A Full-Year Middle School General Music Curriculum for the Only Music Teacher
If you are the only music teacher in your school and you teach grades 6–8 general music, Music Complete – Middle School gives you a full year of listening, theory, creating and assessment material that already builds from sixth to eighth grade. You get the sequence a music department would normally hand a new colleague, without having to build it alone at night.
See the full curriculum →Music Complete – Middle School is a no-prep general music curriculum for grades 6–8, priced from $149.90. It covers listening and analysis, music theory foundations, music and culture, creating and performing, and assessment with rubrics and differentiated tasks. For a music teacher working alone, it supplies the year-long sequence and the grade-to-grade progression that a department would usually provide. Teachers use their own audio and video 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 being the only music teacher actually costs you
When you are the only music teacher, every decision about sequence is yours. Nobody down the hall can tell you what the sixth graders already know about meter, or whether the eighth graders have ever compared program music with absolute music. You see three grade levels, often on a rotation, and you have to keep them from repeating the same note-reading lesson every year. Then there is the planning gap general music teachers know well: concerts, performance prep and duties eat the hours that colleagues in other subjects spend in shared planning. Searching for single lessons turns up elementary activities and ensemble method pages, but rarely a sequenced general music course. What you need is a class for kids who may never join band or choir, with listening, theory and composing tasks that fit a regular classroom, and a way to assess them that you can explain to an administrator who has never taught music. Building that alone, unit by unit, usually means the curriculum lives in your head and nowhere else. If you leave, it leaves with you.
Why it fits
How it fills the role of a missing department
These are the parts that matter most when there is no colleague to plan with.
- Units build across grades 6–8, so each grade level gets new material instead of repeated basics.
- Theory foundations run in order from notation and rhythm to scales, intervals, chords and basic harmony.
- Listening units span classical, film, pop, rock, jazz and contemporary music, so the year is not built on one taste.
- Composing, improvising and arranging tasks are written for a regular classroom, not an ensemble rehearsal.
- Rubrics and performance-based assessments give you grading language you can show an administrator or parent.
- Differentiated tasks help when one section mixes kids with private lessons and kids who never read music.
Getting started
Your first two weeks running it solo
One way to get started without a team, using the structure the curriculum already has.
- Sort the units by grade levelOpen the download and map which units suit sixth, seventh and eighth grade. Since the material builds across the three years, this becomes your vertical plan, the document a department head would normally keep.
- Gather your own listening clipsThe curriculum does not include audio or video. Pick recordings for the first listening lessons now, so the film music or jazz examples are ready before the slides call for them.
- Start every grade with theory basicsUse the notation, rhythm and meter material as a shared starting point, then let seventh and eighth graders move faster into scales and intervals while sixth graders consolidate.
- Add one creating task earlyChoose a short composing or improvising task in week two. It shows students that general music is more than listening and worksheets, and it gives you a first performance-based grade.
- Set up your grading with the rubricsAdapt the provided rubrics to your school's grading scale and keep them in one place. When you are the only person who can explain a music grade, written criteria save arguments.
Which version
Starter, Extended or Pro: which one a solo teacher needs
Starter has 50+ resources for $149.90 and works if you teach one or two grade levels or already have a lot of your own material. Extended, at $199.90 with 90+ resources, is the stronger choice when you cover all of grades 6–8 alone, because three grade levels use up units fast. Pro, at $239.90, adds Teach-Life-Balance, a time-saving course with a planner, guides and templates. It does not add classroom content, so choose it only if your planning hours are the real problem. If you also teach high school music, buying the High School version with this one qualifies for 15% off with code TEACHMORE15.
Honest limits
What you still handle yourself
There are no recordings, videos or instruments in the package, so you supply the listening examples and whatever classroom instruments or devices you have. The curriculum is written for U.S. middle school classrooms, but you should check it against your state or district music requirements yourself. It is a general music course, not band or choir method material. If another teacher in your school wants to use it, send Teach Lessons a short message first. If it is not a fit, you can exchange it within 7 days for store credit of equal value; this is store credit, not a cash refund.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Is it aligned to the National Core Arts Standards?
It is not endorsed or certified by any standards body, and we do not claim alignment to the National Core Arts Standards or to a specific state framework. It is written for U.S. middle school general music classrooms and covers listening, theory, creating, performing and assessment. As the only music teacher, you are the one who signs off, so compare the units with your state or district requirements before you build your year around it.
Can I see the material before buying?
Yes. The product page has a browser preview of three sample documents: Music in the Orchestra – Instruments, Sound Art & Experimental Music, and Joseph Haydn – Biography & Works. Those give you a fair sense of the layout, reading level and task style you would be teaching from across the year.
I see each grade only for a quarter. Does it still work?
The units can be used as a full sequence or on their own, so a short rotation is workable. One approach is to give each grade a theory block, a listening block and one creating task per rotation, picking units that suit the grade. You decide the pacing and how much of each strand fits.
Many of my students do not read music. Is that a problem?
No. The theory strand starts at notation and rhythm basics, and worksheets are differentiated, so a student who has never read a staff can work next to one who takes piano lessons. Listening and culture units rely on describing and analyzing what students hear, which does not depend on reading notation.
Do I need instruments or a music lab?
Nothing physical comes with it. Performance tasks are described as classroom-friendly, and the creating strand includes work with digital tools. If you have keyboards, percussion or tablets, use them. With a regular classroom and a way to play recordings, the listening and theory units still run.
Can a sub run my class during concert season?
The material is described as flexible for short lessons, review and substitute teaching. When rehearsals or festival days pull you out, a worksheet or listening analysis with an answer key is something a non-musician sub can run. That matters when there is no other music teacher to cover your class.
Plan the music year once, not every night
See what is inside each version, along with the sample documents, on the product page.
See the full curriculum →