9 Standards in Music Education

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

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

3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

5. Reading and notating music.

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

7. Evaluating music and music performances.

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

9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

ASSERTION:

Every art form is a distinct body of knowledge and skills involving creation and performance, 

history, analysis, and the interaction among all of these in specific works of art or scholarship.  

QUESTIONS FOR DECISION MAKERS 

• What, specifically, are the fundamental knowledge and skills needed by those preparing 

to teach each arts discipline in terms of the K-12 National Standards? 

• To what extent does the answer to the above question change, depending on the projected 

career path or the teaching situation of the individual teacher? 

• What competencies will we expect beyond fundamentals? 

• To what extent will we develop abilities to interrelate creation, performance, history, and 

analysis in a range of artistic and scholarly work within a single arts discipline? 

• What balance will we strike between specific competencies within a given arts discipline 

and representative knowledge and competencies across the arts disciplines? 

i believe that sometimes when starting an art form it is not as distinct and one might assume, or even want. It seems that when first introducing music to students in an elementary atmosphere it is important to let the creative boundaries be limitless and not specific or distinct at all. This in turn will help the learner formulate their own path. Before introducing the specifics of history, and analysis it is important to let the student first interact and discover what they want from the music and finding who they are inside of it.