Digital Musicking

Michele Weir's vocal improvisation blog includes several videos about scat singing. This particular video brings math into the discussion of jazz song form. There are many more instructional videos on her website, as well as other resources for aspiring jazz singers.

Landr offers digital audio mastering and distribution services. Their affordable subscription model allows both large and small music producers and artists to have their finished products professionally mastered using their artificial intelligence technology. They also provide formatting and submission services for popular distribution centers including Spotify, iTunes, etc. They also have useful resources including digital audio sample recommendations and a blog which covers many digital audio production topics.

Pro Tools is a professional level digital audio workstation. It is used in many professional recording studios and music production facilities. Pro Tools is often praised for its near-limitless capabilities, but its high cost and memory and processing requirements may make it difficult to use for teachers or hobbyists with lesser computer systems. Avid offers different versions of the software that ranges from the free, limited capability Pro Tools "First" to the full-featured Pro Tools Ultimate, which is designed for professional recording and processing. The free version, Pro Tools First is an excellent way for new users to try out professional DAW software without making a large financial commitment.

Class recorder method by Texas music educator, Jo Lynn Cookus. The method is based on common American folk songs that are commonly taught in elementary settings, and therefore integrates well with common curricular models including Kodaly and Orff. It is a lesser-known alternative to common recorder methods including Recorder Express, Recorder Karate, etc. The author is a seasoned music educator with 30+ years of music education experience teaching elementary education, choir, and band.

Digital audio workstation software for PC (or Mac with Bootcamp). The software comes in three versions: Home Studio, Recording Studio, and Pro Studio, each with increasing features. The DAW supports MIDI, digital audio and video, and has integrated VST and loop libraries. These products are highly rated in online reviews and comparisons, mainly for their combination of low cost, full features, and ease of use. The website also features a library of training videos for Mixcarft. Topics cover topics including basic software and hardware setup, virtual instruments and plugins, and software functions.

New Horizons is a network of music education programs for adults. New Horizons advocates for participatory music opportunities for adults who either had little or no music education in their younger years or have had little connection to music making since their school years. New Horizons groups are independently run organizations in the United States and many foreign countries. The first New Horizons group was started by Dr. Roy Ernst at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.

Digital audio products including Cubase, VSTs, and USB audio interfaces.

Garritan is a virtual instrument provider often bundled with Finale Notation Software. The virtual instrument player is called Aria, and various sound collections are available for purchase. In my experience, the VST works well with Finale, however, does not work well by itself or with other DAWs. This may be due to the low memory and processing speed of my computer.

One of the original titles of music notation software. Finale was first available in the late 1980's and has been in constant development ever since. The software is available in 3 service levels: Finale, Printmusic, and Notepad. Notepad is a free version and only offers limited features. The full version of Finale has full capability to produce professional-looking scores and is also capable of exporting audio and MIDI files. Finale also comes bundled with Garritan Aria player VST and a decent-sounding instrument pack. Finale also features educational worksheets and templates which are very useful for teachers.

This is the website for the popular Tonal Energy tuner and metronome application for Android and Apple devices. The tuner has a variety of features and settings for different instruments and ensembles. It is particularly useful for tracking sustained pitch accuracy using a variety of graphing options and its distinctive growing smiley face. The website also has a section of educational resources for brass, woodwind, and orchestral instruments.

Music Ace is general music education software that comes in commercial and education editions. The software is installed on a computer (not online/cloud), and includes a variety of games and activities which focus on general music theory. There is also doodle pad feature which allows the user to compose using a variety of instruments and sounds. This software title is generally appropriate for elementary grades, but may have usability for other age groups too.

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 is a collection of authentic field recordings around the world. These recordings can be used to give teachers and students a deeper understanding of a folk song's musical and cultural context.

This is a music theory learning website from the Sibelius Academy school in Finland. It includes a special focus on jazz theory and has audio and visual support to support the text.

This short video explains how the brain reacts to practice and repetition of activities. It reviews the neural pathways and the process that the brain goes through when something is being learned. An interesting fact mentioned in this video is that a study proved that the performance level of mentally envisioning practicing an activity and actually performing the activity produces similar results.

Here are some excellent ideas for introducing various tempo and rhythmic patters to students of grade levels K through 5. The examples go over steady beats, eighth not patterns, and dynamic changes of loud and soft. The first few examples do not specify grade levels but the later examples do. The grade levels are highlighted in yellow.

This website provides free lesson plans and ideas for various grade levels and subject areas. There are filters that can be set to search for specific lesson plans within a certain subject and grade level. The website provides various lesson plans for grade levels PreK through 12th.

This wiki page categorizes sacred music into holidays and holy days. It not only shows the piano and choral sheet music in a pdf format but also gives a description to each piece and why it is appropriate for a specific holy day.

This Ted Talk, given by Alan Harvey, explains the many ways that music affects the human body and brain. Harvey explained the history and use of music within our lives. In this lecture, Alan Harvey explained the ways in which music triggers signals in our brain. He demonstrated the impact of music on the brain through images of the brain, showing the alpha waves notated by an EEG, and by giving examples of a video with peaceful music and then again with a faster and darker melody. He spoke about how music impacts our viewpoint upon images.