HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Varsity Band
High School

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Course Name:
Grade Level:
Course Length:

Varsity Band
9-12
1-4

Course Description: This course provides development of the fundamentals in tone production,
articulation, music reading and scales. Varsity Band provides all interested students who play wind and
percussion instruments an opportunity to study and perform a variety of music. Performances are an
integral part of the music curriculum, which may include concerts, festivals, solos, ensembles, recitals and
appearances within the community when appropriate. After school rehearsals and performances are
required. Students may participate in band camp in August at the Interlochen Center for the Arts,
Interlochen, Michigan. This course meets the State of Michigan Fine Arts graduation requirement. This
class meets daily and may be repeated for credit
Component Goals: Technical Skills
1. Students will demonstrate proper instrument care and maintenance.
2. Refine and enhance proper playing position
3. Increase knowledge and refinement of proper posture
4. Develop and refine tone production
5. Increase knowledge and sensitivity for articulation
6. Increase technical development
7. Increase knowledge and sensitivity for finger/position selection
8. Refine mechanics and alternate methods for tuning
9. Introduce vibrato and application
10. Expand range through use of advanced positions / alternate fingerings
11. Introduce and develop awareness to environmental conditions.
12. Introduce ornamentation and application
13. Introduce and develop performance skills
14. Develop and expand scale patterns

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Student Outcomes:
The student will:
1. Recognize and apply instrument maintenance:
a. With an expanded knowledge of reed, mouthpiece, mallet and care and selection
b. With an awareness of seasonal changes of instruments
c. And follow standard lubrication practices for instruments
d. By following standard percussion head replacement practices
e. Awareness of instrument accessories available
f. Awareness of professional maintenance needs
2. Demonstrate proper posture and playing position
3. Demonstrate levels of refinement for tone production, mallet / stick technique, articulation, and
finger/position selection.
4. Demonstrate various articulations via playing on instruments and writing music
5. Recognize and develop technical skills on wind and percussion instruments
6. Recognize and anticipate the use of alternate finger / position selection
7. Demonstrate increased proficiency for tuning
a. Pitch to pitch
b. Using octaves
8. Recognize and demonstrate proper use of vibrato
9. Demonstrate increased range on instruments
10. Recognize and apply the use of alternate fingering / positions
11. Recognize and anticipate needed adjustments due to environmental conditions
12. Recognize and perform ornamentation including grace notes and trills
13. Develop the integration of simultaneous skills

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Course Name:
Grade Level:
Course Length:

Varsity Band
9-12
1-4

Component Goals: Rhythmic Skill

1. Continue, develop, and refine goals from K-8
2. Introduce and refine the aesthetic awareness of rhythm
3. Introduce and develop increasingly complex patterns/meters
4. Develop and refine kinesthetic awareness and understanding of rhythm
5. Develop and advance rhythmic comprehension through literacy
6. Develop and refine understanding of beat and pulse

Student Outcomes:
The student will:
1. Recognize, identify, and perform simple and compound meters.
a. Duple
b. Triple
2.

Read, identify, and perform syncopation and borrowed divisions (dotted rhythms)

3.

Understand and perform with sensitivity the relationships of various patterns.

4.

Understand, demonstrate, and apply subdivision of beat and pulse

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Course Name:
Grade Level:
Course Length:

Varsity Band
9-12
1-4

Component Goals: Listening Skills

1. Continue, develop, and refine goals from K-8
2. Introduce ensemble listening skills
3. Introduce the physics of sound
4. Develop and refine listening skills for evaluation

Student Outcomes:
The student will:
1. Understand and recognize all major scale diatonic intervals
2. Distinguish major and minor 3rds
3. Identify melody, harmony, tonality, sequence, counter-melody, accompaniment, texture, and balance
4. Identify various performance styles
5. Recognize pitch, intensity, timbre, and duration
6. Recognize, anticipate, and adjust to the acoustical environment
7. Identify aurally the instruments of the orchestra and band
8. Evaluate appropriate tone quality, rhythmic interpretation, phrasing, form, expression, and dynamics
9. Evaluate various performance levels

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Course Name:
Grade Level:
Course Length:

Varsity Band
9-12
1-4

Component Goals: Translative Skills

1. Continue, develop, and refine goals from K-8
2. Student application of stylistic awareness
3. Decipher, interpret, and utilize communication from musical notation and other symbol systems

Student Outcomes:
The student will:
1. Read, count and perform advanced notation.
a. Terms
b. Rhythm
c. Interpretative symbols
d. Articulation symbols
e. Symbols of notation used in new and experimental music
2. Demonstrate standard articulation patterns
3. Recognize, perform, and demonstrate standard performance practices
4. Demonstrate the elements of music in a creative and aesthetic manner
5. Sight read music equivalent in complexity to MSBOA proficiency I by grade 12
6. Demonstrate melodic and rhythmic dictation skills including 8th notes and intervals up to Perfect 5ths

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Course Name:
Grade Level:
Course Length:

Varsity Band
9-12
1-4

Component Goals: Analytical Skills

1.

