Links & Resources: Resources for Music Educators
All of the below links are valid and functional, as of 10/31/04. This list is by no means exhaustive; if you know of any organizations, websites, etc., that you feel should be listed, please let me know!
American Music Therapy Association
Videos, books, and products on music for special education purposes.
Ancient-Future.com World Music Online
Click on "World Music Education" for fine exercises in the rhythms of West Africa, Bali, India and the Middle East, or in the melodies of India and the Peruvian Andes.
A fantastic site sponsored by the National Arts Centre of Canada, featuring Activities and Games, biographies of composers, an Instrument Lab, and links at the top of the page for Teachers, Parents, Students, Kids, and Young Artists. Visually very appealing also.
Arts Edcuation Partnerships (PDF format)
A RAND Corporation monograph describing the experience of one school district (Los Angeles County) with arts education partnerships, including descriptions of goals, interactions, challenges, facilitators, organizational operations, research background, and overall implications for policy-making and arts education. A worthwhile read for teacher-advocates.
ArtsEdge: The National Standards for Arts Education
A deeply detailed description and analysis of each of the standards for music teaching. Even more interesting reading can be found by clicking "Standards" at the top of the page and investigating the published standards for dance, theater, and the visual arts.
This marvelous site digitized the entire manuscript of Beethoven's 9th Symphony into a browsable, easy-to-access format. The only problem: The site is entirely in German. This link will send you to the index page for viewing the manuscript - to see the individual movements, and the individual pages or sections from there, click on "1. Satz," "2. Satz," "3. Satz," or "4. Satz" in the left-hand menu for the respective movements. This is great to show kids that not all composers are perfect, or have perfectly-formed ideas of the music in their head - or even have good handwriting!
A spinoff of the website for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, this site has materials useful and interesting for teachers and parents (lesson guides, etc.) as well as for children. Colorful, amusing and engaging.
This web site, sponsored by the Berklee School of Jazz in Boston, features free music lessons that you can download, share and trade with your friends and fellow musicians. It also contains "individual self-contained music lessons developed by Berklee faculty and alumni, free and open to the music community around the world; a library of MP3 audio, QuickTime movie, and PDF files; and a glimpse into the educational opportunities provided by Berklee." Partisan, but very functional.
Download a variety of simple but relatively powerful audio tools, including the Lime notation software program, the Loris sound modeling software, and the shareware AP Tuner.
Although this site shows rather poor graphic design and layout, its enthusiasm for children's music is catching, and the materials it features are valuable once you get past the initial interface. A good site not only for music teachers but for any parents who want to use more or better music at home.
Classical MIDI Connection // Classical MIDI Files by David Siu
When you just can't get your hands on a proper recording in time for your next lesson, these websites might be the answer. Some of the pain of General MIDI file playback can be ameliorated with a high-quality sound card.
Educators for Social Responsibility
Materials for multicultural music education, and a beautiful title besides.
Free sheet music!: Berlioz Music Scores // Choral Public Domain Library // Classical Guitar Sheet Music // Dirk's Classical Guitar Sheet Music Page // FreeSheetMusic.net // VARIATIONS Prototype: Online Musical Scores // The "Dowland Manuscript" Project
For goodness' sake, use these sites! Even if you need to print the score and add dynamics or other expression markings yourself, they'll still save you huge amounts of money and effort. Of course, none of these websites (except the Beethoven Digital project and the facsimile sites) has guaranteed 100% accuracy of editing and transcription.
GAMA: Guitar Education Workshops
Although I've never taken one of these workshops, the fringe benefits are nice (a free guitar!?), and it seems to be a respectable institution for helping music educators start guitar programs in their schools.
Hypermusic: WebRings for Music Teachers
This web site lists a variety of music education webrings, which themselves link to a huge variety of sites. Explore through these at your leisure, and do feel free to use the "Random" buttons at will!
I Hear America Singing (Music, Theater and Dance Collections from the Library of Congress)
This web site features a wide array of multimedia materials relating to patriotic American music, "all-American" musicians ranging from Gerry Mulligan to Dolly Parton to Sousa, and a simple LOC search engine interface.
K-12 Resources For Music Educators
This is the authoritative list of music educators' online resources that this page is not. Featuring hundreds of links already broken down into friendly categories, this site is the place to go for browsing what's really out there on the Internet for music teachers!
