Course Overview

Introduction to Music is for students in grades 3–5 who are new to K12 or just beginning their study of music. Using traditional folk songs, students learn most of the skills covered in the K12's Beginning 1 and 2 Music courses. They learn to recognize and write melodic and rhythmic patterns with four elements, and they practice recognizing these patterns in the music of great composers, such as Beethoven and Brahms. Students become familiar with instruments of the orchestra as they listen to music by Vivaldi, Saint-Saens, and Holst. Students will:

• Sing along with folk songs
• Practice moving to music
• Listen actively to different kinds of music
• Read and write music
• Learn to recognize melody in two, three, and four note patterns
• Identify rhythms in music using eighths, quarters, rests, and half notes
• Become familiar with string and percussion instruments of the orchestra
• Recognize duple and triple meter
• Begin to understand standard musical notation