Digital Musicking

A great website by a seasoned general music teacher. This website has many lesson plans, songs, and activities for Pre-k through 5th grade general music. The blog includes archives that date back 8 years and posts are searchable by title, content, and activity.

Artie Almeida has a ton of free downloads to accompany not only her lessons that are in her books, but also free printables that can be used in many original lessons.  Many of her ideas are unique to other lessons I have seen around.

Artie Almeida's big list of teacher downloads. This webpage is updated frequently to include new resources from the many conferences and workshops that Artie presents around the country. The resources are not very easy to sort through, but they are well worth it! Many songs and activities from Artie's books are included for free and there are countless resources to use in the classroom.

The homepage of Denise Gagne on YouTube. Many sample lesson plans are included as well as songs from Musicplay magazine.

These videos are created by Music Express magazine and each one deals with a different topic of music education. The videos have four main characters and are well-made and entertaining for students. The topics explored are basic general music concepts like steady beat, rests, high/middle/low and more. Each episode has a catchy song that students enjoy singing along to.

A comprehensive list of Peter and the Wolf resources for teaching about all aspects of this work. This list includes videos, worksheets, teacher lesson plans, and interactive whiteboard resources to keep students engaged and interested while learning about Peter and the Wolf.

A list of useful links for teachers about instruments of the orchestra. This website includes video links, online resources and more for various grade levels and ability levels.

A blog for the elementary music teacher and a source for lesson plans, classroom management tips and creative ideas.

Help with staying organized for music lesson plans and meet the needs of a music educator.

A great music education blog with tons of free songs, lesson plans and other resources perfect for the elementary general music classroom. Posts are organized by date, category, grade level and subject area.

A recorder resource for beginning through advanced players to be used in the elementary general music classroom. This website has dozens of songs organized by difficulty and separated into "belt levels" for recorder karate. Each song has a recording and brief description of the interesting features.

A great website full of general music teaching activities and songs. Organized by category, grade level, and subject. This website is easily searchable and has countless lesson plans available for free. You can also purchase a premium plan to get access to Orff arrangements and additional lesson plans.

Jazzednet.org is the site for the Jazz Education Network. It offers helpful articles about properly teaching students the elements of jazz education. This particular article, although listed for drum set performance tips, is applicable for the entire rhythm section of your jazz band. It gives helpful tips on how to make your rhythm section understand the feel and flow of the chart by providing a lead sheet so that they become familiar with the melody like the horn players.

Orcehstralbassoon.com is a website that answers a plethora of questions about the bassoon. The bassoon is an instrument that several band directors lack in their own ensembles. When they do have them, many of them do no know how to answer pertinent questions about how to properly play it. This website offers recordings, orchestral excerpts, fingering charts, pedagogical methods, history, and tips on reed making. This is an extremely valuable site for the school band director or orchestral director that wishes to promote good double reed players in their ensemble.

open source music software.  I did not like the earlier versions, but I think it may be time to check it out again.

This website is a good music notation program. Students can use it to make original scores or copy something for an assignment. The free download is a bonus.

On the Vic Firth website for percussion, there are many educational resources. This area focuses on hybrid rudiments. Hybrid rudiments are combinations of basic rudiments to create new ones. One example is putting a flam and a drag together to create a flam drag. Since new combinations are constantly made, there are always new possibilities being created. This is a loose list of current hybrid rudiments. They are shown through video examples.

This is the website for the Dallas Brass. The Dallas Brass have been around since 1983, and one of their primary functions is touring the country to visit schools. It also provides links to information on breathing exercises, efficiency exercises, intonation, and various other clinics. There is also information on how to book them to visit your school.

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 the video "Modern Electric Bass" in which the famous bassist, Jaco Pastorius, explains his views to approaching not only the bass but music. He explains the importance of musicians approaching music in a melodic fashion and the importance of working hard to become proficient. He further explains the importance of developing both listening and reading skills, improvisation, and gives demonstrations of each concept.

From re-stringing a french horn rotary valve to simply teaching your brass students how to properly breath when they are playing this website has it all. This website will be a huge help when starting out new brass students as well as teaching more advanced techniques.

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 describes a curriculum for teaching rhythm to instrumental music students. It includes playing exercises, assessments, theory information, games, and formal articles.

This is the official website of the new national music standards. It includes the standards for different types of music classes and grade levels and will be helpful for designing lesson plans.