Grade 7 · secular
This is a listening course, not a performing course. Your child doesn't need an instrument, doesn't need to read music, and won't be graded on singing or playing anything. What they're learning is how to listen closely — to hear that a piece got louder, or that a tune repeated with a twist, or that a drum sound and a string sound are made in totally different physical ways — and say specifically what they heard and when. It covers music from Africa, East Asia, Latin America, Europe or the Middle East, and traces a thread from old written music through recordings to electronic music. It ends with them picking five songs and defending, in writing, why those five belong together.
The whole year, in plain English. Tap any unit to see every skill inside, nothing is hidden.
This is where your child learns the basic vocabulary for talking about music out loud: beat, tempo, melody, harmony, timbre, dynamics, and form. Instead of vague reactions like 'I liked it,' they learn to point to an exact second in a recording and say what happened there. This routine — listen, name the change, cite the moment — is the one every later unit reuses.
Given a recording, distinguish the steady underlying beat from the tempo (speed) at which that beat moves, by tapping the beat while naming the tempo as fast, moderate, or slow.
Identify the melody line in a two-layer texture (melody plus accompaniment) by pointing to the moment it enters and the moment it changes.
Explain how a change in dynamics (volume) or tempo at a specific timestamp changes the feeling of an excerpt, citing the timestamp.
Classify short audio excerpts as homophonic (melody plus supporting harmony) or having a drone/single-line texture, based on how many independent pitch layers are audible.
Compare the timbre of two named instruments or voice types heard in different excerpts, describing at least one audible difference in each.
Diagram the form of a short piece (e.g., AABA, ABA, or verse-chorus) by labeling repeated and contrasting sections with letters, based on what is heard.
Identify by ear, in a recording never played in class, at least three of: a tempo change, a dynamics change, a texture change, and a formal repeat, citing the approximate timestamp for each.
Given a written claim about an excerpt (e.g., 'the tempo speeds up at 0:45'), judge whether the timestamp evidence given actually supports the claim, and explain why or why not.
Generalize the listen-name-cite routine (identify an element, name the change, cite the timestamp) to a self-selected piece outside any excerpt used in class.
Your child uses the seven words from Unit 1 to compare music from four traditions: Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and Europe or the Middle East. They pick up three new ideas — call-and-response, drone, and cyclic form — and use all of it to compare traditions on equal footing, not against a Western yardstick.
Identify call-and-response structure in a Mande jaliya or Ewe drumming recording by naming the call and the response.
Classify a new short excerpt as using drone, cyclic form, or neither, based on features heard.
Explain why a drone-based piece can sound simple but require sustained ensemble coordination.
Compare two traditions studied in this unit, naming one element they share and one structural feature that differs.
Cite a specific timestamp in a recording as evidence for a claim about form.
Infer which of the four traditions an unfamiliar excerpt most likely belongs to, based on audible structural cues.
Generate a written argument judging whether a tradition unfamiliar to the student is fairly comparable to one from their own background.
Explain how the physical setting or purpose of a tradition (ritual, ceremony, court, dance) relates to its musical structure.
Recall the definitions of call-and-response, drone, and cyclic form.
This unit sorts instruments by physical cause instead of by culture: does the sound come from air, a string, a stretched membrane, a solid struck body, or an electrical signal? Every family gets anchored to a recording your child already heard in Units 1 or 2, so the new vocabulary attaches to a familiar sound.
Given a description or diagram of what part of an instrument vibrates, students classify it into one of the five instrument families.
Students identify the instrument family of a familiar recording (heard in Units 1-2) by listening for timbre alone, without a diagram.
Students explain why two instruments that look or are played similarly (e.g., piano and drum, both struck) belong to different families.
Students classify the family of an instrument from an unfamiliar excerpt never played in class, using timbre alone.
Students distinguish the ensemble role (melody, harmony, or rhythm) of a given instrumental line in a layered recording.
Students predict which instrument families an unfamiliar ensemble type (e.g., a mariachi band or a gamelan) likely favors, based on its typical function or setting, and justify the prediction.
Students generalize the vibrating-mechanism classification scheme to sort a wholly invented or hypothetical sound-producing object not covered by any existing instrument.
Students recall the name and one example instrument for each of the five instrument families.
Students justify a sound-source classification of an unfamiliar excerpt in one written sentence citing a specific audible feature.
The capstone. It adds a timeline — old written-music era, recorded era, electronic era — on top of everything from Units 1 through 3, then has your child build and defend a 5-song playlist spanning at least two continents and two eras. It opens with a big cumulative review, because 4-5 weeks will have passed since Unit 3 and that vocabulary needs dusting off before it can be used again.
Given an audio clip and its approximate composition date, students place the piece correctly into one of three eras (common-practice, recorded, electronic) and name one audible cue that supports the placement.
Students explain, using specific evidence from one common-practice piece and one recorded-era piece, how recording technology changed what a listener could experience versus a live-only performance.
Students identify the original sampled source within a given contemporary track and describe at least one specific transformation applied to it.
Given a novel, previously unheard audio clip from an untaught tradition or era, students correctly classify its era and instrument family using only audible cues, without being told which category to consider.
Students curate a 5-piece playlist meeting the continent and era spread requirement and organize the set so that at least one deliberate structural contrast exists between pieces.
Students write a defense of one playlist choice that cites a specific timestamp and element, and explains what that moment demonstrates about the piece's structure or expressive effect.
Students take and defend a position on whether recording technology made music more accessible or more disposable, using evidence from at least two pieces spanning two different eras.
Students recall the definitions of common-practice era, recorded era, and electronic era without supporting examples.
Students correctly name the instrument family (from Unit 3's five families) of a given early electronic instrument (theremin, Moog synthesizer) heard in class.
From the parent guide
This is a listening course, not a performing course. Your child doesn't need an instrument, doesn't need to read music, and won't be graded on singing or playing anything. What they're learning is how to listen closely — to hear that a piece got louder, or that a tune repeated with a twist, or that a drum sound and a string sound are made in totally different physical ways — and say specifically what they heard and when. It covers music from Africa, East Asia, Latin America, Europe or the Middle East, and traces a thread from old written music through recordings to electronic music. It ends with them picking five songs and defending, in writing, why those five belong together.
Unit 1 · what to expect
This is where your child learns the basic vocabulary for talking about music out loud: beat, tempo, melody, harmony, timbre, dynamics, and form. Instead of vague reactions like 'I liked it,' they learn to point to an exact second in a recording and say what happened there. This routine — listen, name the change, cite the moment — is the one every later unit reuses.
The full guide covers all 4 units: where kids get stuck, what to say, and how to tell it's working. Included with the course.
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