Music

About this course

Twelfth grade music is a capstone rather than a specialty course. It gathers the whole subject into one year and treats each part at a level a college survey would recognize. Rhythm covers meter and time signature, note and rest values, syncopation, compound meter and triplets, two-against-three polyrhythm, tempo and conducting, rhythmic dictation, and how rhythm itself shapes musical form. Melody covers frequency and the keyboard, major, minor, and modal scales, naming and hearing intervals, antecedent and consequent phrase construction, motif development, ornaments and passing tones, transposition, ear training, and close analysis of great melodies. The theory unit is the strongest: triads and seventh chords, Roman numeral analysis, four-part SATB voice leading, cadences, binary, ternary, and rondo form, sonata form, two-voice counterpoint, modulation, and a final lesson on reading a full orchestral score -- the standard top-to-bottom instrument order and how to mentally transpose a B-flat clarinet or an F horn to know what pitch is actually sounding.

The voice unit is written for someone finishing school and thinking past it: vocal anatomy and care, breath support, vowels and diction, finding a natural tone, reading a score as a singer, hymn singing as theology, choral blend, solo preparation and stage presence, and a closing lesson on the voice as a lifelong instrument -- how it changes through puberty and through adulthood, and what it means to be still singing in a congregation in twenty years. The instrument unit surveys the orchestra family by family with keyboards, classical and acoustic guitar, world instruments, and conducting. History runs from temple worship through Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, Bach and Handel, Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, twentieth-century sacred music, and the American gospel and hymn tradition. It ends with an even-handed assessment of contemporary Christian music that names its real strengths and then applies Francis Schaeffer's standard from Art and the Bible -- that Christian art should be true, skillful, and genuinely expressive -- and asks your student to weigh specific songs against it.

There are 72 lessons in eight units of nine, about 40 minutes each. Be aware that units 7 and 8 repeat units 1 and 2 word for word, so there are 54 distinct lessons and eighteen of them come around twice. Each lesson is a clear reading with bolded terms, a KJV verse, and a reflection question, followed by a ten-question quiz that grades itself. There is no audio anywhere in the course and no instrument is required to finish it. That said, the interval, dictation, and ear-training lessons are hard to absorb without sound, so a keyboard, or a willingness to look up the pieces described, makes a real difference in what your student carries out of the year.

What the course covers

• Meter, note values, syncopation, compound meter, polyrhythm, and dictation
• Major, minor, and modal scales and naming intervals
• Phrase structure, motif development, ornaments, and transposition
• Triads, seventh chords, Roman numeral analysis, and cadences
• Four-part SATB voice leading, counterpoint, modulation, and musical form
• Reading an orchestral score and handling transposing instruments
• Vocal anatomy, care, diction, choral blend, and solo presence
• The orchestra, keyboards, guitar, world instruments, and conducting
• Sacred music history from temple worship to the twentieth century
• Evaluating contemporary Christian music for truth and craft

What your student will be able to do

• Analyze a piece harmonically and identify its form and cadences
• Write four-part harmony with correct voice leading and two-voice counterpoint
• Read an orchestral score and transpose clarinet and horn parts to sounding pitch
• Take melodic and rhythmic dictation and identify intervals by ear
• Sing with healthy technique, clear diction, and ensemble blend
• Assess sacred and contemporary worship music for doctrinal content and musical craft

Scope and sequence

All 8 units of Music for Grade 12, in the order they are taught.

Every lesson, by title

All 72 lesson titles are listed here — nothing is withheld until you download. Open a unit to read its contents.

One whole lesson, exactly as it comes

This is a real lesson taken from the middle of the course — the teaching text, the practice, the homework, and the first three quiz questions with their answers. It is not a marketing excerpt.

What you will need

Drawn from the materials named across all 72 lessons of this course. Most families already own most of it.