The installment in the My Music Journal, designed for Seventh Grade students, will expand on the material learned in all previous textbooks to continue the students’ musical education throughout grade seven. Through listening, singing, playing instruments, performing rhythms, responding to music with movement, composing, and improvising, students in seventh grade gain a deeper understanding of the elements of music. As students read and write increasingly complicated music notation, they continue their exploration of music theory. Students exhibit knowledge of the connections between music and history, culture, technology, and other knowledge domains through musical experiences. Students will identify melodic patterns containing steps, skips, and leaps when reading music will read and notate rhythmic patterns that include sixteenth notes, dotted notes, and corresponding rests. This textbook will teach students a wider array of melodic information, including sharps, flats, and naturals. The terms largo, adagio, andante, moderato, allegro, presto, accelerando, and ritardando will also be explored in this textbook. In the seventh grade, students continue to learn and identify differences in voice ranges and timbre: soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass. Students will identify and describe the cultures, musical styles, composers, and historical periods associated with the studied music literature.

Teacher and student follow the same textbook. The teacher receives also Curriculum Outline and Assessments for My Music Journal - Music Teaching Method for Seventh Grade.

My Music Journal Teaching Method for Seventh Grade will teach the following:

Concept: Rhythm
The student will:
•recognize all meter signatures
•explain the underlying mathematics of each meter
•indicate measures that do not belong in a given meter
•write examples of measures in each meter
• accompany the beat of a composition with the instrument, movement, or body percussion
•review the identification of notes in a score
•review, perform and explain tied notes, slurs, and triplets
•perform rhythmic compositions vocally or using classroom instruments
•identify irregular meter in listening selections
•perform and conduct irregular meter compositions
•read and perform syncopated rhythm patterns

Concept: Melody
The student will:
•perform melodic patterns on a classroom instrument
•define melody as a combination of pitch and duration
•identify recurring melodic patterns
•describe or illustrate melodic contour
•recognize sequencing in a listening selection
•review the recurrence of a melodic theme
•review and discuss the tonality of a selection as major/minor
•identify chromatic structure in a score and in a listening selection
•recognize and perform selected intervals
•identify a cadence in a listening selection
•identify the treble and bass in a score

Concept: Tone Color
The student will:
• understand and identify differences in voice ranges and timbre: soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass
•explore and chart his/her vocal range
• compose instrumental compositions using various tone colors and environmental sounds
• explore or explain the capabilities of a synthesizer (if available) or another electronic resource

Concept: Tempo
The student will:
• identify and define largo, adagio, andante, moderato, allegro, presto,accelerando, and ritardando
• sing, play, and perform rhythmic body movement to various tempo markings correctly
•perform rhythmic body movement to identify changes in tempo
•explain the purpose of the metronome and use it to demonstrate tempo

Concept: Dynamics
The student will:
•review dynamic markings
•identify and discuss contrasting dynamics in listening selections
•apply dynamic markings in singing, playing, and creating compositions
•identify and discuss contrasting dynamics in various historical periods

Concept: Form
The student will:
•listen to examples of a fugue
•identify a fugue when heard in a symphonic composition
•name the components of a fugue
•distinguish the entrances of a fugue from episodes
•follow the notations of a fugue
•create and perform a spoken fugue
•identify a motif when heard in a symphonic composition
•review ternary (ABA) form
•create a ternary composition
•identify a blues composition

Concept: Harmony/Texture
The student will:
•identify listening selections as homophonic, polyphonic, or monophonic
•perform songs in a variety of textures: ostinati, partner songs, descants, countermelodies, rounds, two-part and simple three-part harmony
•review the difference between the thick and thin texture
•perform an accompaniment with a song
•recognize and construct major/minor triads and other chords
•identify chord changes
•identify and/or accompany a composition with I-IV-V-I chord progression

Concept: Style
The student will:
•identify, listen to, discuss, and perform various styles of music, e.g., folk songs from various cultures, bluegrass, ragtime, American jazz, rock
•discuss and perform music from American musical theatre
•study musical selections in their historical setting
•listen to, discuss, and perform the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
•listen to, discuss, and identify music of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods

Apollo Publishing has 9 music textbooks for each grade level, K-8. Each grade level is Teacher and Student edition. Teacher and student follow the same textbook. In addition teacher receives Curriculum Outline and Assessments for each grade level.