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Learn Jazz Standards is an online jazz resource for musicians. We specialize in helping musicians learn jazz repertoire and become better jazz players. The Learn Jazz Standards website has two main components: the Blog and our Jazz Standards.

This is the hub for the Learn Jazz Standards podcasts and YouTube videos. This is a great resource for learning jazz theory, ear training and approaches to improvisation.

The Learn Jazz Standards website contains a comprehensive list of jazz standards, including lead sheets (in different transposing keys), essential and/or original recordings, and a recording of a rhythm section playing through the chord changes several times (a la Jamey Abersold). Often, these "jazz minus one" rhythm section recordings are offered in a few different keys. The site also includes a blog, podcast, and a list of articles on the topic of jazz. This resource is especially helpful for melodic instrument jazz players, giving them practice with chord changes, and I use this site frequently in my jazz classes.

Authors Nicole Springer and Ella Wilcox summarize strategies for effective classroom management in the ensemble classroom. By citing the experiences of former high school orchestra director Gretta Sandburg as well as her tried-and-true teaching methods, they provide their audience with four substantial tools that enable directors to make the most of their students' rehearsals; reading suggestions pertaining to this same topic are also provided at the end of the article and are accompanied by downloadable handouts. 

This is a great website called wheeldecide.com. It's one of the only "spinner" websites I've been able to find, and it works perfectly for when you've got some extra time with your younger elementary students. I just load up the songs and games they know, and I let one of the students spin the wheel and we sing and/or play whatever song/game comes up. They love it!

PBS Kids has a ton of music games great for use with the early elementary level. These games are great to reinforce concepts being taught in the general elementary classroom.

This site has a wide variety of music games for young children. Children can learn about different instruments, create their own digital instrument and play music with and sing along with popular cartoon characters.

Several games that relate to elementary music learning that kids will love to play. These games are perfect as a time filler, or as part of a lesson. These games are best for young (K5-1) students.

Blog post article from nafme.org on productive music practice. post filled with video clips and specific examples on things musicians can do to have more productive, goal-oriented practice sessions.

This podcast is hosted by three middle school band directors in Texas. They conduct their podcast in between classes, and they discuss the ins and outs of band in their middle school classes. They provide several resources to use in sectional classes in middle school band and offer advice.

This website is for a podcast I have been listening to for a few years. The podcast is very interesting an informative. It give a different perspective on teaching band. Though I don't teach in a similar situation, things can be applied to my situation.

This podcast covers three band directors that all work in the same middle school. This discuss all different types of things but it is interesting to listen to how the three work together with their different classes. I have listen to this podcast in the past and their are even times she records her lessons with her students.

This article is about works finally becoming public domain after 20 years

This is a very interesting website. I wouldn't let my classes "roam free" during class but as a teacher resource, relevant songs could be brought up and discussed as a class. Students could submit a song request and the teacher could preview ahead of time the appropriateness of discussing it's history.

This is a web-based game for recorders. Students play recorder, and the sound initiates different actions in the game. It teaches breath control, rhythm, melody, fingerings, technique, and more. Students have a great time progressing through the different levels.

Dr. Jill Reese is an amazing musician and teacher, and she is also the creator of a very useful YouTube page with tons of ukulele play-a-long videos. She pairs music with chord symbols and indicates when each chord should be played in time with the music.

This site helps build rubrics used for assessments.  You can design your own rubrics for playing tests, performances and projects.

This is a website that links to various rubric-creating formats, designed to save educators time and effort in making more visually-appealing assessment tools. There is a brief article that discusses the benefits of implementing a rubric in assessment, and there are multiple links to other articles that discuss the pros and cons of utilizing rubrics at various levels of education. Within the initial article are 25 different formats, some more topic-specific than others, to generate rubrics with pictures and descriptions. It is easy to use and much more efficient than creating a rubric from scratch.

The purpose of this website is to allow you to browse upcoming educational workshops and events scheduled to take place at the annual Midwest Clinic International Band, Orchestra, and Music Conference in December. The content focuses on the schedule of events which shows the most recent upcoming material on specific teaching strategies/pedagogies and how to implement these in the classroom. It allows you to sign up as an exhibitor, advertiser or attendee. It also allows you to sign up your performing ensembles to showcase their talent or to feature newly published music. Exhibits include workshops, musical equipment/instruments, and other material to help music educators and musicians.

This site is for the Midwest clinic. The Midwest clinic is an international clinic for music educators. I have been 4 times and every time it is so much ti take it and I have left with tangible and intangible thing that have increased my knowledge and made me a better teacher.

This website is the home page for the international band and orchestra conference. The page also offers professional development resources.

This website is a music game for note names, fingerings, and music theory terms. Students are timed on how long it takes them to complete the game and they can try to be the top score. You can't limit the pitches, so this works for students who have been playing for more than a year.

Yousician is a great resource for learning the guitar, bass, ukelele, or piano. Students can watch video tutorials and move up when they pass levels while playing songs with fun background music. The program/app provides instant feedback on pitch and rhythm. Teachers can use Yousician with a class on a Smart Board. In a group setting, Yousician cannot provide feedback, but it does provide lesson plans and even has a SongCreator. It is free to use with time limits on feedback, or can be upgraded to premium for $9.99/person with unlimited feedback. Students can sign up for their own account and teachers can track their progress through a Teacher account. It is fun, engaging, and provides a well rounded education in these instruments. There are knowledge tracks for each instrument which cover music theory and ear training.

This website is a great resource for band students to better understand note names, fingerings, and musical terms.  It is structured as a flash card game.  Students are racing to get all answers correct and into the Top 50.  If students answer incorrectly, the correct answer is shown to help students learn the correct answer. Students must answer all questions correctly in a certain time to move on to the next level.

This website is speed game for reinforcing terms, note names, or fingerings for students. It can be specialized to different instruments and has an option for teachers to keep track of scores by school.

Music racer is a tool to help users practice their note names and/or fingerings. Users select which instrument they would like to practice, and are given eight questions per round. Scoring is based on both speed and accuracy.

The website for cheap A/V gear. I believe they are an Amazon.com affiliate. High quality stuff for the times you need to purchase 15 usb cables, 2 audio adapters, and a microphone.

Great slide position chart for any time a trombone student ask what the difference in E and Eb is, or are there any notes in 5th position?

This website is a great resource for K-5 music.  There are jokes, games, and information regarding famous composers, including recordings of famous pieces of music.  This can be used by a classroom of kids in a computer lab, or by a teacher for lesson planning.

Classics for Kids is a resources for teachers, parents, and children. It provides lesson plans, music games and interactive links, a podcast, tips for parents, and information about composers, instruments, and music history. The lesson plans (written by my former music education professor, Dr. Kay Edwards) are standards-based and incorporate elements of Orff, Kodaly, and Dalcroze.

This website is for elementary/general music education. It is a resources for lesson plans on composers, music theory, and music listening.

IMSLP is on online library of music that is now held in the public domain. It is a resource that can be freely used to print copies of music for use in your classroom for free! This resource is especially useful for string orchestras, as entire catalogs of music from such great composers as Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven can be found in the archive.

Over 119,000 compositions in the public domain can be found here for free. This is a great resource for musicians and can be used for research, performing, and arranging. Some pieces include recordings.

An online resource for downloading pdf and mp3's of music scores and audio that is within the public domain for legal print and download.

This program offers in the moment improvisation with a loop-based accompaniment. There are up to 4 users at a time improvising a melody together. The user can control the different sounds/ colors easily.