Beginning Band Music Theory: What Should I Include in a Student Theory Book?

What should beginning band students learn in music theory?

Note names? Rhythms? Music symbols and terms? Key signatures? There are a lot of music theory concepts we want our beginning band students to understand, but deciding what to teach and when to teach it can be overwhelming.

We use a beginning band music theory book to organize these concepts and gradually work through them throughout the year. The video below walks you through what we include in our student theory book and how we use it in beginning band.

Our students begin band in 6th grade and meet daily for longer classes, so we are able to cover most of this content during their beginner year. If you start younger students or only see your students once or twice a week, the same beginning band music theory material could easily provide 2–3 years of instruction.

We may not complete every page, but it’s great to have extra activities available for bell ringers, end-of-class review, homework, assessments or substitute days.

What Music Theory Should Beginning Band Students Learn?

Here are the main music theory concepts we like to include:

1. Music Notation

We start with the basics students will see every day in their band music.

This can include the staff, clefs, notes and rests, measures, bar lines, note values, flags, beams and ties. We also introduce the musical alphabet and begin working on reading notes in both treble and bass clef.

This helps students understand what they’re seeing in their music instead of just memorizing fingerings or positions.

2. Rhythm, Meter and Subdivision

Beginning band students need plenty of practice with rhythm.

The theory book includes all 5 levels of our rhythm grids (400 measures of rhythms!). We also use the coordinating rhythm slides, timed slides, flashcards and trios for daily rhythm practice.

3. The Keyboard, Accidentals and Key Signatures

Even if your beginning band students don’t play piano, a basic understanding of the keyboard can be really helpful.

Students can use the keyboard to see half steps and whole steps and better understand sharps, flats and natural notes. From there, we introduce accidentals, enharmonics and basic key signatures.

This gives students a better understanding of sharps and flats instead of treating each fingering as something they just have to memorize.

4. Musical Symbols and Terms

Students start seeing musical terms and symbols almost immediately in beginning band.

We work on dynamics, tempo markings, articulations and other common symbols. We introduce and review these throughout the year instead of waiting until a new symbol shows up in the music.

5. Musical Roadmaps

Repeats and musical roadmaps can be confusing for young musicians!

We introduce repeat signs first and eventually work toward first and second endings, D.C. al Coda, D.S. al Fine and measure repeats.

It helps to practice these on paper before students have to figure them out while playing.

6. Basic Tuning Concepts

As students become more comfortable playing their instruments, we also begin introducing basic tuning concepts.

Students can learn what it means to be sharp or flat, how changes to their instrument affect pitch and what adjustments they can make when tuning.

Obviously, beginners aren’t going to be tuning experts! We just want them to start understanding what sharp and flat mean and how to make basic adjustments on their instrument. This unit can be reviewed again with older students.

How Do We Use a Beginning Band Music Theory Book?

You don’t necessarily need to teach an entire theory lesson every day.

Theory pages can be used in lots of different ways throughout the school year:

• Bell ringers
• Short class activities
• Review
• Homework
• Assessments
• Early-finisher activities
• Substitute lessons

Sometimes we teach a concept directly from the theory book. Other times, students complete a page to reinforce something we have already introduced in class.

If you already have worksheets and activities you like, use the topics above as a checklist when organizing your own beginning band music theory book.

If you’re looking for ready-to-use materials, you can find our complete Beginning Band Music Theory Workbook here. It includes six units of music theory worksheets and assessments, answer keys, and 20+ teaching videos on YouTube covering many of the beginning concepts.

Links to ALL the resources mentioned in the video can be found here.

If you’re interested in what we include in our separate Beginning Band Binder, you can also watch our Beginning Band Binder video here.