Digital Musicking

A collection of blogs to help band directors tackle the specific challenges of our job. Wonderful insights and printable materials such as sub plans and warm up ideas.

I have used this website as a resource for a long time. This site can be used for information. I have recently used the substitute music assignment in my class. Also, I have been redirected to blogs, podcasts, and many more thing just from this site.

The creators of this website are dedicated to sharing resources that help band directors improve their craft. Posts can be filtered by category (i.e. brass, intonation, theory, etc.) to save time and narrow focus. Additionally, educators can comment on posts, share ideas, and ask questions.

A compilation of band-specific resources for music educators. Covers everything from recruiting to clarinet mouthpieces.

A database that helps band directors find pieces that fit their individual ensembles needs based on strengths and weaknesses. Very interactive and a potent tool for a young director!

Great resource for music technology teachers and classes. Provides a wealth of knowledge on all things music technology!

A great resource to find similar music. Students enjoy seeing the wealth of connections inherent in music and can help with courses like rock history or general music. Very fun!

Scale sheets and fingering charts for middle school band. From a band website.

This website has animated videos of songs, many with karaoke style lyrics to help reinforce early literacy. These resources are especially great for prek or kindergarten classes.

This resource includes a variety of free tone-builder warm-ups for beginning to intermediate band. On the website are also descriptions on how to use the warm-ups and videos.

This is a PDF description of warm up methods used in a successful beginning band program to build tone, reading skills, intonation, and more. It is meant for a band director to share what works for them with other directors.

This YouTube channel has many song tutorials for the ukulele. I often use this as a resource when my students have their own ukulele and want to learn on their own time. This resource is great for elementary all the up to adult ukulele learners!

This resource is a kind of jazz band syllabus posted on Midwest's website to help directors who are new to jazz or want to get better at teaching a jazz class. Includes suggested method books, warm-ups, repertoire, kinds of scales to teach, etc.

This website includes a variety of band literature and long descriptions of them. It has tags to organize the music for searching by year, grade, and more. It is to help band directors choose and study music for their ensembles.

This podcast has a technology focus and puts out weekly episodes. There are over 73 episodes with topics that vary from apps to websites to equipment.

The Music Tech Teacher Podcast hosted by Katie Wardrobe has become one of my favorite podcasts. I am teaching music technology for the first time this year and various episodes regarding productivity for music teachers and using technology such as iPads in the classroom are extremely helpful.

This is a podcast for music technology teachers, which is good for anyone who is looking to get into the study of technology when it comes to music. The podcast are discussions of many topics, to give tips on how how to be come better at the specific topic.

These podcasts discuss band problems and solutions to apply to everyday lessons. It covers a variety of band information including beginning band materials to support the curriculum and even ensemble seating.

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 lesson plan database developed by NAfME and its members has a large resource of lesson plans. You must be a NAfME member in order to access and contribute to this lesson plan database.

This is a podcast designed to help band directors who are not clarinet players, or clarinet players looking for resources. It dives in the solving clarinet problems including tone, hand position, tonguing, and much, much more.

The Solfeg.io program is a web- and subscription-based tool for individual or group learning of specific popular songs. There is a list of pre-loaded popular songs with scrolling piano parts and lyrics, along with lead-sheet symbols and drum parts available. The software helps teach music reading and learning by ear using a scrolling video interface.

The College Board's AP Music Theory homepage is an invaluable resource for AP Music Theory test preparation. It contains resources for both teachers and students, including descriptions of the course, articles about teaching AP Music Theory, score reports, and a listing of professional development opportunities and seminars. Most importantly, it contains an archive of past free-response test questions (including both harmonic and melodic dictations) and sight-singing examples, along with (scored and annotated) example responses.