Early Childhood Programs
Music is an important component of the early childhood Waldorf experience. Children sing simple songs daily, (limited notes and range), and learn rhythmic speech with movements.
Grade One
The class teacher teaches pentatonic flute and singing, with an emphasis on the training of the ear.
Grade Two
The class teacher teaches pentatonic flutes and singing. A music teacher comes in for one lesson per week.
Grade Three
The class teacher teaches diatonic flutes or recorders and singing, and a music teacher comes in twice a week for music lesson.
Grade Four
Class teacher teaches recorder and singing. A music teacher teachers strings class twice per week.
Children sing as individuals and with a group a wide variety of songs, continuing to improve the ability to use singing voice, to sing well in tune in unison with attention to diction, pitch, attack, release, tone quality, breathing, posture, phrasing, and sustaining vowels. Students are able to sing simple rounds and canons, as well as descants as prelude to part singing. They learn the names of notes, melodic and rhythmic notation. Vocabulary words include: treble, cleff, steps, whole and half steps, skips, staff lines, spaces, as well as solfeggio syllables for the letter name notes. Students become familiar with the families of instruments and the effect of instrumentation on mood, melody, harmony, and dynamics, as well as the elements of music – mood, rhythm, pitch, tempo, form, harmony, dynamic contrast. Students use advanced basic rhythms and movements in different combinations, and add accompaniments to songs and dances. They are able to differentiate between meters: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8 meters. Beginning in January, students transfer their musical skills to the violin. They learn basic string technique, left hand position and right hand bowing. Children will also become familiar with the piano keyboard and how the notes correspond to the notes of the violin. Music selections support key themes for the grade four curriculum: Norse mythology and sagas; local geography, Washington State history, study of the animal kingdom, and fractions. Class teacher teaches flute or recorder and singing.
Grade Five
Class teacher teaches recorder and singing. A music teacher teachers strings class twice per week.
Fifth grade students sing as a group and as individuals, giving artistic interpretation to a wide variety of songs. They continue to read music independently, sing rounds, canons, and descants, and develop the ability to sing two-part harmony. They are able to interpret a wide range of musical symbols as a tool to interpret music notation. Children attend live performances of musical works (and in special cases, sound recordings). Children increasingly become aware of beauty of tone, recognizing musical instruments alone or in a group and appreciating the range of musical styles and genres from around the world, as well as great composers of Western art music and their works. Students use advanced basic rhythmic patterns in combinations to accompany rhythmic selections and use melody, rhythm, and chording instruments as another avenue of participation in music. Students create original tunes and continue to develop a feeling for harmony. Students resume string instruments in January, when they develop string technique and build repertoire.
Grade Six
The class teacher teaches recorder (alto, tenor and bass may be introduced) and singing; Music lesson with music teacher twice per week and one choir lesson per week together with the seventh and eighth grade.
Students continue singing as individuals and in a group, using some rote songs and a greater number of scores for reading. Children begin three-part rounds and songs, singing chords with emphasis on expression and sensing mood. Students increase awareness of beauty of tone, melody, form, rhythm, tempo, harmony, mode, and instrumentation. They become familiar with the composers from medieval times and the evolution of Western Art music. They understand the science of sound concepts – generation, transmission, reception, and interpretation – as they pertain to the voice and the various families of instruments (aerophones, idiophones, chordophones, membranophones). By January, students resume their work on the string instruments – developing feeling for harmony and rhythm, creating tunes and descants, performing in instrumental group and as soloists, build experience on the piano keyboard. Students understand musical terms: tonic and dominant in relation to keys and chords, the difference between major and minor, the use of triblets and syncopation. They understand the chord progression using I, IV, V chords, interpret the use of ties, slurs, and dynamic markings, increase practice in sight-reading.. The students choose a string or wind instrument.
Grades Seven and Eight
Class teacher teaches recorder and singing. Music lesson with music teacher twice per week. One choir lesson per week together with grade six.
Students are able to gather information from diverse sources, develop ideas and techniques, organize arts elements, forms and principles into a creative work, reflect for the purpose of elaboration and self-evaluation, refine their work, and share their music with the greater community. The year begins with an assessment of the students’ current skills and knowledge levels, and a determination of their need for additional musical tools and improvements. Students sing in groups and as individuals before resuming work on the string instruments in January at the latest. Students are able to analyze the structure and background of a musical work, analyze and interpret the music, rehearse, adjust and refine through evaluation and problem solving. Students in the middle school are expected to take initiative and responsibility for their learning process with the teacher as guide. Students are expected to present their musical work to others, reflect and evaluate their process and product. Students are able to describe a musical work, analyze the elements used to create the work, interpret based on descriptive properties (what was the composer trying to communicate?) and evaluate using evidence and criteria including sense perceptions (what did they like or not like). Students understand the ways in which music communicates ideas and feelings, as well as make connections within and across the arts (theater, dance, visual arts) and other disciplines, life, cultures, and the world of work. Students begin to perform string repertoire from the standard string/orchestral literature as well as folk traditions from around the world.
Note: The curriculum will not include a middle school musical, as has been the tradition for the past ten to twelve years. A musical component may of course be part of a class play. A musical may be offered as part of SWS extra-curricular activities, provided that the theme, music, and direction are in alignment with SWS pedagogical orientation, which will be determined by the Pedagogical Carrying Group (PCG).
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