Music Theory for Ward Choir

Sarah got called to be the ward choir director around the end of January.  Of course, her due date was soon after, so she immediately had to ask for subs.  I filled in for one of the weeks, and I've always thought that ward choir shouldn't just be for people who already know music.  I mean, we always say "everyone is welcome, no experience required" but then we give them music for which they have to learn parts that aren't just the melody that everyone knows.  So I spent part of the time going over some music theory.  Nothing high-level, mind you, just some stuff I thought they might find interesting about how music works.  When Sarah found out, she rolled her eyes at me and mumbled something that sounded like "nerd" but then asked them next week if they thought that was useful.  She got mostly positive answers.  So she's continuing the music lessons.  I thought it might be worth writing down the stuff we've been teaching here.  This is still a rough draft and we may change things around as we go.

Chords and Scales

1. Sound waves and overtones
2. The major scale
3. Circle of 5ths
4. Key signatures and accidentals
5. Tonic, dominant, and sub-dominant

Rhythm

1. 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, and downbeats
2. Whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes (also triplets?)
3. Dotted notes and ties
4. Upbeats
5. Basic conducting