Choral Directors

Just found this site for choral directors. I was led to it by one of the articles written by a member. Haven't had much of a chance to look at it yet, but it seems promising.

What was the band director thinking?

OK, so this Youtube selection at first glance seems funny, but listen carefully (painful as that may be) and figure out what is going wrong. I think that many of us who conduct beginner bands have made the mistake in the past of attempting music that our students were just not ready for. Fortunately most of us, I hope, would have had a reality check before concert time.

Beginning Band Reviews

This is a review from Tempo, reprinted here with permission. It gives some good ideas about what teachers should look for when choosing music for elementary band, and it also gives some good reviews of several selections.

Blog: Ideas and Imagination

If you have a chance take a look at my husband Chris' new blog. For the musicians take a look at the blog about Dylan and Suzie.

http://ideasandimagination.com/

For Marching Band teachers, but also something for everybody.

A good site for marching band teachers, but it has some good links that will appeal to just about any music educator.
http://www.marching.com/

NPR Blogging about music

NPR continues bringing great features to the music lover through the web. Their blog sites cover everything from classical to folk to Hip Hop to World music. Definately worth looking at. This particular site "Deceptive Cadence" covers the classical music scene.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/

A new online music magazine

Leading Notes, a new online music magazine looks very promising with shared articles about the music profession and music education.

http://leadingnotes.org/

Excellent lesson about music ownership rights

Discovered this site while looking for a material about music ownership. The lesson and accompanying video is a excellent resource when teaching about copyright and music ownership. Haven't had time yet to look at the rest of the site, but it looks very promising for further lessons and resources.

http://www.itvs.org/educators/collections/copyright-criminals/lesson-plans/can-you-own-a-sound

Music Theory Lessons for Free

Found this site while looking for some simple music theory worksheets for my recorder students. There is at least a years worth of lessons. The lessons are well written with links to additional work. After reviewing the lessons I definately could use them for just about any beginner class, sixth grade and up.

http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Fundamentals/workbooks.html

Bicycle Built for Two

http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/cb25ea0074c737742418845908296e0409aab13b

Click on the link above to go to a version of Bicycle Built for Two that I created on Noteflight.
I found that this notation system was not as user friendly as Musescore. However, pushing buttons around as I like to do I found that there were several shortcuts that made it easier to use. Still, overall I prefer Musescore.
This would definately be a great tool for my classroom. In fact I will be using it with my students starting this week. After their compositions are done I like the easy way that the comps can be shared with me and with each other through email.

Keeping Score on PBS

These are great videos for general music class. They star Michael Tilson Thomas and cover different composers such as Beethoven, Shostakovich and Stravinsky. They are produced by PBS and give us a great free resource  for music class, plus they cross over into Social Studies.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1295305133

Alex Ross: Music Critic for the New York Times Web Site

If you  have read the book by Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise, then you will find this website extremely interesting. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. Especially interesting is his page on Shostakovich and Stalin.

http://www.therestisnoise.com/2007/01/book-audiofiles.html

A funny exchange about Beethoven

My husband received this email from a friend. His reply follows.

Bro -

I just discovered that Beethoven died 184 years ago yesterday and that, when he was buried three days later, over 20,000 people attended his funeral.

Imagine if they all sang the vocal parts of his Ninth right there? Woulda'

been a helluva ceremony, no?

This is what happens when I can't get to sleep!

Your sleepless Bro

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

This is because Beethoven became very famous when he won the "Vienna's Got Talent" competition. After that he went on "Dancing with the Composers" and became even more famous.

Playing off his celebrity from these highly popular programs, he won lucrative endorsement contracts from the Schliegenhheimer Music Paper Company, Viertekrassen Ink ("These notes don't run") and Flabschmeier pianos ("Come, tickle our ivories").

