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Best Practices for Children's Choir is a podcast with Matthew Parker discussing his best practices when working with a children's choir. The discussion content ranges from choosing music to engaging in warm-ups. Matthew also shares his favorite octavos, composers/arrangers, warm-ups, and tips when choosing music. This is very useful information and a great resource to use when working with your elementary and/or middle school choir.

Podcast and synopsis of best practices for children's choir. I want to reference this if the world works my way and places me in an elementary school next year.

This article talks about how Marching Band is one of the best extra curricular activities to participate in High School.

This article talks about how Marching Band is one of the best extra curricular activities to participate in High School.

Benefits of marching band

Wynn Literature is a site I found a few years ago as I was looking for music for my high school Intermediate Band to play for the Georgia Music Educators Association's Large Group Performance Evaluation (concert festival). The band I had one year was unprepared to play most Grade 4 Literature and I needed help choosing Grade 2 or 3 pieces. Wynn created this list of compositions that are on the GMEA LGPE required list. It is important to double check the most current LGPE list as the list is updated yearly. The compositions are written by composers whose works have been deemed to be "Contemporary Concert Band Standards" as they have the best mix of challenging the students as well as entertaining. Some of the composers include James Swearingen, Quincy Hilliard Robert W. Smith, David R. Holsinger, and James Curnow just to name a few. The site has changed a lot since I originally found it. You were able to click on the individual compositions to get more information about the piece such as key signature, meter, performance ranges for most of the instruments, technical issues that may occur (difficult rhythms or harmonies), background on the composer and historical perspective of the composition. Since the site's links do not work anymore, WynnLiterature is a great starting point to search for literature to play at the middle school level as well as the lower/developmental bands in high school.

Wynn Literature is a site I found a few years ago as I was looking for music for my high school Intermediate Band to play for the Georgia Music Educators Association's Large Group Performance Evaluation (concert festival). The band I had one year was unprepared to play most Grade 4 Literature and I needed help choosing Grade 2 or 3 pieces. Wynn created this list of compositions that are on the GMEA LGPE required list. It is important to double check the most current LGPE list as the list is updated yearly. The compositions are written by composers whose works have been deemed to be "Contemporary Concert Band Standards" as they have the best mix of challenging the students as well as entertaining. Some of the composers include James Swearingen, Quincy Hilliard Robert W. Smith, David R. Holsinger, and James Curnow just to name a few. The site has changed a lot since I originally found it. You were able to click on the individual compositions to get more information about the piece such as key signature, meter, performance ranges for most of the instruments, technical issues that may occur (difficult rhythms or harmonies), background on the composer and historical perspective of the composition. Since the site's links do not work anymore, WynnLiterature is a great starting point to search for literature to play at the middle school level as well as the lower/developmental bands in high school.

Wynn Literature is a site I found a few years ago as I was looking for music for my high school Intermediate Band to play for the Georgia Music Educators Association's Large Group Performance Evaluation (concert festival). The band I had one year was unprepared to play most Grade 4 Literature and I needed help choosing Grade 2 or 3 pieces. Wynn created this list of compositions that are on the GMEA LGPE required list. It is important to double check the most current LGPE list as the list is updated yearly. The compositions are written by composers whose works have been deemed to be "Contemporary Concert Band Standards" as they have the best mix of challenging the students as well as entertaining. Some of the composers include James Swearingen, Quincy Hilliard Robert W. Smith, David R. Holsinger, and James Curnow just to name a few. The site has changed a lot since I originally found it. You were able to click on the individual compositions to get more information about the piece such as key signature, meter, performance ranges for most of the instruments, technical issues that may occur (difficult rhythms or harmonies), background on the composer and historical perspective of the composition. Since the site's links do not work anymore, WynnLiterature is a great starting point to search for literature to play at the middle school level as well as the lower/developmental bands in high school.

Being a first-year teacher is, as I'm sure we all know, daunting and overwhelming, especially for those of us who seek to be the best that we can be for our students. Nonetheless, educator Jim Matthews provides his audience with a concise list of eight habits exhibited by several highly effective band directors, which includes but is not limited to having ensembles play long tones, engage in breathing exercises, and participate in warm-up routines that are both effective and efficient. By adopting each of these eight habits, Matthews is certain that every year of teaching will be nothing short of productive and rewarding.

