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A&HM 4029 - Sping 2008 - Question #3
By jamesfrankel | February 16, 2008
List five websites that could be used in the music classroom with a brief description of each site.
Topics: Main Page |
February 17th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Question#3 Diane Scanlon
I found all of the Internet Resources for Music Educators on JamesFrankel.com to be extremely valuable to me as a classroom teacher, private guitar teacher, and mother. I know I will use more than five but these five I have already surfed for hours.
www.musictheory.net
This site is easy to navigate with it’s three window: Lesson, trainers, and utilities. The lessons are great for lower school general music classes. I can see how they would be very useful foundation for children who have little musical training. They are clear and their sequence gives the young music student the concepts they will need for learning an instrument in middle school.
The trainer section is great for getting children to learn their notes on the treble and bass cleff and for more advanced students -scales and modes.
As a private guitar teacher I find the section on learning the fretboard very valuable. I like the idea of adding more frets as the student progresses.
www.nyphilkids.net
My children love this site. The first page immediately stirs the child’s interest and they begin to travel through the composer gallery, compostition workshop, instrument storage room, and of course the game room. I found the composer gallery a great place for students to better aquaint themselves with composers they may not be familiar with. Unfortunately I am still having trouble with the composer workshop even when I open it in a Rosetta format.
www.dsokids.com
This site is similar to the nyphilkids. I love the homepage and the option to go to the students room or the teachers room. I can see using many of the lesson plans that I found in the activities page of this site. One that was great for this week was Legend and Heros: A Portrait of Honest Abe- Abraham Lincoln. I especially like the interdisciplinary aspect and would resource many of the lessons which combine music with history.
www.classicalarchives.com
This site is well worth the $25.00 a year. Having the midi files to download and then transfer to sibelius will save hours of time searching for specific scores. I have already used this site for one of my own projects.
www.pbs.org
Pbs for teachers is an amazing resourse for all teachers of all disciplines. I like the way it is broken down into disipline. Clicking the arts give you the option of choosing the grade level as well as the topic. This site is also great for combining music education with social studies, math, visual arts and science.
February 17th, 2008 at 9:21 am
www.nsokids.org .Has a section with audio/visual interviews with some of the players in the Nashville Symphony. The musicians interviewed seem unusually happy and fulfilled adults The trumpet player points out that classical music requires more than one hearing to be appreciated or understood. Perhaps this could be an opening segway to a lesson on listening. . Or, a player a week could be shown as a “conclusion,” something the children might look forward to at the end of class. The section on the instruments could be used to introduce the sound of each instrument.
www.chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/ A college level course on the music and instruments of India. Dr. Chandler has recorded himself on “You Tube,” demonstrating his collection of Indian instruments, and his knowledge about each one. Has explanation of the Indian mode and samples of the music. Very detailed.
www.sfskids.org My own children loved this one. Opens with the continuous playing of “Ode to Joy.” Has a section where you manipulate measures of notes in diffferent order to change a melody. Also has “Yankee Doodle” with different harmonies, which you choose—the minor harmony is pretty funky.
www.sundaybaroque.org This is the website for a Sunday morning radio broadcast from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. It plays the entire broadcast of Baroque and earlier music, with educational commentary from Suzanne Bona, the host. Contains interviews and links to much information and music about this early music. A labor of love and easy to use—I could stream an entire broadcast while I was searching the site.
www.helpsite.ca/music/ Although I had difficulty accessing the audio files, the site has links to free sheet music for Celtic songs, and a lot of information on Celtic fiddling.
February 17th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
1. http://www.dsokids.com:
This website is a great example for teaching an orchestra class. The site offers two different options, one for teachers and one for students. Students who venture onto this site can not only learn about orchestra seating arrangements for different periods such as the Baroque and Classical, but can also select an option that allows them to meet some members of orchestras. The site provides short bios for some orchestra members and helps students to connect to those who have participated in the music world already. The site also provides students with an option to try out the different sounds of different instruments. This site is very user-friendly and easily accessible for children of all ages. Their parents can also navigate this site with ease alongside their children.
