Music Classes
Advanced Guitar
Advanced Guitar is for those students who have prior experience playing the guitar. Students must have the ability to read treble clef. Topics include, music theory, sight reading, learning left and right hand technique, understanding different musical styles, playing music by ear, scales, chords and songwriting. This class focuses on playing and performing together as a group.
Chamber Choir
The chamber choir is a select group of students, who demonstrate enthusiasm and commitment to singing choral literature from classics to classic jazz. Auditions are required and open to both boys and girls.
Drum Orchestra
Students enrolled in the drum orchestra experience a year-long intensive course that covers a range of music arriving from the African Diaspora. In the class, students gain an understanding of the historical and social significance of the music, as well as the principles of drumming required to perform such material. These principles include communication, leadership, call and response, the rhythmic pulse, and more. The Drum Orchestra does at least two in-school performances and several off-campus performances throughout the year.
History Through Music
This course follows the development of music from its ancient roots in Shamanism through the centuries to the present day. This material is explored through live and taped musical performances, biographical presentations, and primary resource materials. Throughout this course, we follow several themes: the polarities of subjective vs. objective reality and form vs. content, as well as the development of economic and political systems and their impact on the creation and profession of music. Each student is expected to take thorough notes, present an oral and written biography of a composer, and demonstrate their learning through several essays. In lieu of a final exam, they create a confidential, autobiographical project that illustrates important junctures in their lives through musical selections and the written word Homework assignments related directly to the above mentioned themes and punctuality and participation are particularly important, being both encouraged and expected.
Jazz Band
The SFWHS Jazz Ensemble offers students an opportunity to perform a variety of styles common to the idiom. Participants learn the language aspects of jazz and improvised music (scales, chord types, common chord progressions, rhythms, etc.) and perform a repertoire that balances the wide range of compositions from the genre.
Orchestra
For the orchestra, students are evaluated on preparation, which includes learning the music and coming to class on time with music and instrument. In addition, the members of the ensemble are evaluated on attitude and involvement during rehearsals. Finally, students are expected to make some progress on their instrument during the course of the class from time spent in private lessons and practice.
SF Youth Eurythmy Group
TBD
World Music
In this class, students are encouraged to expand their outlook by studying the music of different countries. Every day is spent listening and absorbing sounds from around the globe, from Afro Cuban rhumba to Romanian folk songs to Indian classical music. Ethnomusicological analysis is used to understand the technical aspects of the many diverse styles of music found on our planet but we don't just treat this as an intellectual discourse. The spirit of creativity and the feeling of music is central to our discussions. We try to immerse ourselves in the cultures we are examining by learning to play some of the music, viewing various documentaries, attending concert performances, and listening to guest lectures (whenever possible). Our goal is to understand how we are different yet the same by using the universal solvent that is music to reveal our collective human soul.