How to Teach High School General Music
Teachers with an education degree and an emphasis in music, or a music degree with an emphasis in education, can be hired to teach high school music. High school music encompasses several different areas. High school general music is choir and vocal classes that are taught to mixed gender classes. General music is not specialized, like band, orchestra, jazz bands, or show choirs. General music is intended to give students an overall view of music and a general singing instruction.
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Instructions
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Understand what you are responsible for, and get a copy of your schedule. Most general music teachers will teach several hours of general music per day. In small schools, you might also be hired to teach band, orchestra, or other musical classes. Separate anything else from your general music curriculum.
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Begin the year with three weeks of general music instruction. Have all students sing privately for you so that they can be placed into soprano, alto, tenor and base groups. Pass out simple one and two part harmony songs to work on each day for warm ups. In the first weeks, do 10 minutes of singing each day, and spend the rest of the class period with general music instruction.
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Teach general music instruction, including how to read music, what the treble and bass signs look like and do, and the basic key signatures. Teach rests, notes and phrasing as well as the general outlay of a song.
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Move to the second quarter of your semester. Expand your singing per day to between 20 minutes and half the class period. Spend the second part of your class period learning about specific music cultures and practices--classical music, rock music, country music and cultural music are a few of the areas you might decide to study. Decide these areas based on the make up of your class, their specific ages and the songs you'll be teaching during the year.
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Switch your focus to more singing and less instruction at the half way point of your semester or of the time you have with the students. For the next few weeks, work on music and singing in a group for three-quarters the amount of class time you have. Work hard on songs for contests and concerts. The last fourth of your class period can be for answering questions, working on individual parts, and finishing instruction on types of music or certain musical elements that need to be taught.
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Transition to spending your entire class period singing when you have only one fourth of your original semester or year left with the students. Students should begin exploring the range of their voices, and the music you teach can be more difficult. Prepare for contests and concerts in this way.
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Tips & Warnings
Schedule your concerts so that your youngest students do not sing on the first concert of the year. This will give them time to learn more about singing before they perform.
