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Benefits of music education for children. 

PBS discusses the importance and benefits of music education. PBS explains that music facilitates learning in other subjects. Learning music taps into multiple skills sets. PBS explains the various categories that music helps benefit.

Language development, IQ, test scores, being musical

U of M rules!

This is a flash-based musical game site that has several different activities that are appropriate for elementary students. The site is very engaging for that age student and easy to navigate.

This is a cloud-based music education software with lesson plans, project ideas, audio, video, games, and other special activities to assist teaching new content from note values, line and space identification, world music, and other content.

Curriculum for music classes through grade 8.

This is Google's free experimental sequencer, created in 2018. There is very little verbal information - it is intuitive, simple and easy, and could be used with very young students. It also could be used by someone who doesn't read English.

This is another great, simple, web-based music sequencer that can be used to allow students to experiment with composition without needing to know anything about reading music or writing music notation. There is a large amount of sounds available and the sounds are of high quality. It is very simple to use and students can start composing right away using this site.

Noteflight provides music notation software from the ease of a web browser. The program is free to use, and although there is a premium version, the free version has all the tools needed for learning and creating notated music. All works are saved in the cloud and can be accessed at anytime from any device that can access the website, making music composition easier than ever.

Noteflight is a free browser-based music notation tool. The software has cloud storage allowing you to work on creative musical products from any computer with an internet connection. It also connects to MIDI instruments. Noteflight has a paid subscription which allows you to store unlimited compositions, full access to all sounds, transposition, and the ability to print individual parts. Student accounts can be purchased which you to create "closed" classrooms allowing for creative musical products and collaboration amongst peers.

This video is a glance into the world of hip-hop producers and how the genre was and is inspired by jazz. It can serve as a great starting point for an NTM class that is looking to start a composition task and provide inspiration to students.

Similar to Soundtrap.com; this online DAW is a great resource for student to create music with loops. I've used this in a technology class and students enjoy the variety of loops.

Soundation is a fully functioning cloud-based DAW, similar to Soundtrap. The look is darker and more professional, and the effects processing is more sophisticated. This could be a good option for college-level recording and collaboration, whereas Soundtrap's colorful look and simplicity would be more appropriate for middle- and high-school use.

Soundation is a Digital Audio Workstation similar to sound trap though soundation appears more professional, and the effects are more sophisticated. With soundation, students learn to do recording, editing, mixing, instrument patches, and MIDI input. Soundation is good for university level whereas Soundtrap's simplicity is good for middle and high school. Like soundtrap, it has a free one month trial with limited accessibility and to access the full premium, one has to pay. Soundation helps students acquire the 4Cs i.e Collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. It is a good resource for teaching studio composition and for enhancing the musicianship of non traditional music students.

Great ideas for music and movement.

Remember when Finale used to be able to import pdf files? PlayScore 2 is a great work-around. Music scanning software that includes the ability to export as a MusicXML file or MIDI file which can then be imported into programs such as Finale, Sibelius, to be edited, transposed, or re-arranged. ALSO - this is a great tech blog to follow / subscribe to.

This is a blog post for music educators in search of quality PD podcasts. This article provides a list of many different podcasts that focus on specifically music education, technology integration, and general educational topics.

List of great podcasts for music educators

Bucket drumming is a favorite activity during rhythm units in just about any grade. Coach K makes this whole process easy and encourages us to share our experiences.

A youtube channel that focuses on providing short lessons on jazz history/tradition, instrumental technique, and the jazz language.

This YouTube channel is a great resources for jazz educators in both a private and ensemble setting. The videos cover the whole jazz orchestra, providing videos of technique as well as ways to develop students' improvisational skills.

Jazz Academy is a YouTube library with free lessons on jazz for educators and students. Lessons range from the instrument specific techniques, jazz history, master classes with professional musicians, and lessons on different styles of music. From these videos, students receive important information from professional jazz musicians. As a jazz educator, there are also videos that improve my understanding of specific techniques and styles.

This is a helpful website for students interested in jazz. Students can read more about the history of jazz, learn about specific artists, and get tips for improving their own playing.

This is a great resource that I plan to use with my Jazz Band students.

Great source that contains a good jazz history database as well as a lot of performance practice tips.

Music Learning Community is a site for music educators and music students that includes a great deal of information on computer-based learning. included are games and activities that teach theory and build aural skills. There is a free trial but the site requires a membership fee.

This website offers hundreds of interactive games to teach students music theory, rhythms, ear-training, sight-reading, and notation analysis. Designed to make learning musical concepts and take-home assignments more fun and engaging, these games are broken down into various levels for students. Lower levels can be effective for early elementary students, and higher levels can be effective for students in high school. Games are colorful and entertaining, and they list certain scores that students should strive to achieve. Most games have a lesson version, a practice version, and a quiz version. Teachers can track scores and data of individual students to see strengths and weaknesses.

This website has many games that can be used to learn various musical concepts. Some games are free, but there are more games with the paid subscription. You can pay monthly or yearly and it can be used for 5 to 50 people.

Morton Subotnick's Creating Music has a variety of music games and activities that would be suited for an elementary curriculum. I would like to use this website as a center in my classroom, to allow students to explore simple music creation and music listening.

Creating music is a site preferably for younger learners. It provides practice on pitches, timbres, ear training, and memorization.

Younger musicians can use this website to understand pitch, hearing music and create basic compositions. There is an iPad application that goes along with it and it is completely free and a great educational tool for younger children.

TeachRock is an online educational resource presented by Steven Van Zandt's Rock and Roll Forever Foundation and offered free-of-charge to educators and individuals everywhere. interdisciplinary in nature, TeachRock is geared toward middle and high school students but includes resources for learning at all levels.

A resource including lesson plans, music and video clips, and more for teaching styles and history of rock and roll music.

This website includes teaching materials, blogs, and more to support band directors. Some of the materials include seating chart, 'rehearsal detective' forms, and more practical forms for band directors.

This website is a collection of various resources by Wendy Higdon to assist band directors in their classrooms. Her website offers a podcast about band related topics such as recruitment and inventory. Her blog includes articles on building fundamentals and stocking the right reeds for your woodwinds. Finally she has many resources available to download such as seating chart generators, recruiting materials, and self-assessments.

This blog is written by Wendy Hart Higdon, a middle school band director who has wrote tons of articles on directing middle school bands, and has an awesome recruitment checklist on here!

This website provides a wealth of information and resources for the elementary music teacher. These resources include: games, stories, songs (lyrics and chords provided), games to be played in music class, etc.

The ChoralWiki (CPDL) is a great resource for choral teachers and choir directors. There is access to free music, texts and translations, seasonal indices, and discussion forums for questions and answers about music, rehearsal techniques, and performance. 

Choral director on a budget? This website features over 20,000 scores by over 2500 composers! An amazing resource of free music available mostly in PDF format for use and downloading.

The Choral Public Domain Library is a free and legal source for free sheet music! This site offers printable scores of public domain music, often complete with text and translations when necessary. You can search this catalog by composer, title, arrangements, voicing, accompaniments, language, and genre. Complete with over 31,000 scores by over 3,200 different composers, there's a high possibility that any choral director might find something of use here!