Music

At Atrium, students explore music each day through listening, through singing and playing, and through creating and composing. They learn music as a joyful language and as a serious art, as a medium of cultural expression, and as a way to communicate and express their own ideas, experiences, questions, and dreams. In all music classes – from the first explorations in PreK to the deeper and more sophisticated projects in the Upper Elementary and Middle School classes – students work both individually and collaboratively, building skills in music literacy, performance, and composition.

Atrium's instrument program involves every grade, PreK to eighth, and provides a comprehensive survey of diverse instruments, and a foundation in the major instrument families: percussion (both unpitched and pitched), winds, strings, and keyboard.

Percussion Instruments: Across all grades students play a broad array of percussion instruments. Pitched percussion instruments such as xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels expand students’ ability to play melodies, understand melodic structure, and work together as an ensemble. Unpitched percussion instruments convey a vibrant array of musical colors and textures, as well as the rich musical language and traditions of many different cultures. With them, students build skills in rhythm and ensemble playing, while exploring ways to bring stories and characters to life through the many different kinds of sounds.

Ukuleles: Elementary students, beginning in second grade, play soprano ukuleles, while middle school students play the slightly larger concert ukuleles. Smaller and simpler than a guitar, the ukulele allows students to progress quickly so that they are soon playing their first chords and can follow the chordal structure of simple songs. With its soft gentle sound, ukuleles readily blend together so that students can play together as a group. The skills developed in learning to play the ukulele will help students to learn other stringed instruments they might like to pursue in the future, such as guitar, violin, and cello.

Keyboards: Knowledge of the keyboard is fundamental to understanding so much about music: from building music literacy and exploring music theory to building skills in other instruments. Students in all grades build familiarity with the keyboard. In Upper Elementary and Middle School, students further build their technical skills and learn fundamental chords and chord sequences.

Recorders: Students in Grades 4 and 5 have their own recorders and learn basic woodwind skills such as breath control, finger coordination and dexterity, and articulation in the context of different musical explorations. Students play together as a recorder ensemble and push their woodwind skills to new levels over the course of two years.

Students who learn to play instruments at school or who take instrument lessons privately outside of school will have opportunities to perform solo or as part of an instrumental ensemble in music class and at assemblies. All-school assemblies frequently include music and singing, performed by individual classes or the whole school community.