Kansas Music Standard #5: The teacher of music has skills in listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

Knowledge

• The teacher knows technical and symbolic vocabulary of music.
• The teacher understands the organization of sound in musical forms.
• The teacher understands the common elements of music and their interaction through aural and visual analysis.

Performance

• The teacher identifies, through visual and aural analysis, composers and music representing diverse styles, periods, cultures, genres, and techniques of musical organization.
• The teacher describes compositional devices and techniques.
• The teacher demonstrates effective strategies for developing students’ growth through a variety of active musical experiences.

Analyzing and describing music is important to the planning and preparation of classroom lessons. It is also important because analyzing music gives the teacher the proper knowledge for applying the information while conducting, teaching, and performing. I have included an analysis of a choral piece I conducted in University Choir as well as my analysis of the choral piece for my unit included on the website. These analyses allowed me to tailor my lesson plans around the elements of music integral to the music. I have also included a theory worksheet which I created chords and analyzed excerpts of music later applicable to entire works for the classroom.