High School Music Curriculum for Charter School Teachers
A charter high school that wants a real music elective but has no course on file can start with this. Music Complete – High School gives a grades 9–12 teacher sequenced units in listening and analysis, music theory, and applying theory to performance and composition, with slides, differentiated worksheets and answer keys available as soon as you check out.
View the high school course →Music Complete – High School is a fully structured music curriculum for grades 9–12, priced from $149.90 for 50+ resources. It covers listening across periods and genres, program vs absolute music, harmony and texture, advanced rhythm and meter, scales, intervals and harmonic progressions, and applying theory to performance and composition. It suits charter teachers who need a course built quickly. Access is instant. Recordings are not included, and the content should be checked against your state's requirements.
The curriculum
Music Complete – High School, Grades 9–12
Start with the full curriculum. The other resources below are optional add-ons. Open any cover for the full contents and price.
Music Complete – Ready-to-Use Curriculum for High School Music (Grades 9–12)
High School Music Complete Bundle | 15 Ready-to-Teach Units | Grades 9–12
Music History & Style Periods Bundle | Baroque, Classical, Romantic & Impressionism | 4 Complete Units | Grades 9–12
Music Complete – Ready-to-Use Curriculum for Middle School Music (Grades 6–8)
Teach-Life-Balance: The Complete Time-Saving Course for Teachers (incl. Planner, Guides & Templates)
The real problem
Building a high school music elective from nothing
At many charter high schools, music arrives as a promise in the enrollment brochure before it exists as a course. The person hired to deliver it is often a performer or a former band director who now has to write a non-ensemble class for teenagers who chose it as an elective, or were placed in it to fill a schedule. The roster is wide. One student has taken years of piano lessons and reads chord symbols; the student beside them has never seen a staff. Both expect to earn the same credit, and the school expects a syllabus, assessments and grades that hold up when families or an authorizer visit. There is rarely a department to borrow from, and the budget may stretch to a projector and speakers but not to a choir library or a room of keyboards. High schoolers also notice quickly when a course is improvised week to week. They want to know where it is going, and they want to talk about the music they actually listen to alongside the canon. Doing that well takes a theory spine that keeps getting harder from ninth to twelfth grade, and building that spine yourself takes a summer most charter hires do not get.
Why it fits
Why it works for a new charter music course
The curriculum treats music as something to analyze and build, which suits an elective room without an ensemble behind it.
- Listening units range from classical and jazz to film, rock and contemporary music, taking teenagers' own music seriously.
- Harmonic progressions, intervals and chords are sequenced so theory deepens from grade 9 through grade 12.
- Lessons ask students to apply theory to listening, performance and composition rather than just completing drills.
- Program vs absolute music, form, motifs and texture give written analysis a precise vocabulary.
- Differentiated worksheets let an experienced player and a first-timer work on the same concept.
- Units can stand alone, so a semester elective can take a slice and a yearlong course the whole sequence.
Getting started
Getting the elective running in two weeks
A suggested order for the first stretch of the course. It is a starting point, not a calendar that comes in the package.
- Sort units by theory difficultyAfter downloading, line the theory material up from advanced rhythm and meter to harmonic progressions. That ordering becomes the backbone you hang listening and composing lessons on for the whole term.
- Run a quick placement checkUse an early theory worksheet as an informal pretest in week one. It shows who reads notation, who needs the basics, and which differentiated version of later tasks each student should get.
- Teach analysis with a film scorePick a film cue students know and use the listening slides on motifs and texture. Comparing it with a classical piece opens the program vs absolute music discussion naturally.
- Draft a syllabus from the unitsUse the unit topics to write the course description and grading outline your school asks for. Families and administrators see a real sequence, and you are not inventing one in a weekend.
- Assign the first applied taskEnd week two with a task that applies theory to a short composition or performance. Students use intervals or a chord progression they have just learned, which makes the theory feel useful.
Which version
Which high school music version to choose
The standard version, 50+ resources at $149.90, contains the full teaching material for grades 9–12 and is enough to run the elective. The $189.90 version adds Teach-Life-Balance, a digital course with a planner, guides and templates aimed at teacher workload. It makes sense if you are building music while also covering advisory, clubs or a second subject, which is common in small charter staffs. If you also teach middle school music at a 6–12 campus, pairing this with the Middle School Music Complete curriculum and using code TEACHMORE15 takes 15% off both.
Honest limits
Where this curriculum stops
It is a classroom course for listening, analysis, theory and composition. It does not contain ensemble repertoire, audio or video, so you provide recordings, clips and any instruments or software. It is written for U.S. high school classrooms; whether it meets your state's fine arts credit expectations is something to confirm with your school. Colleagues who want to use it should wait until you have sent Teach Lessons a short message. If it is not right for your program, you can exchange it within 7 days for store credit of equal value, not cash.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Does this curriculum have state or charter approval for fine arts credit?
No. It is not approved, adopted or endorsed by any state, charter authorizer or arts standards organization, and alignment is not guaranteed. It is written for U.S. high school music classrooms. Your school decides what earns fine arts credit, so share the unit topics with your administrator or registrar and compare them with your state's requirements before you publish the course.
Can a non-ensemble elective really fill a year with this?
The curriculum is built around listening and analysis, theory, and applying theory to composition and performance, so it does not depend on an ensemble. Analytical depth increases across grades 9–12, which helps if the same students take music for more than one year. You decide how many units to cover and how long to spend on each.
My students range from trained musicians to complete beginners. How do I handle that?
Worksheets are differentiated and the curriculum is described as suitable for mixed-ability classrooms. In practice you can give stronger readers the harder version of a theory task while beginners work on the same concept at a lighter level. Composition tasks also let experienced players push further without leaving the rest of the class behind.
Are there related products that add more music history?
Yes. The Music History & Style Periods Bundle at $74.99 adds material on historical periods, and the High School Music Complete Bundle at $129.99 is a separate 15-unit set. Neither is required to teach this curriculum, but some teachers running a longer elective may want the extra history focus.
Do I get the files right away?
Yes. After purchase a download link arrives by email, and the files also stay in your customer account under Orders. That matters at a charter where you may be hired days before classes start. You can be teaching the first listening lesson the same week.
Can other music staff at our school use it?
Use within your own teaching team or school is possible, but send Teach Lessons a short message first. The same applies if the school wants to handle the purchase: ask before buying. Posting the materials online or passing them to another school is not allowed under the licence.
Give your new elective a real sequence
The product page lists everything included in the grades 9–12 curriculum. Choose a version there and download it today.
View the high school course →