Digital Musicking

Methods for approaching assessments with large numbers of students. The overall site has a lot of wonderful ideas for teaching elementary general music as well.

A flash-style card game that helps students solidify their identification of notes within the grand staff. There are several different levels available, so it's useful for all ages and ability levels.

A great way for students to practice ear training, including identification of intervals. Excellent for large classroom settings as well as private lessons.

A list of music apps that are great in the private studio setting, particularly for teaching piano lessons. Theory apps are included.

A Sim City-style online game (also available in a downloadable app) that is great for composition activities in the classroom. Warning: it's addictive for all ages!

This website introduces students to instruments of the orchestra, and allows students to create in the music lab. This would work well with elementary students.

This website is one of my favorite ways to introduce new musical ideas to K5 and 1st grade students. Older students love using it as well. The lesson plans, games, and activities are all aligned and geared toward specific subjects. These also make great sub lessons.

Teachers pay teachers is user content for other users to use. For a small fee (or free in many cases!), an educator could find lessons, activities, resources, or curriculum that would work well for their specific teaching situation. For a teacher with ideas and resources looking to make a little bit of extra money, they could put up their own content for others to buy.

This site gives students the ability to create satisfying compositions that explore texture using loops that are designed to fit in with each other. Perfectly suited for differentiation, students can create works that are simple or complex.

Music Improvisation Arranging Music

Incredibox is a web-based mixing tool, and its purpose is to create mixes with pre-set loops including, beats, effects, voices, and melodies. In each "dude", the user needs to select a "clothing piece" that contains a specific loops. The user begins creating their mixes, and can add and delete them as needed. Musically speaking, it is a teaching tool because the user learns how to mix loops ate certain points. It enhance several concepts such as rhtyhm and meter. It can be used by elementary and secondary-level students.

This website is one of my favorites for finding elementary sub plans, fun note-naming worksheets, and other fun worksheets for kids.

This is an online game that helps students learn about the different instruments and families of the orchestra. Uncle Oly and Violet go on an adventure trying to find the instruments of the orchestra and put them back together in their correct places. Students will learn about the sounds of the instruments, what family they belong to, and where they are placed in the orchestra.

This is a website that goes through the instruments of the orchestra, and has a whole lesson for Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. There are also games and short videos for students to watch.

This game goes through The Magic Flute, and gives students examples of instruments as they appear in the music.

This website offers one interactive game, using The Magic Flute, where students guess the instrument sound, as it appears in the music. I would definitely use this in my beginning band classes, so that students can remember instrument sounds in an interactive way.

This site is used for an orchestra unit or when describing specific instruments of the orchestra. Site provide games, pictures, and sounds.

Through support from the New York Philharmonic, this website introduces famous composers, has instrument games, rhythm games, and much more for young students. It also introduces students to some of the actual players in the New York Philharmonic.

This website has games, videos, activities, and facts about instruments and instrument families. This would be great for elementary students learning about instruments of the orchestra.

IHSMA is the hub for music education in the state of Iowa. IHSMA runs state functioned events such as Large group festivals (marching band, concert band and choir, jazz band and choir, show choir), solo and ensemble contest, and the All-State Music Festival. IHSMA provides guidelines and rules directors should follow regarding all of these events. IHSMA also provides professional development for all music educators across the state, regardless of position.

This website has a series of games meant for younger children to understand sound, rhythm, mood, and sounds of the orchestra. I would use this in my beginning band classes, even though it's middle school, just to ensure that they understand instrument sounds.

IBA (Iowa Bandmasters Association) is the organization that leas Iowa band directors. If you are a band director or music educator in Iowa, you should be a member of IBA. IBA provides professional development, networking opportunities, and will assist a director in any way they can, such as advocacy.

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.

For band directors in SC Iowa, SCIBA is a support system is resource center. Through their website, directors receive information on honor bands, All-State auditions, and district festivals. SCIBA also provides important resources for directors, such as the JEI (Jazz Educators of Iowa) website. For directors in the district, this is a must.

This is a great resource for any percussionist looking to improve or refine their rudiments. Vic Firth has put together a website that includes demonstration videos, play-along tracks at different tempi, and lessons for each rudiment. As a non-percussionist, this website helps my percussionists with rudiments more than I can.

This link is the Vic Firth page over the 40 Essential Rudiments for snare drum. Vic Firth is a fantastic resource for anything percussion, but their rudiment page is my favorite because it breaks down each rudiment for the students and they demonstrate each rudiment open-closed-open. This is a great resource to to send with students so they are sure to practice rudiments correctly on their own.