I Can Read Music! Foundational Music Theory Book for Band, Orchestra & Choir

This 35 page music theory book is perfect for beginning band, orchestra or choir in middle school. Students will learn treble, bass, and viola clef lines and spaces as well as note reading skills, and an understanding of basic rhythms and time signatures, 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4. Unit assessment and teacher key is included.

This book can be used for anyone who is learning the basics of music reading. However, I wrote this for the specific purpose of getting all of my beginning 6th grade students on the same page before starting Concert Band or Orchestra. I teach both middle school band and orchestra, and my sixth grade beginners are always in different places. The purpose of this 35 page book is to have a crash course in general music theory and music reading before we start playing instruments out of the method books.

I wrote this book to accommodate beginning band, orchestra or choir students, and every musical concept can be explored in treble, bass or viola clef. This makes for a great foundational resource that gives common ground to any middle school music student, no matter which music class they are in. I also wrote this to be simple, basic and easy to understand. This book is not meant to be a course to master music theory. Rather, it is “learning before the learning”, so all students are off to a great start in middle school music.

The goal for this resource is to give every one of your music students the knowledge of the staff, clefs, notes and rhythms that they will see when starting their method books or concert music in beginning band, orchestra or choir. Be sure to print this book out for all of your students so they can follow along, as most pages have exercises as well as lessons and information. They can always refer back to this book as a resource throughout the year. Give students the unit test at the end to truly assess their understanding.

I hope this resource is valuable to you for years to come like it has been for me! Please follow Early Ensembles by Taylor Weimer on Teachers Pay Teachers, and leave me a review if you found this valuable.

Table of Contents:

Part 1: The Staff and Clefs - Page 2

Part 2: Pitch and Note Names - Page 8

Part 3: Basic Rhythm - Page 11

Part 4: Measures and Time Signatures - Page 17

Part 5: Putting it All Together! - Page 22

Glossary of Terms and Symbols - Page 27

Unit Test - Page 29

Unit Test: Teacher Key - Page 33