This song was written especially for Kristin. Sony Classical commissioned award-winning song writer Jeanine Tesori to write “The Girl in 14G” for Kristin’s debut CD, “Let Yourself Go”.
Students are given a list of 26 world music instruments.
Their task is to match the instruments in the first column to their country of origin.
A list of countries is provided for the students to choose from.
Students write the country next to the instrument in the second column of the table.
In the third column, students must categorize the instruments as either chordophone, aerophone, membranophone or idiophone. CLICK HERE
No prior music knowledge is needed for this activity. This is an in-depth research and oral presentation task for students.
It requires students to choose a country and research the instruments and music of that country. There are SIX pages in all:
PAGE 1: outlines the task. There are six criteria areas for students to address.
PAGE 2: is a teacher marking sheet for assessment.
PAGE 3: is a table of suggested countries for research and a column to enter student names so you can keep track of the country each student is researching.
PAGES 4 and 5 is a list of internet sites where students might find information.
PAGE 6: has a list of tips and ideas for the teacher.
Students really enjoy this task and they learn heaps about the music of many different countries! CLICK HERE
This is s fantastic resource to include in a unit on World Music or as revision.
It is also a good activity to leave for your class when you are away.
A teachers answer sheet is included. CLICK HERE
Remembering the names of the lines and spaces has always proven a little challenging to many new music students. When it comes time to learn the Bass clef as well as the Treble clef it often becomes even more confusing!
Here is a series of videos from MusicK8.com that uses the power of song to aid the learning process!
A 24 slide PowerPoint introducing students to the lines and spaces of the treble and bass clef!
The Ppt carefully and thoroughly leads students through understanding the lines and spaces of both clefs with revision quizzes along the way.
For the final revision slides, answers slides are provided for students to check their work!
You will find this an invaluable resource – clearly set out and easy for students to understand! CHECK it OUT
As we all know only too well, students have short attention spans. To keep our lessons interesting and engaging for them we need to change activities a number of times within the lesson.
Here are some ideas for activities to include in your lessons. They can be used to:
There is no denying that YouTube is an incredible resource for all and of particular value to musicians and music teachers! There is a wealth of videos of musical performances and interviews with artists etc.
So… I was really excited when I discovered the FREE” YouTube to MP3 Converter” from ManiacTools.com
As well as being FREE it takes no time at all to download and is SUPER simple to use!
You can add multiple YouTube videos just by copying the links and then download them all simultaneously. By default, downloads are saved to the My Music folder as an mp3, but you can change the output folder and also elect to download as a WAV file instead.
Step 1
-Download the “Free YouTube to MP3 Converter” from the following site:
http://www.maniactools.com/soft/youtube-to-mp3-converter/?ref=youtube2mp3-inst&version=7.1&b=7100
-After the download is complete the YouTube to MP3 icon will appear on your desktop.
-Copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to convert. For this example I’m choosing Adele’s ‘Set Fire to the Rain.’
-Click on the YouTube to MP3 desktop icon and the following box will appear:
-Paste the URL into the ‘Add a YouTube link’ area of the box (top left hand corner)
Click Download; when download and conversion is complete the following box will appear:
Click Open Folder and you will see the MP3 file in the My Music Folder (Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” in this example)
-Open iTunes and drag the MP3 file from My Music folder to a playlist in iTunes
-Now you can burn the track to a CD if/when you need to!
Go to: http://www.youtube-mp3.org/
This is the easiest online service for converting videos to mp3. You do not need an account; the only thing you need to do is copy a YouTube URL and paste it into the box on the YouTubemp3 page!
From there the mp3 is saved into your documents so you need to move it to your My Music folder.
I recently commenced a unit on Romantic Music with my senior tertiary music class. I love to use ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ from Disney’s Fantasias to introduce the idea of Romanticism in music. I have very clear recollections of watching it when I was a student and I remember how after viewing it, I understood the concept more clearly and was in awe of just how powerfully music could tell a story and portray emotions and feelings!
This got me thinking about classical music being used in cartoons, so I decided to do a search of what was available.
Below is a list of what I discovered. If you know of any other please share!