Karadar free classical MP3 - totally legal and free
I still don't understand exactly how this site is "totally legal and free," but it's a truly marvelous source of free classical MP3s of all the major orchestral works (from pre-Bach to Schoenberg!) and some chamber works as well. A marvelous site to direct students to for listening assignments and further investigations.
MENC: The National Association for Music Education
No explanation needed - a fine site, from a fine organization well worth joining. Don't forget to check out their periodicals section.
Music Education Madness Site: "Teaching the Wonders of Music and Surviving It with a Smile On Your Face"
This website features lots of articles, from software and product reviews to helpful tips for first-time teachers , to a variety of other teacher-supportive materials.
Music Education Professional Development Sites
This is another fine link site, with a double handful of worthwhile websites listed and described. Sponsored by the Music Dept. of the Stephen F. Austin State University.
A beautifully designed and laid-out web site with lots of resources for music educators and advocates (usually one and the same, right?). Features quite up-to-date research on the effect of No Child Left Behind on music education, other research studies, and descriptions of the Foundation's political involvements.
Supporters and designers of "music workshops for improvisation and self-expression," this web site dedicated to "experiencing musical freedom" and "developing musical mastery" is definitely worth an exploration.
Particularly helpful for secondary and university music history teachers and students, this site features detailed outline breakdowns of each chapter in the seminal Grout/Palisca History of Western Music. Although the outlines were originally written to accompany the 4th edition of the text (which is now in its 6th edition), they work just as well for the newer editions as they did for the older one.
"The online music education community."
Music Subject Area - Family Education Network
A website dually sponsored by the Family Education Network and teachervision.com, this site offers a variety of pre-made lesson plans in a huge variety of multi-cultural and basic areas. These plans can be searched by subject (i.e., "Cross-Curricular Lesson Plans") or by grade level. Also features articles, reminders and breakdowns of the National Content Standards, "printables," and more.
Network for Good: Arts in Education
A website with links to make donations to music-related charities (excellent for directing parents or patrons to, if you somehow have sufficient funding yourself!), opportunities for volunteering, suggestions for ways and organizations to help you "speak out" about the value of music and arts education, and more.
This is an amazing idea whose time has come - an equivalent to Project Gutenberg for music, this site is a FREE clearinghouse for downloading and printing for FREE use, no copyright strings attached, a variety of public-domain music. They write, "The project was initially started as a means to share Band Music in the public domain, but we now accept music for all types of instrumental and vocal solos and ensembles." So submit a piece if you can, and download at will!
One of my favorite record labels, Putamayo puts out a huge variety of ethnic, traditional, regional and under-heard and under-appreciated musics. Their fine website has links to their albums, their performing artists' web sites, and to a variety of resources for teachers, parents, and music lovers.
A fine opportunity for review for teachers who haven't had percussion methods in a while!
This website, jointly sponsored by NAMM and MENC, helps music teachers to "build their cases" for music, from dealing with proposed budget cuts to time constraint issues, lack of community or administrative support, and the issues of starting a music program from scratch, via the all-important case studies and research as well as articles and "proven arguments from leaders in the field."
Multicultural music education materials.
An extensive and fine, if ambitious website, this site offers "teaching tips and 'tricks of the trade' for music educators of all kinds," specifically including ideas and information about specific problems (lack of diction, consistently poor intonation, inability to use head voice, etc., etc.) common to all music education specialists. Features PDF files, audio and MIDI files, and even video - definitely worth deeper investigation.
Western Libraries - Music Library
A Canadian university website with extremely valuable, generally easy-to-understand sample formats for music bibliography entries and footnotes. Invaluable for older students writing scholarly papers on music, at any level.
What Students Should Know and Be Able to Do in the Arts
A very useful MENC online resource. Recommended reading, especially for new teachers or teachers-to-be working on writing their philosophies of teaching.
Just what it says. Can be a bit difficult to see/understand at times, but so can all fingering charts! Just as good as a most books, and free - what could be better?
This organization provides an important service to the Maryland community by sponsoring and marketing musical entertainers of very high quality and professional-level performance caliber to go out into schools and help teachers introduce children of all ages to music. Whether you're looking for an African drummer, a preschool sing-along, a professional brass quintet or a virtuoso percussion trio to impress and inspire your students, this organization seems like a marvelous place to start shopping.
A fine site for beginning middle school and high school composers, this site allows young composers to post their music online, listen to other young composers' compositions, and bounce ideas off each other.