New Jersey K–6 music standards

Demonstrate how interests, knowledge and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing and responding to music.

Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.

Explore, create and improvise musical ideas using rhythmic and melodic patterns in various meters and tonalities.

Demonstrate and explain personal reasons for selecting patterns and ideas for music that represent expressive intent.

Use iconic or standard notation and/or recording technology to organize and document personal musical ideas.

Interpret and apply personal, peer and teacher feedback to revise personal music.

Convey expressive intent for a specific purpose by presenting a final version of musical ideas to peers or informal audience.

Demonstrate and explain personal interest in, knowledge about, and purpose of varied musical selections.

Perform music for a specific purpose with expression and technical accuracy.

Perform appropriately for the audience and purpose.

Demonstrate and explain how personal interests and experiences influence musical selection for specific purposes

Describe how specific music concepts are used to support a specific purpose in music

Demonstrate basic knowledge of music concepts and how they support creators’/performers’ expressive intent.

Apply personal and expressive preferences in the evaluation of music.

Apply established criteria to judge the accuracy, expressiveness and effectiveness of performance.

Rehearse, identify and apply strategies to address interpretive, performance and technical challenges of music.

Demonstrate knowledge of basic music concepts (e.g. tonality and meter) in music from a variety of cultures selected for performance.

When analyzing selected music, read and perform rhythmic and melodic patterns using iconic or standard notation

Demonstrate understanding of basic expressive qualities (e.g., dynamics, tempo) and how creators use them to convey expressive intent.

Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills related to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music.

Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.

Generate and improvise rhythmic, melodic and harmonic ideas, and simple accompaniment patterns and chord changes. Explain connection to specific purpose and context (e.g., social, cultural, historical).

Demonstrate developed musical ideas for improvisations, arrangements or compositions to express intent. Explain connection to purpose and context.

Use standard and/or iconic notation and/or recording technology to document personal rhythmic, melodic and two-chord harmonic musical ideas.

Evaluate, refine and document revisions to personal music, applying collaboratively developed criteria, showing improvement over time and explaining rationale for changes.

Present to others final versions of personally and collaboratively created music that demonstrate craftsmanship. Explain connection to expressive intent.

Demonstrate and explain how the selection of music to perform is influenced by personal interest, knowledge and context as well as the students’ technical skill.

Demonstrate an understanding of the structure and expanded music concepts (e.g., rhythm, pitch, form, harmony) in music selected for performance.

Analyze selected music by reading and performing using standard notation.

Explain how context (e.g., personal, social, cultural, historical) informs performances.

Convey creator's intents through the performers' interpretive decisions of expanded expressive qualities (e.g., dynamics, tempo, timbre, articulation/style).

Apply teacher-provided and established criteria and feedback to evaluate the accuracy and expressiveness of ensemble and personal performance.

Rehearse to refine technical accuracy and expressive qualities to address challenges and show improvement over time.

Perform music, alone or with others, with expression, technical accuracy and appropriate interpretation.

Demonstrate performance decorum and audience etiquette appropriate for the context, venue, genre, and style.

Demonstrate and explain, citing evidence, how selected music connects to and is influenced by specific interests, experiences, purposes, or contexts.

Demonstrate and explain, citing evidence, how responses to music are informed by the structure, the use of the elements of music, and context (i.e., social, cultural, historical).

Evaluate musical works and performances, applying established criteria, and explain appropriateness to the context citing evidence from the elements of music.

Demonstrate and explain how the expressive qualities (e.g., dynamics, tempo, timbre, articulation) are used in performers’ and personal interpretations to reflect expressive intent.

Demonstrate how interests, knowledge and skills related to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music.

Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.

Generate and improvise rhythmic, melodic and harmonic phrases and harmonic accompaniments within basic forms (e.g., AB, ABA, Theme & Variations) and expanded forms (e.g., introductions, transitions, codas) that convey expressive intent. Explain connection to specific purpose and context (e.g., social, cultural, historical).

Select, organize and document personal musical ideas for arrangements, songs and compositions within expanded forms that demonstrate concepts such as tension and release, unity and variety, balance, and convey expressive intent.

Use standard and/or iconic notation and/or recording technology to document personal rhythmic phrases, melodic phrases and harmonic sequences.

Evaluate, refine and explain their own work by selecting and applying criteria including appropriate application of elements of music, compositional techniques, style and form, and use of sound sources.

Present the final versions of documented personally and collaboratively created music that demonstrates craftsmanship and originality to others. Apply compositional techniques to achieve unity and variety, tension and release, and balance to convey expressive intent.

Apply collaboratively and personally developed criteria for selecting music of contrasting styles for performance and explain expressive qualities, technical challenges and reasons for choices.

Compare the structure of contrasting pieces of music selected for performance, explaining how the elements of music are used in each.

Analyze selected music by sight-reading in treble or bass clef using simple rhythmic, melodic and/or harmonic notation.

Identify and explain how cultural and historical context inform performances and result in different musical effects.

Perform contrasting pieces of music, demonstrating as well as explaining how the music’s intent is conveyed by their interpretations of the elements of music and expressive qualities (e.g., dynamics, tempo, timbre, articulation/style, phrasing).

Identify and apply personally developed criteria (e.g., demonstrating correct interpretation of notation, technical skill of performer, originality, emotional impact, variety, interest) to rehearse, refine and determine when the music is ready to perform.

Perform music with technical accuracy, stylistic expression and culturally authentic practices to convey the creator’s intent.

Demonstrate performance decorum (e.g., stage presence, attire, behavior) and audience etiquette appropriate for venue, purpose, context, and style.

Select programs of music (e.g., a playlist, live performance) and demonstrate the connections to an interest or experience for a specific purpose.

Classify and compare how the elements of music and expressive qualities relate to the structure within programs of music (e.g., a playlist, live performance).

Identify and compare the context of programs of music from a variety of genres, cultures and historical periods.

Apply appropriate personally developed criteria to evaluate musical works or performances.

Support with evidence personal interpretation of contrasting programs of music and explain how the application of the elements of music and expressive qualities, within genres, cultures and historical periods convey expressive intent.