2. http://www.creatingmusic.com/:
The website explains the different between art and music. I especially loved the Musical Sketch Pad feature. On it the students can connect art to music by drawing what they feel and then be able to choose different instruments to represent what they had drawn down as their feelings. This is an excellent website for students who are too young to learn about music theory. They can naturally learn about the low/high pitch and the timbre by the height of the line. This website helps students to be more interested in music theory by making the music easily accessible to young children.
3. http://www.musictheory.net/:
This is an excellent website. When I saw this website from the class lecture, I was ecstatic. For many students in secondary schools, music is a class that students must take. At the same time not all the students are going to be music majors when they move on to the college. This theory website is a great website that allows students to review knowledge that they acquired in their high school classes. There are review features that allow students who might have given up on music for a while to reinvigorate his/her interest in the genre. The easy, step-by-step approach to teaching or re-teaching music is user-friendly and can help someone remember some of the material he/she might have learned earlier in life.
4. www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/ethnic.html:The Indiana University website on World Music. The best links page I have seen for research into hundreds of different cultures. This website is a great website to introduce different cultural instruments to students. Many public schools cannot afford different books for different instruments around the world. This website gives a clear picture and the description of interesting instruments. This website can provide students with knowledge and information regarding different instruments without costing a school or its students an exorbitant amount of money. I also thought this was an excellent website for students to learn about instruments across different cultures.
5. www.finalemusic.com/notepad:
Get your free copy of Finale NotePad here. Unfortunately, a lot of the music software available to the public is very expensive and unaffordable for most people. Sibellius is a great piece of software, but it can be very pricey. Finale NotePad on the other hand is free! It is a great website for public schools that cannot include music software in their budgets. With the Finale NotePad, students can compose music, listen to what they have composed and engage in some of the same music learning as students in some of the more affluent schools. It is not as sophisticated as Sibellius, but it is an excellent alternative to more expensive music software that schools cannot afford.
February 17th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Websites for music classroom
Since I am interested in teaching high school in general/choral music classes, I am focusing a lot on research topics in music and how to organize them.
1. Official website of A History of Western Music (7th Edition).
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/grout7/home.htm
A History of Western Music is a standard textbook in music history. The website offers the general information and the guidelines of music history in chronological order. In chapter outlines, students can see the brief summaries in western music history. In classroom setting, this website can provide research topics for student, and facilitate students to review the course materials in general music history class. Furthermore, students can prepare the exams with flashcards, and review their terminology. Whenever students have short questions on certain music terminology, they can access to glossary; where the definitions are written concisely.
2. Website on how to write a music history paper?
http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/courses/m401/
I used this for my research paper back in undergraduate. This website is created by the author (Peter Burkholder) in a history of western music (7th edition). This source answers a lot of questions on how to write research paper on music history. The website can give several ideas on research topics and how to make the format with its samples.
3. The REC Music Foundation – The lied and art song texts page
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/
The REC Music Foundation provides several resources for music. However, I strongly recommend the song texts page; a standard database for arts song in written translation. By clicking the index on the left side of bar, person can browse almost all translations for any arts songs including some of rare languages (Russians, Chinese, and Finish etc). In applications to school, students can browse the site, find the meaning of the song, and use it to interpret the music. It is very famous sources for singers as well.
4. Footnote and Bibliography format – Indiana University
Bibliographic citations - http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=3851
Footnotes and Endnotes - http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=3850
This website provides students to write proper Bibliographies and Footnotes for their research on music history. Within this straight format, students can experience to write standard research papers on music history.
5. Website of Bach Cantatas
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/
In this website, students can find much information about the Bach Cantatas with articles, books, recordings. I find it very useful to browse profiles of performers and composers. In the bottom left, there’s link to short bios, which enable us to access with huge collections of database about the performers and composers.