Pitchfork is a website with the latest news about the music industry. The site covers reviews of music, as well as, ratings of the best new music that has been released. Currently the "best new" section features music that is no more than a month old. Pitchfork also provides the visitor with videos and events, as well as, information about up and coming artists.

This website is a tool to advocate music education and technology to a widespread group of people, and allow readers to write feedback on the website. As well as the feedback, this site is for the general musician audience to search for resources that will help with teaching in schools and responding to young musicians. This website includes articles about music technology and its benefits and uses, posts about music education, the advocacy of music and its importance to all students, and general posts about things such as copyright laws, orchestra and its instruments, apps for music, and planning education tools for teachers.

Ron Hess talks about choosing the best notation software for your projects.

Ron Hess talks about choosing the best notation software for your projects.

This website is a resource for a variety of childrens music. It allows you access to artists, recordings, stories, etc. that you could use in early childhood classrooms.

This website is a resource for a variety of childrens music. It allows you access to artists, recordings, stories, etc. that you could use in early childhood classrooms.

Event info and audition information, district minutes, ways to get involved in FBA.

This website is an important one for Florida band directors to have book marked. The Florida Bandmasters Association provides a variety of educational experiences for students including performance evaluations and honor band experiences. In addition, FBA is a community of educators who support each other by helping each other to grow professionally. The FBA website provides a "best practices" section as well as articles and other resources that are helpful for band directors as they seek to improve their skills.

Great for ages K-5. Equipped with worksheets, lesson plans, assessments. etc. The website is easily navigated and up-to-date.

This website provides free resources for music teachers including lesson plans, activities, assessments, and video examples designed to be effective and adaptable in a wide variety of music classrooms. The resources include fundamentals of rhythm and meter, form and design, expressive qualities, pitch, and performing.

This set of free online resources for music teachers includes lesson plans and activities, summative and formative assessments, video examples, and documented best practices.

Sight Reading Factory is a subscription based website with the ability to generate unlimited sight reading examples. This is great for group sight reading in class, individual practice, or assessment purposes. Each exercise is fully customizable to suit your students needs.

This site can be used for practicing sight reading. The possibilities of combinations of notes, short songs, and everything can be found here. I have even found that state all-state bands have used it to create their sight reading pieces for all state band. It does cost, but the price can be worth it even if just a teacher subscription is bought.

The purpose of this resource is to provide students and teachers and alternative method for practicing sight reading. The site randomly generates examples based on level specifications about rhythm, time signature, key signature, and intervals as set by the instructor or students. The subscription is only $2 a student.

A website that offers some of the best professional music video lessons from various artists. While the videos do cost money, they offer tremendous insight into a specific artist's process. It is essentially the same as getting a one on one lesson for a fraction of the cost.

A website that offers some of the best professional music video lessons from various artists. While the videos do cost money, they offer tremendous insight into a specific artist's process. It is essentially the same as getting a one on one lesson for a fraction of the cost.

There are literally hundreds of websites that offer free sheet music and a large percentage (not ALL) of the titles are also copyright-free so you can arrange, transpose or transform the original to your heart's content.

This is where I go when I needed the latest smash hit and it has not yet been arranged for SATB or choirs. I love this site because you can now get digital copies of the music and use it with iPad programs like FourScore to play off of in concerts. No more binders full of sheet music and papers flying everywhere! This site really is a music teacher's best friend!

This website has reviews of several apps and hardware for the music teacher. Learn how to play guitar with an actual guitar, best digital recorder for on the field bands, and more.

If you have the chance to take your students to this place, do it!  So many of the best artists in the US got their start here!

Zoom products are some of the best recording devices on the market. These could help from recording a student to a full ensemble. The recorders also balance the recording and are very user friendly. I have used these on many occasion professionally and will in the future. There is also free app for most smart phones that will do just as good of job as purchasing a recorder.

SBMP has the best selection of interesting and moving choral compositions and arrangements. Check out the advanced catalogue search. Music is sorted by difficulty as well as voicings.

Tonal Energy provides individualized instruction and videos for band and orchestra students. Each instrument is listed and linked to a fingering chart, exercises, scales, instrument care, and videos of professional artists. The website also has a place for discussion between other musicians, teachers, and students. One of the best items about Tonal Energy is the tuner App. The TE Tuner provides a visual representation beyond the original needle and shows the students proper intonation through a smiley face and colored circles.