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Hookpad is a free web app that simplifies songwriting by helping you choose chords that sound good together and guiding you to write a good melody. It's a musical sketchpad with music theory "built-in" to make it easier and more intuitive to find the sound you're looking for.

Hookpad is a free web app that simplifies songwriting by helping you choose chords that sound good together and guiding you to write a good melody. It's a musical sketchpad with music theory "built-in" to make it easier and more intuitive to find the sound you're looking for.

Brought to the internet from PBS Kids, Chuck Vanderchuck is a cartoon kid who dreams big when it comes to music. Along with his band-mate, Ramona and their dog Zepplin, the trio explore styles of music, compose songs, explore sounds, have jam sessions and allow an interactive inside look at famous musicians and composers in their locations around the globe. Builds music vocabulary, music history and overall exploration of various genres. Styles include: Salsa, Jazz, Country, Hip-Hop, Rock n' Roll, Blues, Classical, Reggae. Good with IWB. Offers teacher and parent resources. Can create a free account and log in anywhere to progress through the game-like environment of Chuck Vanderchuck.

Roger Day is one of my all time, favorite children's musicians. This is his official website and features videos, lyrics to songs, booking information and merchandise. His newest CD, Marsh Mud Madness stays true to his educational platform and teaches children interesting facts about wetlands in a fun, exciting, musical way.

A fun resource for students to use. The site is regularly updated with popular songs that are available for free. The interactive Recorder Karate can be used with a microphone to show what needs to be improved.

This is a website that seems to have an endless supply of resources!  There are many multicultural resources, opportunities to link up with other elementary music teachers, as well as many links to free copies of songs and lessons.

Eric Litwin is an author, musician and producer who specializes in children's music. He is one of my favorite artists for kids. He has many educational resources and a curriculum for preschool children. His books featuring Pete the Cat are awesome and appear regularly in my music room! Eric Litwin also does performances in schools and communities and has visited my school for his "Earth Shaking, CD Making" project where my students learned songs and recorded them to make their own CD.

In this article, a study shows the connectivity between reading music and the way our brains process certain information. It explains how musicians hear the music they read and non-musicians rely on visual cues.

Learning chords for older piano students can be tedious until they can effectively play them in a song. The use of technology could help students learn this necessary music theory skill and make it more enjoyable. 

The Library of Congress has a plethora of information and media related to music education. Within the archives of the Library of Congress are recordings of folk songs, articles about music in America, and podcasts. One of these podcast collections is about Music and the Brain where research related to music and how it affects the brain is reviewed and discussed. This is an excellent resource for music advocacy. It is also a great resource for better understanding music learning.

This web page offers free printable of stories and props for kids. Even though it's not a music education site, elementary music teachers that use stories to teach music concepts such as beat, high/low, soft/loud, among other concepts, can find excellent patterns to print and use in their classes. There are many books based on songs.

Purpose of this resource: Chordify is a useful website for determining the chord progressions of almost any song. Musical Content: Chordify allows users to upload or link to recordings and analyze the chord structure. This works for all genres, including classical music. The chords are displayed in text form, and you can follow the chord changes through the piece while your original file plays. Other information: When using Chordify, educators should double-check the chords. Files with extra sounds (such as applause) can cause the program to add extraneous chords, and suspensions/inversions are not written out. This resource is still helpful for score analysis, and even for choral directors with limited keyboard proficiency. Chord changes can be written in to concert music to allow for a simpler harmonic accompaniment when teaching.

Site provides translation to many Lieder. Translation and original text available for several languages.

Pandora can be used for my students to listen to songs the orchestra is presently learning or planning to learn in the future. This always comes in as an asset because of our rote style teaching method and performing from memory. If the basic melody, bass line and chord progression is familiar; it makes the music easier to learn.

This is an educational website, but you don't have to be in a school or university to use it. It takes as its model Kutiman's brilliant thru-you.com site, where he made seven new songs by remixing bits of video shared on YouTube. Included here for free are video tutorials which will show you how to create a basic remix just with the software that comes free on a Mac, or is available free on the internet. Windows users may be able to get the same results with Acid by Sony.

Pandora radio offers free customized radio stations that play songs relating to certain genres or artists. Listening is essential for musical development and understanding.  Students can access everything from jazz and classical, to Latin and opera.  

Hilarious

SMARTBoard Music Lessons Pinterest Board

The Music and Sound Design Platform is a new approach to making electronic and electro-acoustic music. Music_SDP uses many of the same tools and processes that are found in your favorite music software, but introduces a new paradigm for exploring sounds, performing songs, and writing electro-acoustic compositions.

New music discoveries

A great group that covers a lot of contemporary songs, often creating mash ups with Western classical pieces. Don't be fooled! They play piano and cello and sometimes sing.