Music Education Web Sites
Each of the following websites have aspects that can be used in the music classroom. A brief description follows each address. Some of the sites listed are purely resources for teachers.
www.menc.org/networks/mentors/mentorsmain.html - This is the single best feature of the MENC website. Each month MENC has an expert is a certain aspect of music education answer questions in a FREE online forum. The questions and responses are valuable to all who read them. Highly recommended.
www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org - This site is truly incredible. There are literally hundreds of outstanding lesson plans covering many aspects of music education. Special attention should be paid to the multicultural lesson plans that come complete with links to audio-visual aids. These lesson plans are ready-to-teach.
www.musicresults.com - This site is geared to all music educators looking for resources online. You can post your own music program website for free. Other features on the site include public relations suggestions, online Master Classes, Event & Result postings as well as a great links page.
www.musiceducator.org - While similar to MusicResults.com, this site offers many more features, including a more comprehensive discussion board, free software & MIDI files, surveys, job listings, articles and more.
www.nyphilkids.org - The New York Philharmonic Home Page includes a wonderful section for kids. These interactive pages allow students to explore music, as well as play fun musical games.
http://hyperion.advanced.org/15413/ - This site, Music Notes, is aimed at high school and college students. It contains music theory, history and style lessons, as well as an interactive section where students can complete crossword puzzles, take ear training test and complete theory quizzes.
www.classicalarchives.com - This site is truly extraordinary, and a little bit scary. It’s called the “Classical MIDI Archives” and contains MIDI files of virtually every major piece of classical music ever written. It’s great when you don’t have a recording of a certain piece.
www.pbs.org/arts - PBS has created a wonderful website which can easily be used in the music classroom. Features change monthly, and often correlate to what is airing that month. The “Live from Lincoln Center” feature is wonderful.
www.nmc.org - This is the National Music Foundation’s website, and there are 86 free music lesson plans for you to download and use in your music classrooms. You can also publish your own lesson plans for others to use on this site.
www.musicstaff.com - This site allows you to list your name in a national music teacher database. Prospective students check the site for private music teachers in their area. It is free to list your information.
www.teachnet.com/lesson/music/musgen.html - There are a number of terrific free General Music lesson plans posted on this site for Grades K through 8.
www.dsokids.com/2001/rooms/musicroom.asp
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Music Room provides fun activities for elementary age music students. The Instrument Encyclopedia provides quality sound clips allowing students to hear each orchestral instrument, both alone and in the orchestra. The Composer’s Corner provides information on many composers and the listening library allows students to hear clips of their orchestral pieces. The musical games help to reinforce learning. Other features include an orchestral seating chart, brief theory lessons, practice tips, a “make your own instrument” section and a virtual tour of the Myerson Symphony Center. The Teacher’s Lounge includes lesson plans and other ideas & activities to implement in the classroom. Overall, this amazing website can be used to teach about the orchestra, composers, instrument families, and much more.
www.dancedrummer.com
This website is based on the music of the Anlo-Ewe people of western Africa. One great feature is a virtual drum museum where students may see and hear the traditional instruments. You can also watch clips of performance videos to see the instruments played. The site also contains notated rhythms for the instruments and interesting drumset recreations. This site would be helpful when teaching advanced students (middle school and up) about African music.
www.jazzinamerica.com
From the Thelonious Monk Institute of jazz, this website provides a jazz education curriculum for grades 8 and 11. (Grade 5 will soon be added.) Although the lesson plans provided are very basic, the website’s Jazz Resource Library is extremely valuable. The library contains a brief history of jazz with a timeline, images of instruments & musicians, artist information, a jazz glossary, audio clips, and style sheets (descriptions of the different jazz styles). These resources could be used in a PowerPoint presentation or a webquest to educate middle to high school level students on jazz.
www.metronomeonline.com
Metronome Online is a free web tool that functions as a regular metronome! You can adjust the beats per minute and practice along with the basic click. (It also plays A440.) This can be helpful when working with instrumental students of all ages. Many students (younger students in particular) may not own a metronome, but most have access to a computer. It is a convenient resource to help teach students how to practice with a steady tempo.
www.naxos.com/mgloss.htm
The Learning Zone of the music label Naxos provides introductory information on classical music. A brief overview includes genres, instruments, composers, etc. It also gives tips on attending a classical concert and building a classical CD collection.
Particularly useful is the A-Z glossary of musical terms. This is a great reference tool for students doing work at home, or in a computer lab situation.
www.risottodirk.de/the_virtual_djembe/index.htm
A virtual djembe allows students to hear and play (by typing on keyboard) the different tones of the African djembe. A great supplement to a multicultural unit for all ages.
www.musiceducationmadness.com
Music Education Madness is a cheery and plentiful website designed to aid and bring together the earnest music educators of both classrooms and private studios. Some of the many things MEM offers are lesson plans, how-to articles for first-time teachers, and links to up-to-date children’s music literature. One can also search the site for private music instructors in a particular area, as well as join online discussions with fellow school, church and college musicians. The Music Madness Site also provides a Kids’ Korner for young students where they can play instructional games and brush up on their theory skills.
