From the National Association for Music Education website: The 2014 Music Standards are all about Music Literacy. The standards emphasize conceptual understanding in areas that reflect the actual processes in which musicians engage. The standards cultivate a student’s ability to carry out the three Artistic Processes* of
Creating,
Performing, and
Responding.
These are the processes that musicians have followed for generations, even as they connect through music to their selves and their societies. And isn’t competence in Creating, Performing, and Responding what we really want for our students? Students need to have experience in creating, to be successful musicians and to be successful 21st century citizens. Students need to perform – as singers, as instrumentalists, and in their lives and careers. Students need to respond to music, as well as to their culture, their community, and their colleagues. The new standards provide teachers with frameworks that closely match the unique goals of their specialized classes. The standards are presented in a grade-by-grade sequence from pre-K through grade 8, and discrete strands address common high-school music classes, such as Ensembles and Music Composition/Theory. The standards are provided in “strands” that represent the principal ways music instruction is delivered in the United States.