1. Maestro Minnie :
Music: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee
2. Maestro Minnie
Music: Brahms’ Lullaby
3. Maestro Minnie
Music: Rossini’s William Tell Overture
4. Bugs Bunny
Music: Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No 2
5. Looney Tunes – Pigs in a Polka
Music: Brahms’ Hungarian Dances #5, 7, 6 and 17 (they appear in that order)
6. Bugs Bunny – Baton Bunny
Music: Von Suppe’s A Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna
7. Magical Maestro
Music: Largo al factotum aria from Rossini’s Barber of Seville opera
8. Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl
Music: Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus
9. The Cat Concerto
Music: Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2
10. The Rabbit of Seville
Music: Rossini’s Barber of Seville Overture
11. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Music: Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
12. What’s Opera, Doc?
Music: Wagner’s Ring Cycle
YouTube in Music Education by Thomas Rudolph and James Frankel
An insight into the ways that educators can use the huge number of videos on Youtube. The book also includes a chapter on what to do if your school blocks Youtube.
I am VERY excited to share TWO fantastic highlights for the TeachersPayTeachers site, that have occurred in the past few days. (TPT is a web site where teachers can make and sell all sorts of digital and hard items to sell to other teachers.)
1. Our top seller, Deanna Jump has just past the $500,00 mark in earnings!!
Follow this link to become a member of TpT where you will have access to all the wonderful teaches created items and you will also receive the weekly newsletter that contains 10 FREE downloads.
2. TeachersPayTeachers was given a very positive mention in Bill Gates Annual Letter!
Here is the excerpt:
“Great work is also being done by companies that are thinking beyond simply digitizing textbooks. CK-12 Foundation, Udemy, and Ednovo have great teacher- and community–generated content. A simple example of how powerful the community can be in this area is TeachersPayTeachers, a marketplace that facilitates the sharing and exchanging of lesson plans and other materials developed by teachers themselves.”
A teacher resource kit to help elementary school teachers introduce their students
to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his music. CLICK HERE
2. BBC Primary History: Famous People
Information about his life, pictures, a quiz and links. CLICK HERE
3. Free music of Mozart’s (mp3s) CLICK HERE
4. Hey Kids, Meet Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Loads of Mozart resources for young children here including composer bio, worksheets and easy sheet music for various instruments. CLICK HERE
A one page PDF Free Download CLICK HERE
6. All Piano Scores
Free Mozart music sheets to download. CLICK HERE
7. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K.525 – I.Allegro - video
8. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik K.525 – I. Allegro - SCORE
Free score and instrument parts available to download. CLICK HERE
9. Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
A fun and imformative book to introduce children to the life of Mozart.
Excellent for children between 7-10 years of age
For more information on ’Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’ CLICK HERE
Do you know any other good sites with Mozart resources?
SongSeek:
Song Seek has seven different .PDF files of manuscript paper available for free download. Check it out
Anton Schwartz:
Anton has five different .PDF files of manuscript available. One is a blank saxophone fingering chart for saxophonists to record their favorite fingering; a little different and could be quite useful to many! Check it out!
PDFjazzmusic.com
This site is fantastic. It has over 35 different types of manuscript available in PDF format for free download! Manuscript available is under the headings of: General, Solo, Ensemble, Band, Orchestra and Choral! Im’ definitely bookmarking this one! Check it out!
Free Blank Sheet Music:
This is another excellent site offering many different types of manuscript for various instruments. They even have templates for bass guitar with four, five, and six strings that include tablature, notation, and neck charts. Banjo, mandolin and guitar are also available as are staves with many different clefs! Check it out!
Dolmetsch online
Here you will find a HUGH collection of free blank manuscript available is all different shapes and sizes! Check it out!
Do you have a favorite site for downloading blank manuscript paper? Let us know in the comment box!
As music teachers we are expected to ‘put on a show’ at least once or twice a year.
Many of us like to have a theme to the concert – but after a few concerts our ideas for themes runs dry.
I did a search for concert ideas and themes and share with you TWENTY – TWO of the better ones I found.
Add your ideas for Concert Themes in the comment box below so we can add it to our list!