February 17th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I was amazed of all the links on Dr. Frankel’s website. I have been searching for these kinds of websites such as Classicalarchives and Musicaltheory. Thank you!!!!
Here are some of the websites I have seen and used a little. I say little because I really have not used much of any websites in the past.
www.mustcreate.org
In this website, there are many links to different websites such as
www.teachers.net and www.lessonplanspage.com
Teachers.net web has a blog where you can read about other teachers’ experiences and problems. Also, you can find lesson plans. I think you can learn a lot from reading about other people’s experiences and opinions.
Lessonplanspage.com has lesson plans divided into different categories: composition,dance and movement, instruments, music components:dynamics, expressions, rhythm and melody, tempo, symbols and scales, etc. I teach in a music school and I’m always looking for interesting and fun ways to introduce new materials and teach my students. This website also has a blog section.
www.sonycreativesoftware.com
This website has a game called Super duper music looper. It may be little too simple but it can be fun maybe for younger children. It has different instruments with different loops. You can add them together to make beats.
www.pianosociety.com
I can use this for my private students mostly. On this website, you can find information about the history of composers and recordings. I also use Wikipedia to get information about music and composers. It’s an easy access when you don’t have time.
I have used this website called www.e-znotes.com to buy materials that can be used on my group lessons. If you don’t have any computer in your classroom or any access to it, you may find these gadgets such as magnetic musical boards helpful. It’s not high tech but my students like using them.
Ai
February 17th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
http://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com
This website has access to high quality performance recordings of any kind of music. New CDs are updated every month. If you need to look up something that you don’t have a recording to, this would be a great website. However, you would need to subscribe to have access but you can preview by choosing anything to listen to for 15 minutes.
http://www.classicsforkids.com
This website has all sort of musical activities for children that they can use to make learning music more fun. You can look up information on any composer or musical period. There is also music dictionary, and instrumental sounds that children can listen to. There is also a section that is for grownups, that includes tips and advices, lesson plans and many more.
http://www.childrensmusic.org
This is a non-profit website that has links to many different sources. For example, you can click under resources for teachers and it will lead you to links that have lesson plans or fantastic ideas about music and curriculum. There are also resource links for teachers and kids.
http://edu-cyberpg.com/MUSIC/IDEAS_FOR_CLASSROOM_USE.html
A resource website for teachers. There are many ideas or activities that can be used to teach music lessons in classroom setting from K-12.
http://www.musickit.com
This website contains resources for music teachers and kids. It includes lesson plans, activities for kids, kids books on composers and kids books with songs. There are also links to other music literacy or resources for teachers.
February 17th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I’m so excited and inspired to try all of the websites posted up here! I guess that’s the point, huh?? Clever, Dr. Frankel, clever…
Anyway, here are some that I found:
1. http://www.mozartproject.org/essays/brown.html
This website I have used with students after they’ve viewed the movie Amadeus in my class. I assign them to discover how much of the movie was fact and how much was fiction. Check it out!
2. http://www.good-ear.com/
This website offers ear training and aural skills review. I had fun testing it out.
3. http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/
An award winning site, created by high school students, that has lots of information on music theory, history, styles, jobs and a few games.
4. http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/enj9/shorter/index.htm
This one is kind of advanced because it is an online tutorial for the Norton Anthology textbook that we all know and love. BUT it has listening examples, great timelines, and sample quizzes, so it can be a great way to review or to learn music history. I really like how well the site is organized and I like the quick links to musical examples.
5.http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/
An award winning site, created by high school students, that has lots of information on music theory, history, styles, jobs and a few games.
Also, check out this reference for websites- it’s how I got started exploring!
http://www.mtna.org/Resources/WebsitesforKids/tabid/320/Default.aspx
February 17th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Oops, I posted the same website twice. Try this one that lists great and interesting websites including Pandora’s Podcasts- http://blog.pandora.com/podcast/
which contains podcasts explaining the blues scale, how to record tracks, where to see good music in Brooklyn, etc.
