Music

=Music - Introduction, Creating, and Finding=

Introducing Music/Music Theory
[|DSO Kids] - This site offers an introduction to symphonic music, the orchestra and its instruments in a child-friendly way. Listen to famous composer music clips, learn about the music families and the instruments included in each one. There are separate sections for students and teachers. Find lesson plans (searchable by grade and topic) in the Teachers Lounge section of the site.

[|The Enjoyment of Music: Online Tutor] - This online tutor for all things music across the ages provides everything from sound files to play as examples of different musical eras and composers to visual timelines and information about composers, eras, and more. The Musical Materials portion explains musical terms and illustrates them with a brief, streaming audio clip.

In Bflat 2.0 - Make music a web 2.0 interactive experience using this "mashup" of musical YouTube videos, all in the key of B Flat. If you can access YouTube videos at school, you will open the eyes and ears of those who never thought they would even care about music. See twenty different "instruments," both traditional and electronic, playing excerpts YOU combine by starting and controlling the volume on your choice of instruments. They sound great together or in any combination you choose. If you click "More info," you will find out FAQ and more about the project and its creator, including how it was done.

[|It's Fun to Read: Music] - This multimedia site introduces students to Mozart, Beethoven, Joplin, Tchaikovsky, and more. Visitors can listen to portions of the composers' most famous works while practicing ordinal numbers and common word endings (-ed, -ing). Includes interactive exercises and virtual jukeboxes that provide additional musical selections.

[|Music Match'em] - T here aren’t many good sites for non-readers. Here’s a Flash-enhanced site that lets young students match musical instruments with the sounds they make and keeps score of the results. You’ll need to explain the directions to the child, but from there students can work independently. Teachers will find this one a nice music activity for Kindergarten or first graders.

[|Musical Mysteries] - Explore the basic concepts of rhythm, sound, and mood with this engaging online activity. Visitors are initially asked to help solve the mystery of the lost music and help the frantic conductor finish his concert. But along the way, there are some fascinating side trips that lead students to investigate the sounds of nature, the instruments found in a symphony orchestra, rhythmic patterns, and the effect of music on our emotions. Visit the "Pupil's" area for a variety of Web-based activities and downloadable worksheets, and the "Teacher's" link which provides lesson plans and related sound clips.

[|The Music Lab] - This music introduction from the San Francisco Symphony offers students a great introduction to music and music theory. Student can learn about notation, musical instruments, and how various elements of the orchestra all fit together. There are enough starting points to this site to make it approachable for even the most uninformed music student.

[|MusicTheory.net] - Here’s an on-screen music theory resource with explanations, descriptions, and on-screen quizzes that range from the simple to quite challenging. This one works better as a review and practice tool than as a self-study, but there’s surprising depth to the presentations on all aspects of music theory.

[|Play Music!] - This highly interactive site is filled with many nooks and crannies for music students to investigate! Discover the instruments that make up an orchestra and try to "play" them. Meet composers and performers, write your own music, and learn about musical careers. An excellent site for independent student exploration in a computer lab.

[|San Francisco Symphony: Kid's Site] - Music teachers rejoice! Here’s an engaging site that explains and demonstrates music theory and performance terms in ways that will keep the attention of students from elementary through high school. This collection of Flash animations demonstrates tempo, harmonization, instrument groups, pitch, meter, and many other elements. Among all the sounds and visuals, there is also thoughtfully written text that can link the presentation to personal experience.

[|The Sound Factory] - This rhythmic website tells the story of a factory worker who is bored with his job. The activity challenges students to create various rhythms using the tools and equipment in the factory, to keep the factory workers entertained. There is an animated introduction that describes the scenario. Descriptions and instructions are provided throughout the activity. Once your students are familiar with the site, you are able to skip the instructions.

[|Teoria] - Music theory students can find loads of information and examples on this site – from the structure of scales and chords to illustrations of many musical terms. Use the interactive tutorials and activities to construct and identify key signatures, learn about chords and modes, or practice rhythmic dictation. **Available in English and Spanish.**

[|Virtual Orchestra] - Learn about the family of musical instruments found in an orchestra with this interactive site. Grab your headphones, choose a "family" of instruments, select one of its members, then drag your mouse over the "listen" icon to hear its sound.

Creating Music
[|Audacity] - This free program is used to record and edit audio. Students can record themselves speaking in any language and it can be saved as an MP3, which can be opened using any standard audio program (such a Real Player, Windows Media Player, or iTunes). Students can also import music to use as a background. This program is most frequently used for Podcasting.

[|Creating Music] - Send your students to this award-winning virtual musical playground to compose music, experiment with tempo and dynamics, explore melodic contours, and recognize musical phrases. Nice addition to an elementary classroom music program.

[|Global Groovin'] - This interactive musical activity is part of a companion site to a new PBS show that focuses on the colorful ethnic diversity found in Maya and Miguel's neighborhood. Students can click on each instrument to hear its unique sound, and create original music by mixing those instruments with percussion tracks and environmental sounds. **Also available in Spanish.**

[|Sound Junction] - As the site says itself, "You can take music apart and find out how it works, create music yourself, find out how other people make music and how they perform it, you can find out about musical instruments, and look at the backgrounds to different musical styles." Interact with musical instruments or create your own music and share your composition with others on the web. Lively, crisp sounds echo from this site so use your best musical "ear." Teachers can find many ways to collaborate with others around the world by clicking "Find music teaching resources," an area that even includes Sound Junction activities created by other teachers. Free membership allows you to save music you create and save your "journey" through the site's tools so you can retrace your steps another day. If high school music students are allowed to use personal accounts, they can create music individually or in small groups.

[|Toy Theater] - Make your own music masterpiece! Compose music with the composer, go note wild with the music maker, or go on a pounding mission with the drum beats. Listen to the world around you and become your own maestro.

[|Boopadoo] - This early childhood website offers simple and fun music activities for primary children. Look for instructions to create instruments, games, crafts and other fun activities related to music. You can also find classic childhood songs to download (make sure you select the FREE MP3s), corresponding lyrics, up-and-coming children's musical artists, and plenty of links for locating early childhood music information. It is worth ignoring the ads to find some cute ideas, especially for teachers who have been asked to start "teaching" music without a lot of music background.

[|Classics for Kids] - This companion to a weekly radio show by Cincinnati Classical Public Radio is a virtual musical playground for elementary students. The site describes, defines, illustrates and provides audio samples for more than fifty instruments, a searchable archive of past broadcasts (just click on the link to hear the entire show), a collection of engaging multimedia games, and a "Hear the Music" feature that introduces students to selected examples of musical classics. Headphones are needed.

[|Free Kids Music] - Endless children's music titles await your ears at this site. You will love the wide range of classic and contemporary children's songs. Lyrics to most songs are provided. Download these songs onto your classroom's computer or to an mp3 player, and your class will enjoy the wide variety of music offered.

[|Free Sounds] - This site offers free sounds, copyright free, for your personal use. Tip: During creative writing, play a ‘soundbyte’ or a sequence of sounds to inspire a story and activate creativity. [|Jamendo]

[|Mutopia] - Here's a site that offers printable musical scores for dozens of compositions - mostly classical - that are in the public domain. At present, the collection is small - including works of Beethoven, Bach, Satie, etc.

[|Partners in Rhyme: Royalty-Free Music and Sound Effects] [|Podsafe Audio]

[|Smithsonian Global Sound] - Listen to and learn about traditional music from cultures around the world and through the ages. Browse this amazing collection of downloadable tunes to find musical enrichment to enhance a unit of study. Full downloads in MP3 or FLAC format are available for purchase but each offering is accompanied by a free audio sample.