Continue, develop, and refine goals from K-8

2.

Integrate theoretical and aesthetic elements of music

Student Outcomes:
The student will:
1. Demonstrate knowledge of motivic development
a. Augmentation
b. Diminution
c. Mutation
d. Sequence (real and tonal)
e. Tonal Centers
f. Ornamentation
g. Cadential extension
2. Understanding historical forms and styles
3. Understanding how compositional techniques effect aesthetic response

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Course Name:
Grade Level:
Course Length:

Varsity Band
9-12
1-4

Component Goals: Literature

1.

Continue, develop, and refine goals from K-8

2.
a.
b.
c.
d.

The following periods and styles will be studied in depth on a four-year progression.
Renaissance/Baroque
Classical
Romantic
Twentieth Century/Contemporary

Student Outcomes:
Through listening, study, and/or performance experience(s), the student will be able to:
1.

Recognize and demonstrate stylistic elements of a given music period

2.

Demonstrate knowledge of the differences between the basic periods of music

3.

Recognize and demonstrate stylistic elements of a given musical period

4.

Recognize and create a response within the basic periods of music

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Course Name:
Grade Level:
Course Length:

Varsity Band
9-12
1-4

Component Goals: Historical, Multi-Cultural

The instrumental music faculty is committed to helping students become aware of the historical, cultural,
and social contexts of the music which they study. The faculty will teach music of diverse historic periods
and cultures.
MUSIC IN HISTORICAL, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS
Music can represent and reflect many things about the cultural aspects of societies. Whether one
examines cultures from a historical perspective or the many contemporary cultures of our present
world, the student can become more sensitive to the differences and similarities of humankind
through music.
The learner should be aware that:
1.

Music is a part of our everyday lives and lifetime experiences.

2.

Music conveys messages and communicates ideas.

3.

Music as a universal language crosses historical, geographical and political boundaries.

4.
5.

Music is a reflection of the nature of the culture, historical period or social context from which it
comes.
Music of each culture has its own set of aesthetic values.

6.

The values of a society are reflected in the musical forms created.

7.

The values of a society determine the status of its creators and performers.

8.

Musical knowledge enables the development of tolerance and respect for tradition and innovation.

9.

Composers and performers are artist creating or expressing their ideas through music.

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Course Name:
Grade Level:
Course Length:

Varsity Band
9-12
1-4

Component Goals: Performance Skills

1. Continue, develop, and refine goals from K-8
2. Introduce and provide increasing opportunities for a greater variety of individual and ensembles
experiences
3.

Provide developmentally appropriate individual and ensemble experiences

4.

Provide for student demonstration of appropriate musical stylistic characteristics, through

performance

5.

Develop the organization of a personal value system

Student Outcomes:
The student will:
1.

Demonstrate proper protocol as a performer and listener

2.

Perform developmentally appropriate individual and ensemble experiences

3.

Demonstrate ability to interpret conductors gestures

4.

Demonstrate a personal value system by achieving the highest level of their potential

5.

Demonstrate the integration of technical, rhythmic, listening, translative, and analytical skills
through performance

10

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Content Outline:
1. Develop tone production skills on student chosen instrument.
2. Develop reading and performance techniques for advanced wind band music.
3. Develop and use tuning, listening and rehearsal techniques for the large wind ensemble.
4. Read, rehearse and perform music from the renaissance/baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century.
5. Examine individual composers styles and form usage; for example, examine Haydns use of sonata
allegro form in Symphony #102 in D Major The London first movement.
6. Closely analyze a period of music. According to the 4-year progression, study and compare the
historical, musical, and performance practices of the time periods. For example, examine the romantic
period and the concept of national pride in music by playing a concert with German, French, English,
and Italian music from that period.
7. Write a 2-3 page paper on a composer/composition giving an overview. Share this information with
the class.
8. Discuss theoretical and aesthetic elements in each period of music.
9. Discuss the importance of instrumental maintenance through hands-on demonstrations, information
work sheets, and clinics. Attend a concert or listen to prerecorded selections to develop aesthetic
literacy.
10. Perform and evaluate individual/group musical experiences. For example: Perform on a concert,
review concert through audio/video tape, and then follow with discussion/evaluation.
11. Discuss and develop the values of commitment, discipline, determination, team building, selfmotivation, and personal responsibility.

11

HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

COURSE DESCRIPTION

OPTIONAL:
Develop an informal oral presentation on major composers using their works (music) and backgrounds.
Working with a partner present the information in an interview format
Develop a presentation on a major work of the students chosen instrument. Give a lecture demonstration to
class of the history, form and performance of the composition.
When developmentally appropriate, attend music festivals/competitions for additional evaluation.
EVALUATION;
Students will be evaluated through playing tests, research, class participation and individual and ensemble
performances.
MATERIALS AND RESOURCES:
1. Selected tapes, slides, recordings, computer software and other audio-visual aids.
2. Various music theory text/work books.
3. Appropriate representative literature.

12