Music

About this course

Eighth grade music is written for a student who already reads notation and is ready for real harmonic work. The theory unit builds triads and seventh chords, teaches Roman numeral analysis, harmonizing a given melody, chord inversions and voice leading, modulation, and the rules of first-species two-voice counterpoint out of Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum -- consonance only, no parallel fifths or octaves, contrary motion preferred. It finishes by having your student harmonize a four-bar hymn tune and analyze a real hymn's chord progression. Melody work adds the three forms of the minor scale, the Dorian, Mixolydian, and Phrygian modes, pentatonic scales, cadences and phrasing, countermelody and descant, and ear training. Rhythm work covers complex and mixed meters, swing feel, hemiola, augmentation and diminution, rubato, hymn meter as poetic meter, rhythmic dictation, and drum kit patterns.

The singing unit is aimed at someone who might join a choir: registers and the passaggio, developing vibrato naturally, all four SATB parts, reading a choral octavo score, vocal health, interpreting a text, and a lesson on singing ecclesiastical Latin with the pronunciation rules and the standard phrases -- Kyrie eleison, Gloria in excelsis Deo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Soli Deo Gloria. The instrument unit goes further than any other grade into modern practice: guitar barre chords and tablature, two-handed keyboard playing, instrument maintenance, and two full lessons on digital audio workstations and synthesis, naming actual free software (GarageBand, LMMS, Audacity) alongside the professional tools, and explaining tracks, plugins, MIDI, mixing, and mastering. History concentrates on sacred music -- Bach as a theologian in music, his cantatas and the Mass in B Minor, Handel's Messiah, Fanny Crosby, the spirituals, and twentieth-century figures such as John Rutter and Keith Green.

There are 72 lessons in eight units of nine, about 35 minutes each. Units 7 and 8 revisit rhythm and melody with different material rather than repeating what came before. A lesson is a dense, well-structured reading with terms defined and rules laid out plainly, followed by a ten-question quiz that grades itself. There is no audio anywhere in the course. No instrument is required to complete it, but the counterpoint, harmonization, ear training, and voice-leading lessons are difficult to absorb from text alone, so a keyboard is a real advantage this year. The production lessons describe software rather than requiring it; a student who wants to try the DAW work will need a computer and a free download.

What the course covers

• Complex and mixed meter, swing, hemiola, rubato, and rhythmic dictation
• Natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales and the church modes
• Intervals, cadences, phrasing, countermelody, and descant
• Seventh chords, Roman numeral analysis, and harmonizing a melody
• Chord inversions, voice leading, modulation, and first-species counterpoint
• SATB part-singing, reading choral scores, and vocal health
• Singing ecclesiastical Latin in sacred choral music
• Guitar barre chords and tablature, keyboard technique, and instrument care
• Digital audio workstations, MIDI, synthesis, mixing, and mastering
• Bach, Handel, Fanny Crosby, the spirituals, and modern sacred composers

What your student will be able to do

• Analyze a hymn using Roman numerals and identify its cadences
• Harmonize a short melody and write a four-bar hymn tune setting
• Apply first-species counterpoint rules to two independent voices
• Write and count complex rhythms including swing, hemiola, and mixed meter
• Read a choral octavo score and sing a part in Latin with correct pronunciation
• Explain how a DAW records, arranges, mixes, and masters a piece of music

Scope and sequence

All 8 units of Music for Grade 8, 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.