle School Level 1

Experience and explore exemplary musical examples using technology and available live performances.

Describe tonal and rhythmic musical elements using standard terminology such as instrumentation, voicing, intervals, solfège, absolute note names, rhythmic values, and counting systems.

Describe musical elements of rhythm, including whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, paired and single eighth notes, sixteenth notes, corresponding rests, and meter, including 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4, using standard terminology.

Identify musical forms presented aurally and through music notation such as binary, ternary, phrasic, rondo, and theme and variations.

Explore health and wellness concepts related to musical practice such as body mechanics, hearing protection, vocal health, hydration, and appropriate hygienic practice. August 2019 Update Page 11 §117.B. Middle School.

Identify music symbols and terms referring to notation, including repeat sign; dynamics, including crescendo, decrescendo, piano, and forte; tempi, including accelerando, ritardando, moderato, and allegro; and articulations, including staccato and legato.

Notate meter, rhythm, pitch, and dynamics using standard symbols in a handwritten or computer-generated format.

Create rhythmic phrases using known rhythms and melodic phrases using known pitches at an appropriate level of difficulty within an established system of notation.

Read music notation using appropriate cognitive and kinesthetic responses such as inner hearing, silent fingering, shadow bowing, or Curwen hand signs.

Sight read unison and homophonic music using the appropriate clef in a minimum of two keys and three meters, including 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4.

Demonstrate, alone and in groups, characteristic vocal or instrumental timbre.

Perform music alone and in groups, demonstrating appropriate physical fundamental techniques such as hand position, bowing, embouchure, articulation, and posture.

Perform independently and expressively, with accurate intonation and rhythm, developing fundamental skills and appropriate solo, small ensemble, and large ensemble performance techniques.

Perform independently and expressively a varied repertoire of music representing various styles and cultures.

Sight-read independently and expressively, with accurate intonation and rhythm, demonstrating fundamental skills and appropriate solo, small ensemble, and large ensemble performance techniques in known keys and rhythms.

Interpret music symbols and terms referring to keys; clefs; dynamics, including crescendo, decrescendo, piano, and forte; tempi, including accelerando and ritardando; and articulations, including staccato and legato, appropriately when performing.

Create rhythmic phrases using known rhythms and melodic phrases using known pitches at an appropriate level of difficulty.

Perform music representative of diverse cultures, including American and Texas heritage.

Describe written and aurally presented music representative of diverse styles, periods, and cultures.

Identify relationships of music concepts to other academic disciplines such as the relationship between music and mathematics, literature, history, and the sciences.

Describe music-related vocations and avocations.

Demonstrate appropriate concert and stage etiquette as an informed, actively involved listener and performer during live and recorded performances in a variety of settings; Page 12 August 2019 Update.

Identify criteria for listening to and evaluating musical performances.

Describe processes and select the tools for self-evaluation and personal artistic improvement such as critical listening and individual and group performance recordings.

Evaluate the quality and effectiveness of musical performances by comparing them to exemplary models.

Demonstrate appropriate cognitive and kinesthetic responses to music and musical performances.