South Ripley High School

Band Syllabus

Course Description:

High School Band is based on and structured around the Indiana Academic Standards for High School Instrumental Music and the National Standards for Music Education. Students taking this course are provided with a balanced comprehensive study of music through the concert band program, which develops skills in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains. This course provides opportunity for both ensemble and solo activities, which are designed to develop elements of musicianship including tone production, technical skills, intonation, music reading skills, listening skills, analyzing music, studying historically significant styles of literature,and integration of other applicable disciplines. Experiences include improvising, playing by ear,and sight-reading. Students develop the ability to understand and convey the composerʼs intent in the performance of music. Time outside of the school day may be scheduled for rehearsals and performances. A number of public performances will serve as a culmination of daily rehearsal and musical goals (refer to the schedule attached and available online at the district websiteʼs band page). Students are required to participate in performance opportunities outside of the school day that support and extend learning in the classroom.This ensemble is open to all students 9-12 that satisfactorily completed their previous year of band. All students, regardless of age, experience or ability perform with the Concert Band. The music is a continuation and step up from the Middle School Program, and is chosen to allow the students to constantly challenge themselves as both students and growing musicians. This class will meet one period a day for the entire school year.

Grading Scale/Rubric: As per the Band Handbook

Classroom Rules/Policies: As per the Band Handbook

INDIANA ACADEMIC STANDARDS FOR INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

HIGH SCHOOL

Standard I - PERFORMING MUSIC: Singing alone and with others

Students sing with accurate pitch, correct rhythm, and appropriate tempo. They sing excerpts from repertoire using a consistent method to denote pitch.

Standard II - PERFORMING MUSIC: Playing an instrument alone and with others

Students play repertoire representing a variety of styles and cultures independently and in ensembles. They perform accurately, expressively, and with appropriate tone quality. They demonstrate welldeveloped ensemble skills and follow the directions of a conductor.

Standard 3 - CREATING MUSIC: Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments

Students create instrumental improvisations over given chord progressions. They improvise rhythmic and melodic variations and harmonizations of known tunes.

Standard 4 - CREATING MUSIC: Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines

Students create and play warm-ups and transpose melodic material.

Standard 5 - RESPONDING TO MUSIC: Reading, notating, and interpreting music

Students read and interpret instrumental scores. They sight-read music using a consistent method.

Standard 6 - RESPONDING TO MUSIC: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music

Students listen to recordings of instrumental repertoire and analyze and discuss elements of the composition and interpretation. They analyze works being rehearsed and compositional elements that affect performance.

Standard 7 - RESPONDING TO MUSIC: Evaluating music and music performances

Students establish criteria for evaluating instrumental performances and demonstrate performance behaviors appropriate to various concert venues.

Standard 8 - RESPONDING TO MUSIC: Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

Students explore physical properties related to instrumental performance. They read, write, and utilize other art forms to enhance understanding of music studied and performed.

Standard 9 - RESPONDING TO MUSIC: Understanding music in relation to history and culture

Students investigate and write about the background of music studied and instruments played and perform repertoire in a manner that reflects cultural and historical traditions. They understand the suitability of various instrumental works and performance styles for given situations. They are aware of opportunities for further study and potential careers in instrumental music.

HIGH SCHOOL

The study of music contributes in important ways to the quality of every student's life.Every musical work is a product of its time and place, although some works transcend their original settings and continue to appeal to humans through their timeless and universal attraction. Through singing, playing instruments, and composing, students can express themselves creatively, while a knowledge of notation and performance traditions enables them to learn new music independently throughout their lives. Skills in analysis, evaluation, and synthesis are important because they enable students to recognize and pursue excellence in their musical experiences and to understand and enrich their environment. Because music is an integral part of human history, the ability to listen with understanding is essential if students are to gain a broad cultural and historical perspective. The adult life of every student is enriched by the skills, knowledge, and habits acquired in the study of music. Every course in music, including performance courses, should provide instruction in creating, performing, listening to, and analyzing music, in addition to focusing on its specific subject matter.

Content Standard #1:

Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music

• Students sing with expression and technical accuracy a large and varied repertoire of vocal literature with a level of difficulty of 4, on a scale of 1 to 6, including some songs performed from memory
• Students sing music written in four parts, with and without accompaniment
• Students demonstrate well-developed ensemble skills

• Students sing with expression and technical accuracy a large and varied repertoire of vocal literature with a level of difficulty of 5, on a scale of 1-6.
• Students sing music written in more than four parts.
• Students sing in small ensembles with one student on a part.

