Education and Early Childhood Learning

4-M-M1: The learner develops skills for singing, playing, improvising, and moving.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Sing expressively, matching pitch and using proper breath support, vowel sounds, consonants, and tone production.
• Play a variety of instruments with increasing expressiveness and accuracy; demonstrate proper technique.
• Perform parts accurately within the beat in an ensemble.
• Improvise simple rhythmic and melodic questions, answers, and variations.
• Use movement to explore music concepts, enhance music making, and express ideas (e.g., use movement to show high and low, steady beat).
• Demonstrate appropriate interpersonal skills for making music collectively.

4-M-M2: The learner develops skills for making music through aural, written, and visual music systems.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Play and sing by ear, reproducing simple melodies, rhythms, and accompaniments.
• Read, write, and identify grade-appropriate rhythmic and melodic patterns using invented and standard music notation.
• Use invented music notation to represent sounds and/or sound stories.
• Respond appropriately to non-verbal cues and gestures when making music.

4-M-M3: The learner develops competencies for using elements of music in a variety of contexts.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Rhythm - Perform and demonstrate an understanding of increasingly complex rhythmic and metric concepts (e.g., syncopation, compound metres).
• Melody
  • Describe and reproduce increasingly complex melodies.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of melodic design (e.g., home tone, step-wise motion, melodic contour).
  • Demonstrate the understanding that melodies are created from a particular set of tones (modes).
  • Demonstrate the understanding that melodic relationships can be transposed to different tonal centres.
  • Identify the difference between major and minor modes.
• Texture and Harmony
  • Demonstrate the understanding that the layering of sounds creates texture and/or harmony.
  • Demonstrate and identify various ways of creating texture and harmony in music.
  • Identify and use chord changes in two-chord songs.
• Expression - Use and identify grade-appropriate elements of musical expression.
• Timbre - Identify, describe, and classify a wide variety of sounds from natural and constructed environments (e.g., instruments used by various cultures in Manitoba and countries around the world, orchestral instruments, electronic instruments, and sound sources).
• Form - Use, identify, and describe grade-appropriate musical forms.

4-M-M4: The learner develops listening competencies for making music.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Listen with discrimination and purpose to
  • understand various cultural/historical/social contexts, music styles, genres, traditions, and so on
  • support enjoyment and understanding of music
  • make and interpret music expressively and creatively
  • inform music analysis, interpretation, appreciation, and evaluation
• Develop listening strategies (e.g., kinesthetic hearing, inner hearing, musical memory, playing/singing/composing by ear) for making and creating music.
• Listen to make informed decisions about and solve music challenges.

4-M-CR1: The learner generates ideas for creating music using a variety of sources.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Draw inspiration from personal experiences and relevant sources (e.g., feelings; memories; imagination; themes; observations; visual stimuli; learning in other subject areas; poems; stories; music; daily, family, or community life) to ignite ideas and questions for musical creation.
• Consider other arts disciplines (dance, dramatic arts, media arts, visual arts) and other subject areas to inspire and trigger ideas for musical creation.
• Generate ideas from sound exploration and improvisation.
• Engage in collaborative brainstorming and idea generation as inspiration for musical creation.

4-M-CR2: The learner experiments with, develops, and uses ideas for creating music.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Experiment with sounds and music to test and elaborate ideas.
• Select, organize, and use, with increasing independence, a combination of sounds and/or musical ideas for composing and arranging musical pieces (e.g., select, refine, and organize motifs; choose form, dynamics, tempo, articulation).
• Explain own decisions about the selection and use of music elements, techniques, expressive devices, forms, and principles of composition in own ongoing work.
• Recognize and incorporate serendipitous discoveries into own music-making process, as appropriate.
• Develop and extend musical ideas individually and in collaboration with others.

4-M-CR3: The learner revises, refines, and shares music ideas and creative work.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Share music work in progress to inform revisions.
• Revise, refine, and rehearse in response to feedback from others (e.g., teacher, peers), keeping in mind the composer’s intent and the audience.
• Make appropriate decisions as to whether own work is “finished.”
• Share own musical ideas, compositions, and interpretations with others through performances, composition portfolios, and/or sound video recordings.

4-M-C1: The learner experiences and develops an awareness of people and practices from various times, places, social groups, and cultures.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Perform, listen to, describe, and compare music representative of different times, places, social groups, and cultures (include music from past and present and from global, Canadian, and Manitoban cultures, including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit).
• Identify, share, and talk about examples of music experienced at home, at school, and in the community.
• Demonstrate an awareness of musicians from own community, Manitoba, Canada, and various global contexts.

4-M-C2: The learner experiences and develops an awareness of a variety of music genres, styles, and traditions.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Demonstrate an awareness that there are many different kinds of music.
• Demonstrate the understanding that musical works can be categorized according to common characteristics.
• Recognize that music is an art form, along with dance, dramatic arts, literary arts, and visual arts.

4-M-C3: The learner demonstrates an understanding of the roles, purposes, and meanings of music in the lives of individuals and in communities.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Describe a variety of purposes and roles for music in daily life, in own community, and in other places and times.
• Demonstrate an awareness of the meanings and/or purposes of music (e.g., for relaxing, working, dancing, celebrating) encountered in own performance and listening experiences.
• Demonstrate an appreciation of music as a means of experiencing and exploring own and others’ lives (e.g., feelings, beliefs, stories, events, cultures).
• Demonstrate an awareness of ways in which music reflects, influences, and shapes issues and events, as well as traditions, values, beliefs, and identities of individuals and groups.
• Engage and/or interact appropriately as participants, audience members, and performers.

4-M-R1: The learner generates initial reactions to music experiences.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Take time to perceive music experiences before sharing opinions and making judgments.
• Make personal connections to previous experiences with music and other art forms.
• Express first impression of own and others’ music (e.g., thoughts, feelings, intuition, associations, questions, experiences, memories, stories, connections to other disciplines).

4-M-R2: The learner listens to, observes, and describes music experiences.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Discern details and listen for music elements (e.g., melody, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, pitch, timbre, harmony, texture).
• Use appropriate music terminology to observe and describe music experiences.
• Recognize different noticings and build common understanding about music.

4-M-R3: The learner analyzes and interprets music experiences.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Analyze how music elements communicate meaning.
• Reflect, share, and explain personal responses (e.g., feelings, thoughts, images) evoked by various pieces of music and music-making experiences.
• Examine others’ interpretations to understand diverse perspectives and inform new thinking about music.
• Co-construct criteria to critically analyze and evaluate music works, performances, and experiences.

4-M-R4: The learner constructs meaning and applies new understandings from music experiences.

The learner is able to do the following:

• Justify own preferences, ideas, and interpretations about music.
• Recognize and respect that individuals and groups may have different preferences, ideas, interpretations, and opinions about music.
• Make informed choices for decision-making about music.