It’s all listed on:
http://www.shambles.net/pages/students/Music/
February 17th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
here are 5 great sites that i will use or already have!
www.musictheory.net
this is a website with free lessons and activities to improve and train in music theory.
the lessons and trainers are amazing! I especially like the note reading trainer for my 3rd graders learning recorder.
www.dsokids.com
the Dallas Symphony Orchestra has put together a great site. I really like the time machine, where you can “meet” the composers and learn some information about them. I also love the Beethoven’s Baseball game where you can test your new-found composer trivia!
www.teoria.com
More great tutorials and practice in music theory.
This is an essential site in my district because it is in Spanish as well as English, and we have a high ESL population.
www.nyphilkids.org
The New York Philharmonic’s website for kids! There is a TON of great information on this site regarding instruments and instrument families, composers, and a great selection of games and activities. I especially love the musical instrument lab, where you can create your own homemade instruments using recycled materials. I hope to do a project with the art teacher, and this would be a great place to start!
www.apple.com/education/solutions/podcasting
This site not only has great info about podcasting on a mac, but it also has a tutorial and details about available software for podcasting. There are samples and support as well.
February 18th, 2008 at 3:10 am
www.dsokids.com
I love this website because it is easy to access for children of any ages. Also, the website provides orchestra seating charts in different periods that are useful to teach or learn history of orchestral development.
www.good-ear.com
The website is challenge and is helpful to training good ears. It provides various ear training such as intervals, chords, scales, and so on.
www.carnegiehall.org
I recommend this website because it provides information of family concerts and learning for children. It also provides programs for teachers and schools.
http://www.musictheory.net/
This website has been translated into many languages. It has three sections–Lesson, trainers, and utilities. The lessons for learners are organized and clear. I think that it is useful for general music classes.
IU William & Gayle Cook Music Library http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=90
This library recognized as one of the largest academic music libraries in the United States. The collection is comprised of well over 600,000 items. It is very useful for students who major in music.
February 18th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
1. http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/subjects/360000000000
This site has very good tools for every subject teachers including music. It has approved lesson plans, articles and printable worksheets for both teachers and the students. Also the lesson plans are divided into grades from early childhood to 12thgrade, with variety sources to teach music and the concept of music theory to develop more musical skills.
2. www.cello.org
This site is very usefully for cellist in all over the world. It has update news that relates to cello, which can be helpful for beginner cellist to professional cellist. It has discussion board where each other can ask questions, competition related informations. For beginner it can be used for gathering information about cello history, repertoires.
3. www.pbs.org
This site can be a great tool for children to explore any subject fields that they are interested in. But as a music educator, it could be useful to teach any level of student because PBS has different approaches to teach all levels of music that can be related to any subjects like math and science.
4. www.nyphilkids.org
It was my first time visiting the site when it was introduced by Dr. Frankel. Over the week I visited few times exploring and trying different programs that they carried. It was fascinated to see how they carefully designed and made easy to understand the steps for children also for non-musician to explore the music of an orchestra. I recommend to all the music educators to teach students what orchestration is and it will be a good tool to explore the world of orchestra.
5. www.musictheory.net
Also a great site to teach music theory. I was taught music theory in pencil and paper. But exploring the site, it was easy to operate and to see the over view of the theory. It was easy to understand. As a music educator, it will be a good source to use to explain music theory in better way for all levels of the students.
February 18th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
1) The Society for Ethnomusicology:
This site contains research, discussions and multimedia relating to world music and culture.
http://webdb.iu.edu/sem/scripts/home.cfm
There are multimedia presentations on the site that can be used in the classroom. In the following link Paul Greene presents maps, photos and audio recordings of a Himalayan Flute Pilgrimage in “Ordering a Sacred Terrain: Melodic Pathways of Himalayan Flute Pilgrimage.”
http://www.de2.psu.edu/faculty/pdg4/orderingasacredterrain/
2) American Folklife Center’s website is a wealth of information on American music and culture. There are recordings on the site and resources for lessons. The site is a useful tool for students as well.