Content Standard #2:

Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music

• Students perform with expression and technical accuracy a large and varied repertoire of instrumental literature with a level of difficulty of 4, on a scale of 1 to 6
• Students perform an appropriate part in an ensemble, demonstrating welldeveloped ensemble skills
• Students perform in small ensembles with one student on a part

• Students perform with expression and technical accuracy a large and varied repertoire of instrumental literature with a level of difficulty of 5, on a scale of 1-6

Content Standard #3:

Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments

Achievement Standard, Proficient:

• Students improvise stylistically appropriate harmonizing parts
• Students improvise rhythmic and melodic variations on given pentatonic melodies and melodies in major and minor keys
• Students improvise original melodies over given chord progressions, each in a consistent style, meter, and tonality

• Students improvise stylistically appropriate harmonizing parts in a variety of styles
• Students improvise original melodies in a variety of styles, over given chord progressions, each in a consistent style, meter, and tonality

Content Standard #4:

Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines

• Students compose music in several distinct styles, demonstrating creativity in using the elements of music for expressive effect
• Students arrange pieces for voices or instruments other than those for which the pieces were written in ways that preserve or enhance the expressive effect of the music
• Students compose and arrange music for voices and various acoustic and electronic instruments, demonstrating knowledge of the ranges and traditional usages of the sound sources

• Students compose music, demonstrating imagination and technical skill in applying the principles of composition

Content Standard #5:

Reading and notating music

• Students demonstrate the ability to read an instrumental or vocal score of up to four staves by describing how the elements of music are used
• Students who participate in a choral or instrumental ensemble or class
• sight-read, accurately and expressively, music with a level of difficulty of 3, on a scale of 1 to 6

• Students demonstrate the ability to read a full instrumental or vocal score by describing how the elements of music are used and explaining all transpositions and clefs
• Students interpret nonstandard notation symbols used by some 20thcentury composers
• Students who participate in a choral or instrumental ensemble or class sight-read, accurately and expressively, music with a level of difficulty of 4, on a scale of 1 to 6

Content Standard #6:

Listening to, analyzing, and describing music

• Students analyze aural examples of a varied repertoire of music, representing diverse genres and cultures, by describing the uses of elements of music and expressive devices
• Students demonstrate extensive knowledge of the technical vocabulary of music
• Students identify and explain compositional devices and techniques used to provide unity and variety and tension and release in a musical work and give examples of other works that make similar uses of these devices and techniques

• Students demonstrate the ability to perceive and remember music events by describing in detail significant events (e.g., fugal entrances, chromatic modulations, developmental devices) occurring in a given aural example
• Students compare ways in which musical materials are used in a given example relative to ways in which they are used in other works of the same genre or style
• Students analyze and describe uses of the elements of music in a given work that make it unique, interesting, and expressive

Content Standard #7:

Evaluating music and music performances

• Students evolve specific criteria for making informed, critical evaluations of the quality and effectiveness of performances, compositions, arrangements, and improvisations and apply the criteria in their personal participation in music
• Students evaluate a performance, composition, arrangement, or improvisation by comparing it to similar or exemplary models

• Students evaluate a given musical work in terms of its aesthetic qualities and explain the musical means it uses to evoke feelings and emotions

Content Standard #8:

Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts

• Students explain how elements, artistic processes (such as imagination or craftmanship), and organizational principles (such as unity and variety or repetition and contrast) are used in similar and distinctive ways in the various arts and cite examples
• Students compare characteristics of two or more arts within a particular historical period or style and cite examples from various cultures
• Students explain ways in which the principles and subject matter of various disciplines outside the arts are interrelated with those of music (e.g., language arts: compare the ability of music and literature to convey images, feelings, and meanings; physics: describe the physical basis of tone production in string, wind, percussion, and electronic instruments and the human voice and of the transformation and perception of sound)

• Students compare the uses of characteristic elements, artistic processes, and organizational principles among the arts in different historical periods and different cultures
• Students explain how the roles of creators, performers, and others involved in the production and presentation of the arts are similar to anddifferent from one another in the various arts (e.g., creators: painters,composers, choreographers, playwrights; performers: instrumentalists, singers, dancers, actors; others: conductors, costumers, directors, lighting designers)

Content Standard #9:

Understanding music in relation to history and culture

• Students classify by genre or style and by historical period or culture unfamiliar but representative aural examples of music and explain the reasoning behind their classifications
• Students identify sources of American music genres (e.g., swing, Broadway musical, blues) trace the evolution of those genres, and cite well-known musicians associated with them
• Students identify various roles (e.g., entertainer, teacher, transmitter of cultural tradition) that musicians perform, cite representative individuals who have functioned in each role, and describe their activities and achievements

• Students identify and explain the stylistic features of a given musical work that serve to define its aesthetic tradition and its historical or cultural context
• Students identify and describe music genres or styles that show the influence of two or more cultural traditions, identify the cultural source of each influence, and trace the historical conditions that produced the synthesis of influences