Music

The mission of OLA music is to provide a Catholic, faith-filled music education through the performance of music and the exposure to a wide range of musical concepts.

The music curriculum is broken down according to the grade level of the student. As the student continues through the music program growing in music abilities and knowledge, a variety of opportunities are available such as singing in a choir, and performing on string or wind instruments. At each level, the standards based curriculum follows a consistent pattern of learning going deeper into each section of the California music standards. These sections are:

Artistic Perception

Is the processing, analyzing, and responding to music. In simpler terms this is the students’ general ability to read, write, and perform music. This also includes their ability to identify musical concepts within an audio or written example of music.

(CA Music Standard 1.0)

Creative Expression

This is the creative portion of the music dealing with the musicianship of students within a performance and participation in the process of creating music. These can both be applied whether singing or performing on an instrument.

(CA Music Standard 2.0)

Historical and Cultural Context

Is the valuing of the music within our own culture and other foreign cultures. I find it to be very important to gain an understanding of where our music came from starting with some of the earliest music in the church. It is fun to draw relationships between the music we hear every day and the music that was created hundreds of years ago.

(CA Music Standard 3.0)

Aesthetic Valuing

Is the ability to respond, analyze and make judgements about works of music. With music in our daily lives, it is so important for students to have the ability to critically assess the value of a performance and derive meaning from works of music based on what they know about elements of music, aesthetic qualities, and human responses. In simple terms this is the ability to talk about music preferences using terminology and knowledge about music, and ability to identify how musical elements are used to create specific moods.

(CA Music Standard 4.0)

Connections, Relationships, and Applications

This includes connecting music to other forms of art such as visual art or dance. It also includes the ability to see music as a career and discover situations in our world that includes music as a career . It is also an opportunity to encourage other career-related skills such as hard work, discipline, and teamwork.

(CA Music Standard 5.0)