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/
3) Save Our Sounds is connected with the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. Recordings available on the site include: a version of “We Shall Overcome” recorded in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, November 1964, ina mass meeting by Moses Moon, Langston Huges reading, “A Negro Speaks of Rivers” and JFK honoring the poet Robert Frost: “Poetry and Power”
http://www.saveoursounds.org/
4) Smithsonian Global Sound is another great resource for world music and culture. You or your students can search for music by country, instruement, language, decade, etc. Recordings and radio program archives are available to supplement class lessons and discussions.
http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/
5) Music is Revolution is an organization that provides funding for public school music programs. Started by Michael Davis of the punk/garage rock band MC5. http://musicisrevolution.org/
http://www.myspace.com/musicisrevolution
6) Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann (Gathering of Musicians of Ireland) is an organization dedicated to the “preservation and promotion of Irish Music”. Videos of performances, links to festivals, education opportunities, sessions (Irish Traditional “jam” sessions), etc. can be found of the site.
http://comhaltas.ie/education/
7) D’Accord Music offers software that can slow music down for transcription, software that can identify chords and create tablature or keyboard parts to assist individual and class learning among other programs. What do you think about this software? Is it cheating or helping the student?
http://www.daccordmusic.com/eng/products.php
International music collection: Some recordings are available for purchase
http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/cat.html
February 18th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Five websites for music education that I have found helpful:
1. www.tmea.org
This is the website for the Texas Music Educators Association. Yes, being from Texas I am a little biased to what they have to offer, BUT the greatest part of this website for me is under the Resource Center tab at the top. There are tons of music advocacy articles, quotes, etc. There is even a tool kit put together for you if you ever find yourself in need of defending what we teach to administrators, school boards, and other teachers. It will happen! These resources are great and all in one place.
2. www.classicsforkids.com
This site has great recordings, games, lesson plans, and podcasts about classical music, all geared toward kids. I even used the recordings for my middle school students for listening activities. They even have a radio station and weekly shows about certain composers.
3. www.cln.org
The description on the site’s homepage says it all – “a site designed to help K-12 teachers integrate technology into the classroom.” I have used the links for teaching the science of sound to middle school general music.
4. www.jazzatlincolncenter.org
Lincoln center has such a great jazz program, headed up by Wynton Marsalis. When teaching a jazz unit for general music or jazz band or jazz choir, there are great resources on the site. My favorite is the “jazzcast” where you can listen to Wynton’s radio show or get a look behind the scenes of jazz personalities. If you ever encounter jazz in your teaching, it is a great resource.
5. www.musictechteacher.com
This is a site that I just recently found. It has over 120 games, quizzes and puzzles about music terminology, composers, theory, and more! Students do the work right on the site. Even if your students won’t be working on the computer, it’s great for getting ideas for making your own reviews!
February 25th, 2008 at 12:07 am
1. www.chidrensmusicworkshop.com
This music education company specialized in products and services including custom designed band and orchestra method books, school site music instruction, instrument scales and rentals, music education. It offers instrument scales, rentals, and music pieces. It provides introductory videos for different instruments and introductions.
2. www.musictheory.net
I found this site in the best available. It allows interaction with synthesized musical instruments that fosters learning music theory and notations. It permits students to playfully experiment and learn about nearly all instruments.
3. www.songsforteaching.com
This site contains thousands of downloadable songs and lyrics categorized by subject matter. For example, animal songs, color songs, train songs and nursery rhyme. This is an excellent site.
4. www.musiceducationmadness.com
This site contains very valuable lessons and songs organized by diverse individual rubrics for an example, a worksheet and listening guide for Swan Lake. A valuable recorder PowerPoint for beginning 3rd grade students.
5. www.sfskids.org
This site offers simple and straightforward guide for beginning students with excellent graphics and sounds. And it teaches basic theory, tempo, rhythm, pitch and harmony. It allows children to play on simulated keyboard and allow them to compose new pieces.
