Teaching Middle School General Music Out of Field: A Ready Curriculum
If you were handed middle school general music without a music degree, Music Complete – Middle School gives you a full grades 6–8 course already built: listening lessons, theory worksheets with answer keys, slides and classroom-friendly performance tasks. You teach from it the first week and check your own understanding against the keys as you go, instead of writing a music course from scratch at night.
Open the music 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, and creating and performing, with worksheets, slides, activities and answer keys. A teacher without music training can follow the carefully sequenced units, check theory answers against the keys, and grade performance tasks with the included rubrics. It is digital and downloads instantly.
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)
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Teach-Life-Balance: The Complete Time-Saving Course for Teachers (incl. Planner, Guides & Templates)
The real problem
Where an out-of-field music assignment gets hard
The hard part is rarely the singing or the clapping games. It is the moment a seventh grader asks why a piece is in 3/4, or what separates an interval from a chord, and you are not sure yourself. General music rests on a layer of vocabulary, meter, tempo, motif, scale, that trained music teachers use without thinking and that you have to learn fast enough to explain. Listening lessons are the second trap. Pressing play is easy. Getting twelve-year-olds to describe what they hear in musical terms, rather than saying it sounds sad, takes structured prompts. Teaching program music versus absolute music, or showing how a film score brings back a motif, means knowing what to listen for before class starts. Then there is grading. A composition task or a group performance needs criteria you can defend to a parent, and without a music background you may not trust your own ear. All of this lands on top of whatever else you already teach, so there is no quiet summer to study theory first. You need material where the musical knowledge is already written down.
Why it fits
How the curriculum carries the music knowledge for you
The content expertise sits in the materials, so you can teach accurately while you are still learning the subject.
- Answer keys for notation, rhythm, scales and intervals let you confirm a correct answer before you mark it.
- Listening lessons give students the vocabulary of form, motifs and expressive elements to describe what they hear.
- Program versus absolute music is laid out on the page, so you can teach the contrast with confidence.
- Rubrics for performance-based and written assessments give you grading criteria you did not have to invent.
- Composing, improvising and arranging tasks are classroom-friendly and do not assume an ensemble background.
- Differentiated tasks help when a few students read music fluently and the rest have never seen a staff.
Getting started
Your first two weeks as the music teacher
One way to start, assuming you begin teaching within days of buying.
- Look at the three free samples firstBefore buying, open the browser preview on the product page: Music in the Orchestra – Instruments, Sound Art & Experimental Music, and Joseph Haydn – Biography & Works. It shows the level of explanation you will work with.
- Work the theory sheets yourselfTake the first notation and rhythm worksheets home, complete them as a student would, then check against the answer keys. Twenty quiet minutes this way does more for your confidence than a theory textbook.
- Build your own listening playlistNo audio is included, so collect the recordings each listening lesson calls for through your school's streaming account or a library. Queue them before class so you are never searching while thirty students wait.
- Open with listening, not notationStarting with genres lets students talk about music they already know, from film scores to pop. It also buys you a few weeks to get ahead on the theory units at home.
- Try one rubric earlyUse a short composing or improvising task in week two and grade it with the included rubric. You see what the criteria look like in practice before a larger performance project comes due.
Which version
Starter, Extended or Pro for an out-of-field year
If this is your full-year assignment, Extended at $199.90 is the sensible choice. Its 90+ resources mean you are never stretching a thin unit to fill time, which is exactly when an unfamiliar subject gets shaky. Starter at $149.90, with 50+ resources, fits a quarter or semester rotation. Pro at $239.90 adds Teach-Life-Balance, a digital course with a planner, guides and templates. It does not teach music; it helps with workload. If music was added on top of an already full load, that may be worth the difference. If not, skip it.
Honest limits
What it will not do for you
It will not supply recordings, video or instruments. You bring the listening examples and whatever classroom instruments your school owns. It is written for U.S. middle school classrooms, but you should check it against your own state or district music requirements. No separate background manual for adults is listed, so if you want a deeper theory refresher, plan to find one. Before a colleague teaches from your copy, send Teach Lessons a short message. And if it turns out to be the wrong fit, you have 7 days to exchange it for store credit of equal value; there is no cash refund.
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 with the National Core Arts Standards or any state framework. It is written for U.S. middle school classrooms and covers listening, theory, creating and performing. Compare the content on the product page with your state or district requirements before relying on it for documentation.
I cannot read music. Can I still teach the theory units?
Yes, if you are willing to stay a lesson ahead. The theory work starts with notation, rhythm and meter, and each worksheet has an answer key, so you can work through a sheet the evening before and know what correct looks like. Scales, intervals and basic chords come later, which gives you time to build up.
What do I do about the listening examples?
The lessons tell students what to listen for, but no audio or video is included. Use your school's streaming service, library recordings or legally available clips. Gather the pieces for a unit before you start it, and test the classroom speakers once, because poor sound undermines any listening lesson no matter how good the prompts are.
My students expect to sing or play. Is there performance work?
Yes. The creating, performing and presenting strand includes composing, improvising and arranging, classroom-friendly performance activities, group projects and presentations. These are designed for a general music room rather than an ensemble, so students without private lessons can take part. Instruments are not included; use voices, body percussion or whatever your school already has.
How do I grade music fairly without a music background?
Use the included rubrics for performance-based and written assessments. They break a task into criteria you can observe, so you score what the student actually did rather than how it sounded to your ear. Review activities and written assessments, checked against the answer keys, give you the objective part of the grade.
Can I use only some units if I share the course with another teacher?
The units work individually as well as in sequence, so splitting the year is possible. If the other teacher will also use the materials, contact Teach Lessons before buying. The licence covers the buyer's own instruction, and use across a teaching team or school needs that short message first.
Teach the music course you were given
See what each version contains and open the three sample documents in your browser before you decide.
Open the music curriculum →