Middle School General Music Lessons for Long-Term Subs and Leave Cover
If you are covering a middle school general music position for a maternity or medical leave, this is a full grade 6–8 curriculum you can teach from on day one: listening lessons, theory basics, creative projects and assessments with answer keys and rubrics. It is no-prep and sequenced, so classes keep moving for weeks or months without you rebuilding the course in the evenings.
See the music curriculum →Music Complete – Middle School is a digital general music curriculum for grades 6–8, priced from $149.90. A long-term sub gets worksheets, slides, activities and answer keys covering listening and analysis, notation and rhythm, music and culture, and composing or performing tasks. Lessons are no-prep and sequenced, so students keep getting real instruction while the regular teacher is out. Recordings are not included; you play your own clips.
The curriculum
Music Complete – Middle School, Grades 6–8
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 Middle School Music (Grades 6–8)
Music Complete – Ready-to-Use Curriculum for High School Music (Grades 9–12)
Music History & Style Periods Bundle | Baroque, Classical, Romantic & Impressionism | 4 Complete Units | Grades 9–12
Teach-Life-Balance: The Complete Time-Saving Course for Teachers (incl. Planner, Guides & Templates)
The real problem
What makes a long general music leave hard
Short-term sub plans in music usually mean a movie and a word search. That stops working by week two of a leave, when grades are due and students start asking when they will actually make music again. General music is also the class where a sub is most likely to be teaching outside their training. You may be a strong classroom manager who has never taught intervals, or a musician who has never run a room of thirty sixth graders with a cart of hand drums. The absent teacher's notes, if there are any, rarely say where each class stopped in theory or which listening pieces they already heard. Grade 6, 7 and 8 sections often meet on rotating days, so you juggle three levels at once. And you still need gradebook entries that a returning teacher, a principal or a parent can make sense of: written checks, rubric-scored performance tasks, something more than participation points. Pulling that together from scattered free files takes evenings you do not have when you are new to the building.
Why it fits
How the curriculum covers the leave
The resources are organized so a teacher stepping in mid-year can find a sensible next lesson for each grade without guessing.
- Units build across grades 6–8, so you can place each section by what it already knows.
- Listening lessons on program vs absolute music make a strong opener that needs only one recording.
- Theory foundations cover notation, rhythm, meter, scales and intervals, with answer keys you can grade from.
- Composing, improvising and arranging tasks keep students making music without an ensemble rehearsal plan.
- Rubrics and written assessments produce grades the returning teacher can read and trust.
- Differentiated tasks help when one class mixes total beginners with students who take private lessons.
Getting started
Your first two weeks in the music room
Here is one way to use the curriculum when you start a leave mid-year. Adjust it to the rotation you inherit.
- Day 1: Run a listening lessonStart every grade with a listening and describing activity. Students talk about genre, tempo and mood, and you get a quick read on how much vocabulary each class already has before you commit to a theory unit.
- Days 2–3: Check theory with a reviewUse a review activity on notation and rhythm as a low-stakes diagnostic. The answer keys let you sort the class quickly into students who read rhythms confidently and students who need the basics again.
- Week 1: Place each grade in a unitCompare what you saw with the absent teacher's notes and choose a starting unit per grade. Because the units are sequenced, you can pick up in the middle without leaving gaps for the returning teacher.
- Week 2: Add one creative taskAssign a short composing or arranging project in small groups. It gives restless classes something to build, and the rubric means you grade against clear criteria from the start.
- End of week 2: Enter real gradesRecord one written check and one rubric score per student. That gives administrators and parents evidence of instruction and gives the regular teacher a clean picture when they come back.
Which version
Starter, Extended or Pro for a leave
For a leave of a few weeks, Starter with 50+ resources at $149.90 usually holds enough lessons across the three grades. If you expect to be in the room for a semester or longer, Extended at $199.90 gives you 90+ resources, which means fewer repeats and more choice when a class moves faster than planned. Pro at $239.90 adds the Teach-Life-Balance course with a planner, guides and templates. It does not add music content, so choose it only if organizing your own week in a new school is the part that worries you most.
Honest limits
What you still bring to the room
There is no audio or video in the package, so every listening lesson needs recordings or clips you find yourself, and no instruments come with it. It is not a concert plan; if the absent teacher had a performance on the calendar, that needs its own conversation with the school. Compare the units with your state and district music requirements. If the department wants to share the files among several teachers, send Teach Lessons a short note first. Should it turn out to be the wrong fit, you can swap it within 7 days for store credit of equal value.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Is this aligned to the National Core Arts Standards?
It is not endorsed or certified by any standards body, and we do not claim official alignment. It is written for U.S. middle school general music and covers listening, theory, creating, performing and assessment. Before you build your grading around it, compare the units with your state or district requirements and with anything the absent teacher left in their plans.
I am not a music specialist. Can I still teach this?
Much of the material is listening, describing and vocabulary work that a confident classroom teacher can run with the slides and answer keys. Theory lessons on notation, rhythm and intervals take more preparation if you do not read music, so preview them a day ahead. The keys mean you are never working out correct answers in front of the class.
Can I start in the middle of the school year?
Yes. You can use the full sequence or pick individual units, so each grade starts where the class actually is. A short review activity in the first week usually shows you where to begin. Since units build across grades 6–8, a struggling eighth grade class can also borrow an earlier unit without the material feeling too young for them.
How do I grade a general music class I have known for a week?
Use the written assessments for theory and listening, and the rubrics for performance and composing tasks. That mix gives you grades based on stated criteria instead of impressions. It also leaves the returning teacher with records they can follow, which matters if the leave ends close to a report card deadline.
What if my assignment gets extended?
Medical leaves often change length. Starter is enough for a shorter stretch, but if there is a real chance your assignment grows to a full semester, starting with Extended and its 90+ resources gives you more material across all three grades. The Music History & Style Periods Bundle is also in the store if a class wants more listening depth.
Will I have it in time for Monday?
Access is instant. After purchase a download link arrives by email, and the files also sit in your customer account under Orders. You can print worksheets over the weekend or project slides from a laptop on your first morning, with nothing to wait for in the mail at a school where you may not have a mailbox yet.
Teach music for the whole leave, not just week one
The product page shows the three grade levels, the content areas and a browser preview of three sample documents.
See the music curriculum →