The six elements of music are the building blocks for how music is created. Many school curriculums (including the Ontario Music Curriculum) use the elements of music as a major component of their learning expectations. When teaching the elements of music, notice that different elements take on a different level of importance depending on the grade – rhythm is key in the early grades, while elements like texture and form are focused on more in the later grades.
Duration – The pattern of movement in time.
- Grade 1: Beat vs Rhythm
- Grade 1: Fast & slow tempo
- Grade 1: 2/4 and 4/4 metres
- Grade 1: quarter note, eighth note, quarter rest
- Grade 1: rhythmic ostinato
- Grade 2: half note, half rest, whole note, whole rest
- Grade 3: 3/4 metre
- Grade 3: dotted half note, sixteenth-note, sixteenth rest
- Grade 3: very fast (presto), very slow (largo)
- Grade 4: syncopation of eighth-quarter-eighth
- Grade 4: fermata
Pitch
- Grade 1: High & Low
- Grade 1: melodic contour
- Grade 1: mi, so, la
- Grade 2: high “do”
- Grade 2: melodic ostinato
- Grade 2: pentatonic scale
- Grade 3: low “so” and “la”
- Grade 3: pitch contour
- Grade 4: melody maps
- Grade 4: five line staff & pitch names in treble clef
- Grade 4: major and minor tonality
- Grade 4: major scale and intervals (unison, step, skip, leap)
- Grade 4: key signatures
- Grade 4: accidentals
Dynamics & Expressive Controls
- Grade 1: Loud vs Soft
- Grade 1: smooth & detached articulation
- Grade 2: Crescendo & Decrescendo
- Grade 2: articulation (legato/staccato)
- Grade 3: Standard Dynamic Symbols
- Grade 3: articulation and expression marks (staccato/legato, crescendo/decrescendo)
- Grade 4: changes in volume
- Grade 4: articulation (phrase markings)
Timbre
- Grade 1: Vocal Quality
- Grade 1: Body percussion
- Grade 1: Pitched & unpitched instruments
- Grade 1: environmental and found sounds
- Grade 2: classification of instruments by sound
- Grade 3: classification of instrument by sound production
- Grade 4: ensemble instruments
Texture / Harmony
- Texture
- Grade 1: single melodic line (monophony)
- Grade 2: melody & accompaniment
- Grade 2: burdun patterns on “do” and “so”
- Grade 3: two-part rounds, partner songs, canons
- Grade 4: canon
- Grade 4: two-part polyphony
Form
- Grade 1: Phrase
- Grade 1: Call and response
- Grade 2: binary (AB) form
- Grade 2: verse & chorus
- Grade 3: section
- Grade 3: ternary (ABA) form
- Grade 4: verse and chorus
- Grade 4: introduction & coda, repeats