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This is a resource instrument that helps basically describe every music instrument in the band and orchestra. It also contains a few basic lessons and exercises aimed at strong tone building through long tones lip slurs, and more.

This is a resource instrument that helps basically describe every music instrument in the band and orchestra. It also contains a few basic lessons and exercises aimed at strong tone building through long tones lip slurs, and more.

This is an interactive website focused on clarinet fingerings and tone tendencies. It can be used as a game to determine fingerings and tendency tones, or it can be used as a reference. It not only shows fingerings, but also note placement on a staff.

This is an interactive website focused on clarinet fingerings and tone tendencies. It can be used as a game to determine fingerings and tendency tones, or it can be used as a reference. It not only shows fingerings, but also note placement on a staff.

This YouTube video gives excellent but brief instruction on the topic of tone color or timbre. What is tone color? The presentation uses several instruments to illustrate what timbre is and how composers might use this musical element to evoke a mood or paint a musical picture.

Part 2 of 2. Exercises that help create good vocal tone.

This resource includes a variety of free tone-builder warm-ups for beginning to intermediate band. On the website are also descriptions on how to use the warm-ups and videos.

Collection of 428 folk songs organized by categories (origin, subject, grade level, melodic, elements, sequence of concepts, etc.) The songs follow Kodály Method sequence of introducing music concepts/elements. Excellent resource for elementary teacher.

A database of folk songs catalogued for the Kodaly methodology. Songs are searchable by elements of music, name, and more.

This is the entire American Folk Song collection. This excellent resource can be used by educators to print out folk songs to use to teach their students specific music skills such as singing, audiating, pitch, and rhythm. The website even gives activity ideas to use for each specific song.

This is a PDF description of warm up methods used in a successful beginning band program to build tone, reading skills, intonation, and more. It is meant for a band director to share what works for them with other directors.

This site contains helpful teaching tips and strategies for low brass. The tips were authored by Richard Murrow who is the principal tubist with the East Texas Symphony. The purpose of the resource is to provide a step by step process for teaching embouchure and the first tones for low brass beginners. Other tips are offered as well such as posture, how to hold the instrument, and tips about responsible teaching. The site does not contain musical content, but rather provides information that will prepare students to begin studying musical exercises. 

Helpful insight on starting your beginning band students.

Helpful insight on starting your beginning band students.

Musictheory.net is an all encompassing music theory website. It includes lesson plans and on-line, interactive exercises that solidify and enhance those lesson plans. This website also includes great theoretical tools. These tools include interval calculators, analysis, chord and scale calculators and even a 12 tone row matrix. It also has utilities such as an pop-up piano and metronome.

MuseScore3 is full-featured, open-source music notation software. This software is installed directly on a computer, and has compatible versions for PC, Mac, and Linux operating systems. There is no online or "cloud" version of this software. Although MuseScore is free, it is a professional music notation alternative to Finale and Sibelius and is capable of producing high-quality musical scores in a variety of formats. MuseScore also has full capability to produce audio playback, export to audio, and generate MIDI files.

MuseScore is a free music notation program that is easy to use and can produce easy to read, high quality sheet music for your ensembles. The interface is similar to other notation programs that you need to pay for. I have been using MuseScore to create etudes and warmups for my ensemble classes.

MuseScore is a music composition and notation software used to write/notate music. It requires the user to download and install the application on their system. This application is easily accessible and is free of charge. It is a software that is updated almost every month to make the features better. Muse Score has an easy to use interface and is a good tool to use in class for children to write down their simple compositions. Students are able to play back their compositions to their classmates, print them out, and/or even share them online. While using MuseScore, students learn many different musical concepts like dynamics, timbre, form, texture, structure, melody, repetition, phrasing, rhythm, tone, to mention but a few. MuseScore enhances the musicianship of students.

This page lends itself as a particularly valuable resource, especially for those whose weakness is intonation. In it, you will find philosophies, phrases, analogies, activities, and what the author terms "common threads" for approaching the aforementioned topic with your students. Among the most popular suggestions are singing, practicing characteristic tone quality, and listening down, or back, to the tuba section--all of which can and should be practiced in the early stages of a student's musical development.

This is a podcast designed to help band directors who are not clarinet players, or clarinet players looking for resources. It dives in the solving clarinet problems including tone, hand position, tonguing, and much, much more.

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.

Folk Song Collection that may be used to help find songs for teaching almost any musical concept. Primary and Secondary Sources with authentic notation and referenced material.

The American Folk Song Collection is a website that music educators can use to search for hundreds of folk songs. Each song includes a PDF of lyrics, melody, game/dance directions, song analysis, rhythms, and original source (some also include recordings). The website also includes basic information about the Kodaly approach.

The Kodaly Center website is a valuable resource for all music teachers and especially those teaching elementary general music. The website contains videos about the history and philosophy of Kodaly, as well as recent news and upcoming events being held at the center. The most impressive feature of this site is the pubic domain library of songs and the precise ways they are categorized. Songs can be searched and categorized by: Origin, region, state, subject, song type, grade level, tonal center, scale, tone set, melodic range, melodic element, melodic motive, rhythmic element, meter, form, formal analysis and game type. Once you find a song you can see all of this detailed information as well as (in most cases) listen to the song, often sung by a child or group of children.

This YouTube playlists features high quality videos discussing the fundamentals of each instrument, including tone production, articulation and other advanced techniques with demonstrations by professional musicians.

A great article showing how to take a well known tune and teach students how to compose their own melody. The article goes through the process of how to teach it. First you help students to write a base line, have them improvise a rhythm, then they can discover the notes of each chord, and write their own melody using chord tones.

Slidearea.com is the website for the principal trombonist of the New York Philharmonic, Joe Alessi. Within this site are resources that may be used to supplement lessons for trombone students. The tips that are listed are very practical and assist with developing tone, range, and technique. Within the website are also links to information regarding the Julliard School, recordings, mentor professors, Griego Mouthpieces, Smartmusic, Edwards Instruments, Aleesi Publications, and the Alessi Seminar.

This is a wonderful resource for warm ups geared at making great tonal control and projection on a tuba. Some of the exercises are developed from famous tuba parts in the orchestral repertoire, and some have been developed by the great Arnold Jacobs.

This is a wonderful resource for warm ups geared at making great tonal control and projection on a tuba. Some of the exercises are developed from famous tuba parts in the orchestral repertoire, and some have been developed by the great Arnold Jacobs.

This is an amazing resource for saxophonists and directors looking for help with their instrument. This site contains over 10,000 users who help and assist with finding "the lick," alternate altissimo fingerings, forward coning, and more.

This is an amazing resource for saxophonists and directors looking for help with their instrument. This site contains over 10,000 users who help and assist with finding "the lick," alternate altissimo fingerings, forward coning, and more.