The Music Standards of Learning identify the essential knowledge and skills required in the music curriculum for each grade level or course in Virginia’s public schools. The standards outline the minimum criteria for a sequential course of study within a comprehensive music education program. The standards are designed to be cumulative, progressing in complexity by grade level from kindergarten through several sequences of high school courses. As students grow in competence, their learning thus resembles an ascent up a spiral staircase; at each level, a new door opens onto an experience that is more challenging and more rewarding. The Music Standards of Learning are meant to reinforce this continual dynamic of climbing and exploring, a process that leads to increasing competence! The standards are intended neither to encompass the entire curriculum for a given grade level or course nor to prescribe how the content should be taught. Teachers are encouraged to go beyond the standards and select instructional strategies and assessment methods appropriate for their students.
How to use this site:
Click on the links below to access your specialist’s content for the corresponding SOL.
| MP 1 (Introduce Skill) | MP 2 (Introduce Skill) | MP 3 (Beginning Mastery) | MP 4 (Mastery Level) |
| SOL #-HIA.1 Read/Notate Music (2 weeks/ongoing)SOL #-HIA.2 Rhythm Reading (2 weeks/ongoing)SOL #-HIA.8 Terminology (2 weeks/ongoing)
SOL #-HIA.11 Playing (2 weeks/ongoing) |
SOL #-HIA.3 Key Signatures (2 weeks/ongoing)SOL #-HIA.4 Major Scales (2 weeks/ongoing)SOL #-HIA.5 Chromatic Scales (2 weeks/ongoing)
SOL #-HIA.6 Form (2 weeks/ongoing) SOL #-HIA.14 Playing (2 weeks/ongoing) SOL #-HIA.17 Ensemble (2 weeks/ongoing) SOL #-HIA.19 Sight-Read (2 weeks/ongoing) |
SOL #-HIA.7 Compose (2 weeks/ongoing)SOL #-HIA.9 Improvise (2 weeks/ongoing)SOL #-HIA.10 Compose (2 weeks/ongoing)
SOL #-HIA.12 Expression (2 weeks/ongoing) SOL #-HIA.13 Expression (2 weeks/ongoing) SOL #-HIA.15 Articulation (2 weeks/ongoing) SOL #-HIA.16 Improvise (2 weeks/ongoing) SOL #-HIA.18 Musicianship (2 weeks/ongoing) SOL #-HIA.20 Music History (2 weeks/ongoing) SOL #-HIA.21 Analyze (2 weeks/ongoing) SOL #-HIA.22 Career (2 weeks/ongoing) |
NOTE:The music Standards of Learning are cumulative. Once an SOL has been introduced, students will then build upon this basic knowledge with an increase in level of difficulty and complexity. |
| Resources | Resources |