Music

About this course

Fourth grade music is organized into eight clear units, and it is the first year the course asks your student to write music as well as read it. The notation unit covers the staff, note values, rests, measures and bar lines, then has them draw a treble clef staff and write out ten named notes and a four-measure rhythm of their own. Rhythm goes further than earlier grades: counting aloud with "one-and-two-and," strong and weak beats, syncopation, dotted notes, ties and slurs, tempo, and how rhythm differs between musical styles, finishing by clapping the rhythm of "Amazing Grace." The melody and harmony unit adds solfege, melodic contour, minor scales, steps versus leaps, chords, and a lesson where your student writes an original four-note melody using solfege syllables -- no instrument required.

The rest of the year covers vocal technique (warm-ups, breath management, matching pitch, unison, rounds, dynamics, expression, and vocal care), the four orchestral families plus keyboards and the instruments named in Psalm 150, and a history unit running from music in the ancient world through the early church, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, spirituals, and Fanny Crosby. A full unit is given to hymns and their stories -- "Amazing Grace," "It Is Well with My Soul" and Horatio Spafford's shipwreck, "Be Thou My Vision" and its eighth-century Irish origin, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," and "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" -- ending with your student writing a song of praise. The final unit is guided listening: Vivaldi's Four Seasons, the Hallelujah Chorus, program music, how music moves the emotions, music around the world, and a frank lesson on how a Christian family decides what music is worth listening to.

There are 72 lessons in eight units, about 25 minutes each. A lesson is roughly a page of reading, an activity, and a ten-question quiz that grades itself. Forty-five of the 72 lessons include a photograph or diagram -- instruments, a staff, the human ear -- which helps a good deal at this age. No instrument is required, though a keyboard is useful for the note-name and chord lessons. There is no audio in the course. The listening unit in particular assumes you will pull up the piece yourself, so plan on being able to play Vivaldi or Handel for your student when those lessons come around. Several hymn lessons are written to be read aloud by a parent, with prompts addressed to you.

What the course covers

• Reading and writing notes, rests, measures, and time signatures
• Counting rhythms, syncopation, dotted notes, ties, and slurs
• Melody, solfege, contour, steps and leaps, and minor scales
• Chords, harmony, and singing in unison
• Vocal warm-ups, breath management, and vocal care
• The four orchestral families, keyboards, and the orchestra
• Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, spirituals, and Fanny Crosby
• Hymn histories and the people who wrote them
• Guided listening: Vivaldi, Handel, and program music
• How music affects emotion and how to choose music thoughtfully

What your student will be able to do

• Read a short piece of written music on the treble staff
• Draw notes and rests correctly and write out a four-measure rhythm
• Count and clap syncopated and dotted rhythms
• Compose a simple original melody using solfege
• Warm up the voice and sing in unison or in a round with good breath support
• Listen to a piece of music and describe its mood, shape, and instruments

Scope and sequence

All 8 units of Music for Grade 4, 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.