National Standard for Music Education #1

As a singer, I...

• Sing the right notes, in tune, with few mistakes.
• Sing the right rhythms and keep a steady beat.
• Use an open and free tone quality.
• Support my tone with a good breath.
• Pronounce words clearly with good vowel and consonant sounds.
• Use a good body position.

National Standard for Music Education #2

As an instrumentalist, I…

• Play the right notes, in tune, with few mistakes.
• Play the right rhythms and keep a steady beat.
• Play with an open and free tone quality.
• Support my tone with a good breath.
• Use a good body and hand position.
• Play accompaniment parts correctly.

National Standard for Music Education #3

As an improviser, I…

• Make up musical ideas that respond to the ideas of other performers
• Create repeated rhythmic and melodic patterns that accompany other music
• Vary melodies that I know by changing the rhythm or melody in different ways

National Standard for Music Education #4

As a composer, I…

• Create and arrange music that accompanies a story or dramatic reading
• Write and arrange songs and pieces for instruments that follows directions from my teacher
• Use a variety of voices, instruments, and other sources of sound when I write music.

National Standard for Music Education #5

As a performer, I…

• Read rhythms from notation correctly…
• Perform melodies from notation correctly. I know both the letter names and solfa names…
• Perform musical symbols and directions accurately and can tell you what they mean…
• Identify the letter names of notes on the staff…
• Write rhythms and pitches correctly in stick notation and 
• staff notation…

…with at least 75% accuracy.

National Standard for Music Education #6

As a listener, I…

• Can tell you what kind of music I’m listening to.
• Describe what I hear in the music.
• Use my musical vocabulary correctly when I tell what is happening in the music.
• Can tell you what the form of the music is by listening to it.
• Can tell what kind of instrument or voice is performing when I hear it.
• Respond to what I hear through movement.

National Standard for Music Education #7

As a growing musician, I…

• Can identify some ways to tell if a performance is a good one or not, and then I use them to judge the quality of a performance.
• Explain why I like certain kinds of music using my musical vocabulary words.
• I can tell you which skills I’m good at and why. I can explain how I am working to improve my musical skills.

National Standard for Music Education #8

As a student of the arts, I…

• Explain how terms used in music are the same as or different from how they are used in the other arts.
• Show how an event, scene, feeling, or idea might be represented in the different arts.
• Describe how what I am learning in music relates to or helps me with other subjects in school.

National Standard for Music Education #9

As a historian and lover of music, I…

• Can tell you how I use music in my daily life, and why certain music is good for different activities that I do.
• Explain the functions of music and musicians in different cultures and traditions.
• Describe what makes different types of music unique.
• Demonstrate good audience behavior for the many ways and places I listen to music.