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Garage band news, and topics related to garageband.  Things that can help with great accompaniments for my students.

Unsigned bands/artists are interviewed

Resources for modern band. Parts are provided for different instruments and links to video and audio recordings are also available. Jam tracks and other practice tools are also available on the Little Kids Rock site

Children like games. They find it easy to play with toys, building blocks, and puppets. Children require an experience of creative play with music to enhance their understanding of musical concepts. This website's sketch pad and rhythm band games foster children's understanding of pitch, rhythm, and melody. Aural listening is a good tool for children to understand music. By listening, they get an experience of how an instrument sounds, what pitch sounds high or low, and how a melody sounds. This enhances their musicianship before they get into the details of these aspects of music.

This section of the NAfME website gives members access to lesson plans attached to standards. You can search the database based on specific content (band, chorus, collegiate, etc.), based on specific standards, or based on grade level. This area of the website also brings up relevant articles to what you are searching to give you helpful tips and/or links to relevant websites.

West Rowan High School has proved scale sheets for each instrument at different levels of ability. This source provides easy to read full range scale sheets for students practice their scales with. For younger students, one octave scale sheets are available to begin practicing their scales without the extra notes they do not know how to play yet.

This website has a series of games meant for younger children to understand sound, rhythm, mood, and sounds of the orchestra. I would use this in my beginning band classes, even though it's middle school, just to ensure that they understand instrument sounds.

Texas Music Educators Association website has great information about music education advocacy. Members can access clinics and handouts that support music education.

Texas Music Educators Association available choral resources

The 4-Beat Rhythm Cards found on this site has been an excellent tool for me over the past three years. I have used the full-page sized flash cards as rhythm exercises for both bands and choirs, and they are really effective for immediate use in the classroom. Not only are rhythm charts found on this website, but a host of music theory resources are also available.

This YouTube documentary covers the history of swing. From Louis Armstrong to modern day artist like Michael Buble. It discusses how each era built on each other and the downfall of big bands was due to the cost to operate them.

This article discusses tips for jazz ensemble directors. It covers how the band could be set up and the importance of each section. It covers a key concept of having your students listen to jazz to understand it.

This is the page for the Nations Association for Music Education. This site is full of information for teachers and students alike on the national level. Music research and advocacy information is also available. NAFME was formerly called MENC.

The National Association for Music Education's webpage is valuable online tool for music educators of all fields. It offers helpful resources for not only teachers, but students as well. There is a wide variety of links and posts to read through ranging from blog posts to teaching standards.

NAFME is a vital resource for music educators. This website provides communication and collaboration via forums, lesson plans, standards, frequently posted articles, and even more resources for music educators of all varieties. It is an excellent way to stay involved in the music education community, and it continuously strives to improve the state of music education nation-wide.

This site has a lot of great material for brass and percussion. I have used them in the past for a few items (range builders, breathing exercises, drum heads). Affordable items and a very good resource for music teachers.

Xtreme Brass and Percussion is a online retailer focusing on brass and percussion instruments. They sell a wide variety of goods including instruments and instrument accessories, sheet music, marching band music, and playing technique books and much more.

Educator Seth Gamba provides his audience with a plethora of strategies for teaching rhythm in the ensemble setting. These include but are not limited to repeating exercises and excerpts as well as counting out loud. Most notably, each of the strategies he suggests can be adapted for use in just about any music classroom, including band, orchestra, chorus, and even general music. Therefore, music teachers are sure to find this resource to be particularly valuable, especially in instances where students are beginning to learn about rhythm.

Class recorder method by Texas music educator, Jo Lynn Cookus. The method is based on common American folk songs that are commonly taught in elementary settings, and therefore integrates well with common curricular models including Kodaly and Orff. It is a lesser-known alternative to common recorder methods including Recorder Express, Recorder Karate, etc. The author is a seasoned music educator with 30+ years of music education experience teaching elementary education, choir, and band.

A database that helps band directors find pieces that fit their individual ensembles needs based on strengths and weaknesses. Very interactive and a potent tool for a young director!

A compilation of band-specific resources for music educators. Covers everything from recruiting to clarinet mouthpieces.

This resource is a kind of jazz band syllabus posted on Midwest's website to help directors who are new to jazz or want to get better at teaching a jazz class. Includes suggested method books, warm-ups, repertoire, kinds of scales to teach, etc.