(a) General requirements. Students in Grades 6, 7, or 8 enrolled in the first year of music may select from the following courses: General Music 6, Middle School 1 Band, Middle School 1 Choir, Middle School 1 Orchestra, Middle School 1 Instrumental Ensemble, or Middle School 1 Vocal Ensemble.
(b) Introduction.
  (1) The fine arts incorporate the study of dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts to offer unique experiences and empower students to explore realities, relationships, and ideas. These disciplines engage and motivate all students through active learning, critical thinking, and innovative problem solving. The fine arts develop cognitive functioning and increase student academic achievement, higher-order thinking, communication, and collaboration skills, making the fine arts applicable to college readiness, career opportunities, workplace environments, social skills, and everyday life. Students develop aesthetic and cultural awareness through exploration, leading to creative expression. Creativity, encouraged through the study of the fine arts, is essential to nurture and develop the whole child.
  (2) Four basic strands--foundations: music literacy; creative expression; historical and cultural relevance; and critical evaluation and response--provide broad, unifying structures for organizing the knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire. The foundation of music literacy is fostered through reading, writing, reproducing, and creating music, thus developing a student's intellect. Through creative expression, students apply their music literacy and the critical-thinking skills of music to sing, play, read, write, and/or move. By experiencing musical periods and styles, students will understand the relevance of music to history, culture, and the world, including the relationship of music to other academic disciplines and the vocational possibilities offered. Through critical listening, students analyze, evaluate, and respond to music, developing criteria for making critical judgments and informed choices.
  (3) Statements that contain the word "including" reference content that must be mastered, while those containing the phrase "such as" are intended as possible illustrative examples.
(c) Knowledge and skills.
  (1) Foundations: music literacy. The student describes and analyzes music and musical sound. The student explores fundamental skills appropriate for a developing young musician. The student is expected to:
    (A) experience and explore exemplary musical examples using technology and available live performances;
    (B) describe tonal and rhythmic musical elements using standard terminology such as instrumentation, voicing, intervals, solfège, absolute note names, rhythmic values, and counting systems;
    (C) describe musical elements of rhythm, including whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, paired and single eighth notes, sixteenth notes, corresponding rests, and meter, including 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4, using standard terminology;
    (D) identify musical forms presented aurally and through music notation such as binary, ternary, phrasic, rondo, and theme and variations; and
    (E) explore health and wellness concepts related to musical practice such as body mechanics, hearing protection, vocal health, hydration, and appropriate hygienic practice.
  (2) Foundations: music literacy. The student reads and writes music notation using an established system for rhythm and melody. The student is expected to:
    (A) identify music symbols and terms referring to notation, including repeat sign; dynamics, including crescendo, decrescendo, piano, and forte; tempi, including accelerando, ritardando, moderato, and allegro; and articulations, including staccato and legato;
    (B) notate meter, rhythm, pitch, and dynamics using standard symbols in a handwritten or computer-generated format;
    (C) create rhythmic phrases using known rhythms and melodic phrases using known pitches at an appropriate level of difficulty within an established system of notation;
    (D) read music notation using appropriate cognitive and kinesthetic responses such as inner hearing, silent fingering, shadow bowing, or Curwen hand signs; and
    (E) sight read unison and homophonic music using the appropriate clef in a minimum of two keys and three meters, including 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4.
  (3) Creative expression. The student demonstrates musical artistry by singing or playing an instrument, alone and in groups, performing a variety of unison, homophonic, and polyphonic repertoire. The student makes music at an appropriate level of difficulty and performs in a variety of genres from notation and by memory. The student is expected to:
    (A) demonstrate, alone and in groups, characteristic vocal or instrumental timbre;
    (B) perform music alone and in groups, demonstrating appropriate physical fundamental techniques such as hand position, bowing, embouchure, articulation, and posture;
    (C) perform independently and expressively, with accurate intonation and rhythm, developing fundamental skills and appropriate solo, small ensemble, and large ensemble performance techniques;
    (D) perform independently and expressively a varied repertoire of music representing various styles and cultures;
    (E) sight-read independently and expressively, with accurate intonation and rhythm, demonstrating fundamental skills and appropriate solo, small ensemble, and large ensemble performance techniques in known keys and rhythms;
    (F) interpret music symbols and terms referring to keys; clefs; dynamics, including crescendo, decrescendo, piano, and forte; tempi, including accelerando and ritardando; and articulations, including staccato and legato, appropriately when performing; and
    (G) create rhythmic phrases using known rhythms and melodic phrases using known pitches at an appropriate level of difficulty.
  (4) Historical and cultural relevance. The student relates music to history, culture, and the world. The student is expected to:
    (A) perform music representative of diverse cultures, including American and Texas heritage;
    (B) describe written and aurally presented music representative of diverse styles, periods, and cultures;
    (C) identify relationships of music concepts to other academic disciplines such as the relationship between music and mathematics, literature, history, and the sciences; and
    (D) describe music-related vocations and avocations.
  (5) Critical evaluation and response. The student listens to, responds to, and evaluates music and musical performance in both formal and informal settings. The student is expected to:
    (A) demonstrate appropriate concert and stage etiquette as an informed, actively involved listener and performer during live and recorded performances in a variety of settings;
    (B) identify criteria for listening to and evaluating musical performances;
    (C) describe processes and select the tools for self-evaluation and personal artistic improvement such as critical listening and individual and group performance recordings;
    (D) evaluate the quality and effectiveness of musical performances by comparing them to exemplary models; and
    (E) demonstrate appropriate cognitive and kinesthetic responses to music and musical performances.

Source Note: The provisions of this §117.208 adopted to be effective July 28, 2013, 38 TexReg 4575