February 25th, 2008 at 10:24 am
okay - luckily i do not get the procrastination prize all to myself - alas i was at my wits end trying to find websites that were no longer listed…
1.)http://bandfolio.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv? This website is great for beginning band instructors there are resources for the parents and students as well as a free website you can develop on your own. There are also plenty of suggestions for new and exciting ways to play with students from warming up to odd ensemble combinations like flute and tuba. Let’s face it, more often than not we’ll get fifty girls that want to play the flute and one boy that wants to play at all.
2.)www.musicinmotion.com This is more for informative purposes - especially with connecting the arts in your school and having instrumental performances take a different turn. Music in motion provides training for educators in terms of what pieces would be effective with available dance routines. Its another interesting way of presenting music with visual aids (i.e. dancers)
3.) www.donorschoose.com - This is AWESOME! For those of you who teach in the wonderful state of New York probably are unaware that in California music is optional, not required. Therefore, fund raising and bringing money into the program becomes such a necessity. This website allows instructors to post needs, what they have to offer as a program, letters from students, etc. and donors can go on the website to contribute to whom they feel is worthy.
4.) www.expertvillage.com Obviously this website can (operative word being ‘can’) put teachers out of business, but not so much so since the personable value isn’t available. But for those who would want to do a quick review on how to play instruments - this website offers online instruction through videos. Quite entertaining.
5.)library.music.indiana.edu - This has been a great source of help from online scores available to the music databases provided. All of their resources are available online =)
February 25th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
It should be noted that the NYC DOE has recently become a bit over-zealous about blocking websites, and there’s a chance that some of these great sites might be blocked in public schools for the wrong reasons.
The last I heard, the mandate was to block “anything that has to do with entertainment,” but sadly that turns out to include many sites I used to like to teach with including
www.adcritic.com
for commercial spot scoring and sound design exercises. If you can get on adcritic, it provides a great collection of the latest and greatest commercial spots on the air these days. You can download them as self-contained Quicktime movies, strip the sound from them in iMovie, and have your kids work through the audio and music post production process using Garage Band, Logic Pro or SoundTrack. This year it would have provided the perfect just-add-water lesson plan for the Monday morning after the Superbowl, but alas, it was blocked.
My next favorite sites for use in the classroom are sites that have to do with the class itself.
Thanks to Dr. Frankel’s ingenious and inspiring example, I started my own blog site for my own kids, and they absolutely LOVE it.
www.mangum.musiced.net
My principal has already haled this as “brilliant teaching,” and is sending links around as an example to other teachers and administrators.
My colleague Jason Gaines and I have also developed an on-line study resource for our kids who are preparing for Apple Certification Exams. Here’s the link:
www.jasongaines.com/kennedy
We used software called “Starquiz” to create on-line practice tests that the kids can use to sharpen their chops before they take the big exam.
Okay, now I’m gonna get a bit weird. Here’s a funky site that is uber-da-top in a way that could only be German, and could very well be the brain child of the likes of Spike Jonze. It’s a site by a dude named Hans Reichel, a composer, inventor and calligraphist who invented an instrument called the daxophone. The rich, interactive sound design on his site was produced entirely by the daxophone. Check out this weird, yet wonderful musical on-line experience.
www.daxo.de
This guy’s creative genius is exceeded only by his sense of humor. Watch out as you crawl into his head… you may not want to come out!
Last but not least, I have to admit that I was absolutely floored by many of the sites Dr. Frankel showed us, and many of the sites you guys list above. Right now my vote is going for
www.nyphilkids.com
–for the music ed web-gem of the year. Do you know how much had to go on behind the scenes to make this as cool as it is? I’ve been sending this out to my friends in music academia and by all reports, every last one of them have been astounded, amazed and delighted. Who cares if music is dead or not! To hell with Shenkerian Urinalysis! This is a blast, and kudos to the the NY Philharmonic for making music fun again!