He then got his own weekly program at the MusikVerein which quickly grew into such a phenomenon that celebrity guests were cutting each others'

throats to appear on it. (It is said that von Weber put arsenic in Schubert's coffee so he wouldn't have to appear on the same program with him. No proof of, course. Recent scholarship indicates that Shubert's cancellation was due to diarrhea caused by a tainted Linzertort.)

Soon after he started the immensely popular "B" magazine that became a trend setter and arbiter of culture whose influence still echoes to the present day. (Hey, they're still playing his stuff, right?)

No wonder all those people turned out.

Great video to show to your class "Pachebel Rant"

This is a really funny way to show your kids how all music is related!! The comedian/musician takes Pachebel's Canon in D and insures you that it will forever be stuck in your students' heads, no matter what they listen to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM&feature=player_embedded

Again, good resources for the general music teacher

This site has some very good lesson plans for the music teacher. The plans are actually well thought out and worth looking up.

http://www.funmusicco.com/musicteachersblog/

National Public Radio website is a great resource

This website is a great resource for just about any kind of music from any culture. It has everything current that is happening on the music scene, and an easy search engine gives access to an amazing amount of archived material. A must resource for all general music teachers.

http://www.npr.org/music/

Smithsonian Folkways

The Smithsonian Folkways site is a wonderful resource for all kinds of American music and World Music. There is a great link for free lesson plans and teacher resources. Definately worth a look. I myself have used this site numerous times, both the free materials and the low cost materials.

http://www.folkways.si.edu/

ENO WHITE BOARD by POLYVISION

While searching for new technology to use in the music classroom I came across this. The demo covers other subjects but the application for music is obvious. The fact that is hangs on the wall and doesn't have any cabling is a big plus. This is every teacher's dream. This could replace alot of other equipment in the classroom to make a lot less crowded space, and definately would not be outdated for a long time since it seems to be compatible with any future web programs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSLKGQEeags&feature=pyv&ad=2683169665

Interesting take on how technology is apparently going to completely change music

This article refers to the recent music festival in Austin. I also listened to a report about it this past week on NPR. Hmmmm.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/mar/17/sxsw-music-technology-soundcloud

Using music to teach the lessons of the Holocaust and Genocide

This link takes you to my website that I created as the end project for my participation in the Master Teacher's program for Holocaust studies at the Joan Bildner Center of Rutgers University.
http://www.music-is-our-witness.org/
The lesson plans on my website are designed to teach about the Holocaust and Genocide through music. The materials in each lesson plan on the site are totally web-based in order to make them free and available to all interested teachers. I would appreciate any information or links to music that you might know of that can be used to create additional lessons. The only criteria is that the music, videos, etc must be available on the internet free and without copyright restrictions. Thanks for the help!!

Mozart dicer game online!

For several years I played the Mozart dicer game with my students. The game was invented by Mozart for his own students. Using this game students can compose a 16 measure totally original minuet in the style of Mozart. The game consists of preprinted blank staffs equal to sixteen measures, a booklet with preprinted measures to choose from and a pair of dice to roll to determine which preprinted measure to choose from for composing the minuet. The game is available through most educational supply companies. Imagine my delight when I came across this exact game on the New York Phiharmonic site. Just go to http://nyphil.org/ and click on the education link and then the kidzone link.  The game is available for free and the great part is that once the students click on their choice of what measures they wish to use they can immediately hear it played back. However, the original game came with a great background about the game, and an explanation of why each composition is completely original.

A good site with latest developments in technology

This site discusses the latest developments in technology and how they can be applied to the classroom.

http://techinmusiced.wordpress.com/  

Preserving and sharing with technology.

I am sure that many of us are torn between the benefits of technology and the fear that somehow music might be diminished by the use of technology. Here is a view into the way the Brune's spend their free time together, totally technology free. However, with the technology of the web we are able to share this moment in a way not possible just a few years ago.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoKNch3BHKw

Here is a site that has already come in handy. It contains a link that gives instructions on how to remove the comments from youtube videos, making them more appropriate for classroom use.

http://www.mustech.net/