Carden Conservatory’s music curriculum is designed to bring out the children’s talent and develop innate musical capacities and potentials through a variety of musical, meaningful, and lasting experiences.
The Kindergarten students experience daily music and movement class that includes singing and playing rhythm instruments. The children understand music concepts such as fast and slow, high and low, loud and soft, long and short sounds, using body movements. The children are able to recognize and differentiate noise and music. They sharpen their vocal skills, using the Kodaly method. They recognize the four string instruments of the orchestra, orally and visually. They learn about the lives and music of Mozart and Beethoven, and children are introduced to music arts by listening to classical music and drawing inspiration from the music to which they listen.
The First Grade students experience music everyday by developing their singing voices, sharpening their vocal skills, and appreciating music by singing with a beautiful tone. The students are encouraged to sing, read, and notate rhythm patterns using the Kodaly Method. They learn and recognize the string and woodwind instruments of the orchestra, orally and visually. They learn about the lives and works of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Handel through audio-video presentation. The students are introduced to music arts by listening to classical music and they are encouraged to draw inspiration from the music to which they listen. The students are encouraged to craft their own rhythm instruments. The knowledge of the different elements that make-up “music” are sequentially introduced to the students – rhythm and melody.
The Second students experience music everyday by sharpening their vocal skills, and appreciating music by singing alone and with others. They are encouraged to sing two-part songs, as well as canon and round songs. The students are encouraged to sing, sight- read, and notate simple melody and rhythm patterns, using the Kodaly Method. They learn and recognize the string, woodwind, and brass instruments of the orchestra, orally and visually. They learn about the lives and works of great composers through audio-video presentation. The students cross curricular boundaries by writing reports on instruments of their choice, and are also encouraged to craft their own musical instruments. The students learn about the different elements that make-up “music”- rhythm, melody, and harmony. The students are also given instruction in how to play the recorder. They learn how to play the recorder alone and with others, using a varied repertoire of music and two-part music pieces.
The Third and Fourth Grade students experience music everyday, where they are given instruction to develop a better understanding of what “music making” is about and to discriminate appropriate styles of music for every occasion. The students learn about the different elements of music-rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, and form. The students are encouraged to sing, sight-read, and notate melodic and rhythmic patterns. They learn, recognize, and differentiate the different instruments of the orchestra, orally and visually. The students cross curricular boundaries by writing and presenting reports on the composers of their choice. The students are encouraged to craft their own musical instruments, as well as do music arts to develop their creativity. They are encouraged to sing two-three part songs, and sing a canon, round, and descants songs. The students play the recorder alone and with others, using a varied repertoire of music, and play two-three part pieces.
Fifth Grade students experience music weekly and continue with skills in recorder play, as well as all other musical instruction from previous years.