www.artsalive.ca
The good musicians of the National Arts Center in Canada have built a website that consists of four parts: music, French theatre, English theatre and dance. The music portion has pathways children may take to an instrument lab, activities and games, and a gallery of famous composers (there are even a few contemporary names listed). Students may especially enjoy the virtual instrument lab where they can rotate any/all of the instruments they choose from the orchestra pit. There are links to teaching resources, and even better, music resources for parents who want to ask questions of working musicians, some of whom are in the NAC Orchestra.
www.classicsforkids.com
Classics For Kids is an aesthetically pleasing site. Young students will enjoy the graphics and colors while learning more about note names and rhythms through the interactive games. The site’s main focus is on musical “shows” they present each week for kids to read about and listen to. For example, one such musical show is a presentation on Ralph Vaughn Williams and his popular piece, Fantasia on Greensleeves. In addition to a concise biography on Vaughn Williams and sound link to Greensleeves, students can then download an activity sheet that corresponds to the music. The path for teachers not only leads to lesson plans and articles on music education from across the country, but also provides training links to popular schools of teaching such as the Kodàly and Orff methods. A respectable list of family-oriented music websites is also available on the teacher’s portion of the site.
www.sfskids.org
San Francisco Symphony’s answer to NYPhilkids.org. Meticulously designed and extremely engaging, especially for kids in their first 3 years of formal music training. Students can “turn” the dial on The Radio to find and listen to phrases of famous classical pieces. The Instruments of the Orchestra section contains close up and rotating views of each instrument and detailed descriptions of their histories and roles. The coup d’état is The Music Lab, which allows kids to explore hands-on the functions of rhythm, pitch, symbols, harmony, etc.
www.music4kidsonline.com
Teachers specializing, or merely interested in, early childhood music development and education will find a vast body of music curricula, teaching ideas and songs/games specifically designed for children ages 0-5 years old. An extensive list of scholarly articles and books pertaining to music and the brain can be read and downloaded. There are also several links to bibliographies on research in early childhood music education, as well as links to professional early childhood organizations such as the Kindermuzik and Suzuki associations.
http://www.jwpepper.com/catalog/welcome.jsp
On J.W. Pepper’s website, you can search and order practically any type of sheet music you would want: anything from handbell church music to popular guitar music. On the right-hand side of the homepage is a listing of all their music categories, which is essentially their catalog divided by music type/product type. You can search by title and/or composer, or do an advanced search if you are not sure of the exact name. You can search the entire website, or choose one of the categories in search within that to filter your results. Once you are in the category, you can limit your search by saying what specific publisher, difficulty, or any other option that is listed. Here’s an example:
I want to find a great Christmas song for my high school jazz band. I go to the J.W. Pepper homepage, go to Band Music, and choose jazz ensemble. Now I’m at the Jazz Ensemble page, and I can pick what type of piece I want to search for. I click on the Christmas and Holiday link, and am brought to a listing of titles. Then I decide that I only want to look at the medium easy/medium pieces, so I go to the Difficulty drop down menu, pick the level I want, press enter, and the pieces are filtered. One of the first choices, “Angels We Have Heard on High,” is a great example of what Pepper provides on many of its pieces: a Real Audio Clip, and a Score Image. The Score Image is typically just the first page of the score, but sometimes it is helpful to see what you would be getting yourself into with a piece. The audio clip is a great feature because you can hear what part of the piece (and sometimes the entire piece) sounds like. This can help determine if something sounds worth ordering. The two options are unfortunately not available on al the pieces, but it’s still a great feature to have, and I have found them very helpful.
http://www.musicalintervalstutor.info/index.html
This website allows for students to see and hear harmonic and melodic ascending and descending intervals by clicking on them. There are two pre-made tests for evaluating interval listening skills. This page also has a link to listening to all the scales and modes, and has a test to go along with that section as well. This is a great website because students can practice their listening skills at home without having to buy programs like Musica Practica. There is no way to chart students’ progress by through this website, but again, it’s a great free tool that can be used by anyone that has internet access and speakers on their computer.
http://www.kunstderfuge.com/index.htm
This website is similar to the Classical Music Archives website we saw in class, only you can download as many MIDI files as you want for free without logging in or joining anything. I’ve downloaded several MIDI files from this website since discovering it, and I have not reached any limit. They have all of the major composers, and within the composers the files are organized by type of piece, making the website very easy to navigate. Their selection of pieces seems to be less extensive than Classical Music Archives, but this is a great substitute if you reach that five download limit for the day. I have tried importing these MIDI files into Sibelius, and they do so with no problems. This was a great find!
http://www.wwbw.com/
This website is great for instrumentalists and instrumental music teachers; it sells instruments and all the supplies you could think of to go along with those instruments. They sell “classroom” instruments for general music classes and elementary music classes, as well as DJ equipment, recording equipment, and musical gifts. They also have an “Outlet Store,” that sells thousands of items at discounted prices for reasons such as factory close out, the box not being sealed, because the item was used, etc. While many people may be weary about purchasing items from this part of the website, WWBW has a 45-day return policy on these items. I use this site all the time to buy my personal supplies, and I’ve never had any problems with it.
http://www.isd77.k12.mn.us/resources/staffpages/shirk/k12.music.html
This website trumps them all; it has SO MANY helpful links for all types of music teachers. This site has everything, from finding a private lesson teacher, to tips on teaching the clarinet, to links to musical organization such as ABA and ACDA. It was created by the staff of the Mankato Public Schools Music Department in Mankato, Minnesota. You have to check it out yourself; it’s great!