New York Philharmonic Kids

This is a site that I have used with 4th and 5th grade general music students: New York Philharmonic Kids. The site has a game room, a composer's gallery which gives info on various composers (including a recording of a composition that they wrote), an instrument storage room which gives kids info and recordings of various instruments, and other cool things. I gave the kids a worksheet to complete which had them write the composers name, birthday, deathday, identify which musical era they composed in, what their main instrument was, and three interesting facts about their lives. The kids really enjoyed navigating the site and when they were done studying two composers, they were allowed to play in the game room. We did a similar day for the instrument storage room.

Learning Tools

The fiddleman.com website is where I go for reference and free violin lessons. This section has a rhythm game that my elementary students enjoyed playing when I took them to the computer lab this year. It can even be used for general music students as well. There is also a violin fingering game and an intonation game which I have not used in my classroom yet. Practice and Tuning Tools

Teaching and Learning Violin/Viola Vibrato

For those of us who teach orchestra but are not violinists or violists, I found a helpful video on the beginning steps of learning to use vibrato on the violin and viola. Using this method to teach students may also be helpful as well. Using and teaching vibrato on these two instruments is something that I struggle with all the time! Learning Violin & Viola Arm Vibrato - Part 1 & Learning Violin & Viola Arm Vibrato - Part 2

Noteflight assignment

Here is the link to "A Bicycle Built for Two" Noteflight

I found this software a little less intuitive than MuseScore. This may simply be because I learned how to use music notation software on Sibelius and MuseScore is very similar to Sibelius. I think that MuseScore is easier to use and has more options as far as instrumentation goes. I was a little disappointed that "voice" wasn't an option for an instrument for the free version. To substitute, I had to use the flute and change the instrument name. One feature that I do like about noteflight is that it's easier to share your scores than on MuseScore. This would make it very easy for students to turn their projects in and for students to view their peers work. Also, you don't have to worry about losing your work since it is saved to the internet. You can access your work from anywhere. I think this software would be great to use with my classes since I don't have any student computers in my classroom and we would need to use the computer lab. That way, I don't have to worry about downloading MuseScore on all of the computers in the lab and I don't have to get permission to do so.

Why Music Matters

Well, we all know why music matters... but our administrators and school boards may not. I find Jack Stamps rhetoric one of the most powerful: Jack Stamp - Why Music Matters

He provides evidence to "non-musical" decision makers why music is not an easy subject, contrary to popular belief.

Listening Map in Video Form

Here is a youtube video that shows a video listening map from Tchaikovsky's "March" from "The Nutcracker." Listening Map in Video Form When I took the General Music Methods course, creating my own listening map was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my grad degree so far. This past year, I had my sixth grade general music students also create their own listening maps with much success. Having students create a video for their listening map would be a cool technological twist that I think students would enjoy.

More from The Piano Guys

For fun:

The Piano Guys performing the Harry Potter Theme

This inspires me to go practice my mad piano skillz! Or maybe it just intimidates me. Not sure which haha