For students ages 11-17 The Dalcroze School of the Rockies Advanced Dalcroze curriculum allows students to study music at a deep level and eventually prepares students to succeed at the College Board’s Advanced Placement Exam in Music Theory.  Our Advanced Dalcroze Courses build off of all the knowledge and information acquired in the Rhythmic-Solfège courses. All of this information is assumed knowledge for the start of any Advanced Dalcroze Course.

Benefits of this curriculum include:

• improved intonation
• finer listening capability
• better ensemble skills
• energetic rhythmic and metric vitality
• deepened understanding of musical analysis, nuance, and aesthetics as they relate to performance.

The complete Advanced Dalcroze (AD) course offering provides students with excellent instruction and a deep appreciation of music through purposeful movement. All classes are 75 minutes long and meet once per week for 28 weeks.

• AD Plastique Animée. Students must be 11 or must have finished Rhythmic-Solfège V (or equivalent) to register. Since the materials and concepts change from year to year, students may enroll in this course more than once. 
  
• AD Advanced Placement Music Theory I.Students must be in 7th grade at the minimum (or have the permission of the director) to enroll in this course. They must have finished Rhythmic-Solfège V (or equivalent) to register. Throughout the 3 year sequence, students will cover all of the materials put forth by the College Board, plus a variety of other subjects that are interesting and valuable for students to know. 
  
• AD Advanced Placement Music Theory II.Students must be in 8th grade at the minimum (or have the permission of the director) to enroll in this course. Students must have passed AP I before they can enroll in AP II.
  
• AD Advanced Placement Music Theory III.Students must be in 9th grade at the minimum (or have the permission of the director) to enroll in this course. Students must have passed AP II before they can enroll in AP III. Students who finish this course will have all studied all of the necessary materials to take the College Board’s AP Music Theory Exam at a local high school of their choice. Students must set up their own registration through their guidance counselor.
  

Why Pursue Advanced Dalcroze?

• We Foster Active, Joyful Learning
• We Champion the BODY as our primary instrument
• We Develop the Whole Musician
• We Cultivate the Ear through Solfège: an Artistic European Tradition
• We Inspire Expression, Dedication, and Commitment

​​AD Plastique Animée

As in all Dalcroze courses, we will learn music through discovery, purposeful movement, and joy! In Plastique Animée, we will study composed music. For each piece, we will create a visual representation of musical concepts in the score through movement. Read more about Plastique Animée and see examples by clicking here.

• We will study an ever-changing selection of pieces each year that represent a survey of Music History.
• We will also review and build upon rhythm, solfège, and harmony skills learned in the Rhythmic-Solfège courses.
• We will study many aspects of form and structure, including:
• Phrase and Period Structures
• Binary, Ternary, and Rounded Binary Forms
• Song Form
• Rondo and Sonata Rondo Forms
• Sonata Allegro Form

​​AD Advanced Placement I:

• Rhythm Skills
• Simple and Compound Meters with all beat values through the 2nd Subdivision and the 2nd Multiple
• Conducting, articulating, and dictating rhythms in Duple, Triple, and Quadruple Meters (both Simple and Compound)
• Off-beat Syncopation, Metric Syncopation, and Patterns of Syncopation
• Hemiola
• Beat equals Beat and Division equals Division Metric changes
• Augmentation and Diminution in polyrhythmic relationships
• Improvisation of rhythmic patterns
• Dictation of basic level rhythmic patterns and phrases
• Solfège and Harmony Skills
• All major keys and their scales through 7 sharps and 7 flats (sung and written)
• All minor keys and their scales (natural, harmonic, and melodic) through 7 sharps and 7 flats (sung and written)
• Chord quality and function along with Chord descriptors
• All varieties of triads and their inversions (sung and written)
• All varieties of 7th chords (sung and written)
• Sight-singing that is mostly scalar, arpeggiates the tonic and the dominant with the occasional neighbor tone. We sing using scale degree numbers for function and letter names for pitch.
• Introductory Harmonic Analysis using Roman Numeral and Figured Bass with music from the standard repertoire and simple 4-part chorales.
• Basic harmonization techniques and chord progressions
• Improvisation of melodic patterns and motifs
• Basic analysis of simple forms:  Binary form, Ternary form, Song form

​​AD Advanced Placement II:

• Rhythm Skills
• Complete Review of AP I
• Complex Meters with all beat values through the 2nd Subdivision and the 2nd Multiple
• Conducting, articulating, and dictating rhythms in Duple, Triple, and Quadruple Meters (Simple, Compound, and Complex)
• Beat equals Beat and Division equals Division Metric changes
• Improvisation of rhythmic patterns
• Dictation of intermediate level rhythmic patterns and phrases
• Solfège and Harmony Skills
• Complete Review of AP I
• Chord quality and function along with Chord descriptors
• All varieties of triads and their inversions (sung and written)
• All varieties of 7th chords and their inversions (sung and written)
• Sight-singing that includes more leaps, including arpeggiation of the tonic, the dominant, and intermediate harmonies. We sing using scale degree numbers for function and letter names for pitch.
• Intermediate Harmonic Analysis using Roman Numeral and Figured Bass
• Intermediate harmonization techniques and chord progressions including progressions of descending 5ths, 3rds, and some sequences.
• Harmonic function as passing chords, neighbor chords, pedal chords, arpeggiated chords, and use of the cadential 6-4
• Realization of a Figured Bass and/or Roman Numeral Analysis in 4 part chorale style
• Improvisation of melodic patterns and motifs
• Basic analysis of more advanced forms:  Rounded Binary forms, Rondo forms, Sonata Rondo forms
• Non-harmonic tones:  Analysis, Dictation, and Notation of
• Passing Tones
• Neighbor Tones (complete and incomplete, chromatic and diatonic, double)
• Escape Tones
• Appoggiaturas
• Changing Tones
• Cambiata
• Trills and Turns
• Suspensions (4-3, 7-6, 9-8)
• Retardations
• Anticipations

​​AD Advanced Placement III:

• Rhythm Skills
  
• Complete Review of AP II
• Changing Meters of all kinds
• Advanced Polyrhythms: 2:3, 3:4, etc.
• Improvisation of rhythmic patterns
• Dictation of intermediate level rhythmic patterns and phrases
• Solfège and Harmony Skills

• Sight-singing that includes leaps, arpeggios, and some chromatic inflection. We sing using scale degree numbers for function and letter names for pitch.
• Advanced Harmonic Analysis using Roman Numeral and Figured Bass, including Applied Chords (Secondary Dominant/Leading-tone harmony) and Modulation
• Intermediate harmonization techniques and chord progressions, including Sequences, Applied Chords, and Modulation
• Realization of a Figured Bass and/or Roman Numeral Analysis in 4 part chorale style, including Applied Chords and Modulation
• Improvisation of melodic patterns and motifs
• Form and Analysis in relationship to harmony and melody.
• Introduction to Counterpoint, motif, motivic development, and sequence
• Phrase and Period Structures
• Review of all large scale forms
• Modes
  
• C clefs
• Transposing Instruments