Digital Musicking

This blog discusses the most effective ways to implement technology into the music classroom, while addressing the concerns and misconceptions surrounding a 21st century curriculum.

This podcast is hosted by the NAMM Foundation. It deals with a wide variety of topics in the music industry, many of which can be applied to the classroom and shared with students.

This is an important perspective as parents begin to worry about their adolescent's academic courses (for good reason), but many are still trying to find ways to keep their kids engaged in music.

This is a very interesting article on teaching middle school general music. I have a class of 35. it is very hard to keep them engaged. I will also look into the book.

This is an interesting article on the effectiveness of music therapy. It points also points out how cost effective music therapy is compared to drug trials.

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 page from the previous Songfact website. It talks about how a current artist sampled part of this piece. It is a good relevant general music discussion to illuminate how today's artists are influenced by what students might perceive as outdated and irrelevant artists to today's music.

This is a good perspective on why it's important to teach music to children at a very young age. The speaker feels it is also necessary to have children trained by a professional teacher.

This is a Ted Talk which deals with the value of music education, specifically highlighting the important connection between creativity (imagination) and music. Richard Gill, a music educator, delivers the talk, and includes some keyboard demonstration.

Here is another interesting talk by a current international bass player and how to teach music first before an instrument.

This is a wonderful article on motivating middle school students and keeping them invested.

This is an ear training game using a "matching card" format. It looks simple and almost boring, however, once a person starts playing the game it becomes very interesting, This is well suited for middle school as it does not appear to "babyish".

Note pair is an online music game designed to help children read music notes easily and quickly. This game helps children learn to read music notes step by step, at their own pace. A child listens to a note, and tries to match it to a similar note. This ear training computer game lets you learn music notes and their pitches. Students and pupils who play a musical instrument as a child have a better verbal memory than those with no music training. Aural listening skills enhance brain development and students who listen more to music are calm, critical thinkers, and confident. Introducing such a game as a lesson starter even for classes that are not learning music fosters concentration and interest of the learners. Their brain becomes alert and ready to take in any information.

This is a nice colorful ear training game for melody recognition and sight reading. I think it would work well in middle school. I feel it might be a bit advanced for elementary.

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.

This YouTube channel features video tutorials on various aspects of the music industry, including proper recording and mixing techniques. In addition, there are video masterclasses from the MixCon annual convention from professional audio engineers and mixing engineers.

This is a podcast for elementary music teachers. It focus on teaching philosophies and how to effectively use a variety of teaching styles in the classroom.

This is a podcast for elementary music teachers. It shares lesson ideas and teaching strategies for experienced and novice music teachers.

This is a YouTube channel for Kodaly-inspired teachers. All teaching videos are based off the book, Kodaly Today by Michael Houlahan and Philip Tacka

Users can search by element in this folk song index to find specific songs for their needs. Songs have a traditional Kodaly analysis sheet music.

A TED talk by Jody Espina, saxophonist and industry professional who founded JodyJazz Inc. Jody talks about creativity in all walks of life, and that the fear of taking risks and learning from our mistakes are important to growing as musicians and individuals.

Quia enables educators to create quizzes quickly and effectively. The website walks you through the quiz-making process, and it is easy to use. Questions can take the form of true/false, multiple choice, multiple answers, short answer responses, essay, and several others. In addition, multimedia capabilities are available to enhance quiz questions. Teachers can add a music clip or an image to illustrate or become the focal point of a question. Questions can be randomized for multiple variations of quizzes, and feedback can be left for students for each question.