Music Program Description

Music plays an important role in the lives of more than 97,000 Gwinnett County Public Schools students who are enrolled in various music programs in grades K-12. All elementary students receive music instruction from a certified general music specialist. Performing organizations in the middle and high schools include band, chorus, and orchestra. General music is offered as a connections class in middle school and the following courses are offered as electives in high school: Beginning Piano Keyboard Techniques, Introduction to Music Technology, Intermediate Music Technology, Advanced Music Technology, Music Theory, AP Music Theory, Music History, and Beginning Guitar. Instrumental students in high school can also participate in jazz band and marching band. Winter guard and percussion ensembles are other options offered at the high school level.

Gwinnett County Public Schools has two honor orchestras and an honor chorus. The honor orchestras, Kendall Honor Orchestra and the Gwinnett County Youth Symphony, are available to students in grades 6-12 by audition. The Gwinnett County Elementary Honor Chorus gives fifth grade students who are selected by their general music teacher an opportunity to perform challenging age-appropriate choral literature with a renowned children’s choir conductor.

Several of the school district’s outstanding musical ensembles have performed at the Georgia Music Educators Association, the Midwest Clinic, Music Educators National Conference, Southern Division American Choral Directors Association, Carnegie Hall, University of Georgia Performing Arts Center, Spivey Hall, American String Teachers Association, and at numerous other national and international events.

Music programs are also part of Gwinnett County Public Schools curriculum for the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, a charter school that opened in 2007. This school has a wind symphony, string orchestra, and a piano lab in which classical music is studied. The technical education program at Grayson High School has a state-of-the-art music recording studio and music technology lab. At the beginning of the 2008-09 school year there will be music technology labs in sixteen high schools in the district. These music technology labs have music software applications for composition, notation, sequencing, film scoring, and recording.

Elementary School Music Program

The Gwinnett County Public Schools elementary music education program seeks to help children become makers of music as well as perceptive listeners. It also provides basic information about music vocabulary, music history, and aural recognition of folk and classical music which will lay the foundation for the students to grow into culturally literate adults. To achieve these goals, music education must be an agent for generating the intellectual and emotional excitement that helps bring people and music into close contact. The first obligation to the children is to help them develop an attitude toward music which will ultimately reveal to them a personal value in music.

Students will be exposed to various styles of teaching designed to sensitize, develop, and enlarge not only the appreciation of music, but also an understanding of music. It is important for each child to explore music in all its concepts: singing, listening, rhythmic movement, playing and learning about instruments, and creating music. Children have the right to explore their capacities in the field of music in ways which stimulate their imagination and creativity and which bring them happiness and a sense of well-being.

To achieve the goal of children as performers of music, the music curriculum is presented through a spiraling set of objectives which introduce, explore, expand, and refine basic musical skills from kindergarten through fifth grade. The elements of music include: pitch, duration, dynamics and other musical controls, form, timbre, style, and expression. The music curriculum is also integrated with other curriculum areas, and the elementary music students are given an opportunity to see the connections through their weekly music lessons.

Students have the opportunity to make music through guided instruction in singing and playing instruments, alone and with others. Children want to sing, and it is important to nurture this natural ability and desire. Each child is given opportunities to experience music with other students. These experiences include unison singing with a group and singing in small groups through rounds, partner songs, or part singing. Students also play instruments in small groups and learn to identify the elements of music through the ensemble playing.

All of these musical experiences are worthwhile and contribute to the child’s educational growth. They tell the child that music is an art which is unique and important in its own right. At the same time the musical experiences tell the child that music is art which is relevant to other areas of life. Music is fun and hopefully the “fun” experience is underlined by depth of music knowledge and conceptual understanding which will give the child a clear approach to their musicianship.

Music, pure and simple, is a precious and intrinsically valuable art form. The study of music offers students a lifetime of musical benefits and leads to lifelong pleasure and achievement.