River Ridge High School – Band 5 Honors

Mar 2026 · 2nd Semester

This year-long, advanced course, designed for wind and percussion students with extensive experience in solo performance and larger performing ensembles, promotes significant depth of engagement and lifelong appreciation of music through performance and other experiences with sophisticated instrumental music, as well as creativity through composition and/or arranging. The course includes the development of advanced instrumental ensemble techniques and skills, extended music literacy and theory, and deep aesthetic engagement with a broad spectrum of high-quality repertoire, ranging from early music to the contemporary. Musical independence and leadership are particularly encouraged in this setting. Special Notes: Students may be required to attend and/or participate in rehearsals and performances outside the school day to support, extend, and assess learning in the classroom. Additional experiences with small ensembles, solo performance, and leadership opportunities may be available. Students who enjoy the challenges and successes of this course may wish to take an accelerated music class in the future. Students in this class may need to obtain (e.g., borrow, rent, purchase) an instrument from an outside source. Honors and Advanced Level Course Note: Advanced courses require a greater demand on students through increased academic rigor. Academic rigor is obtained through the application, analysis, evaluation, and creation of complex ideas that are often abstract and multi-faceted. Students are challenged to think and collaborate critically on the content they are learning. Honors level rigor will be achieved by increasing text complexity through text selection, focus on high-level qualitative measures, and complexity of task. Instruction will be structured to give students a deeper understanding of conceptual themes and organization within and across disciplines. Academic rigor is more than simply assigning to students a greater quantity of work.