Music

The music program at PS 527 provides engaging experiences that are appropriately aligned to NYC Blueprints for the Arts to teach the fundamentals of music. In weekly music classes, children are creating, singing, and performing on instruments. Classes also function as choral ensembles that rehearse for and perform multiple concerts annually.

Music literacy begins in kindergarten and first grade when students learn to express pitch through melodic contour drawings and singing in solfege. Rhythm is internalized through movement, and expressed through syllables and standard notation. Students in second grade learn to identify and categorize instruments as they listen to various ensembles and genres. Students in third and fourth grade participate in Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program, which connects recorder and vocal performance to classical music repertoire and culminates in an interactive performance at Carnegie Hall. Music technology is utilized in the computer lab where students create compositions of varied form and instrumentation with the notation software Noteflight. Students learn basic piano keyboard skills on midi controllers to record original music into Garageband. 

In fourth and fifth grade students can elect to join the school band where they can play keyboards, guitars, percussion or trumpet.  They perform a repertoire that spans from Latin jazz to contemporary pop.