Birthdays In Music on this Day in History

Sometimes on the morning announcements at school, I like to include "On this date in history..." facts.  Here is a great website featuring 20,000+ musicians' birthdays and deaths, as well as musical events in history.

Rowan Atkinson's (Mr. Bean) Attempt at Being a Musician

Here are a few clips I enjoy. It is amazing to me how accurate his acting can be!  Appropriate for your students too!
Enjoy!

Invisible Drum Kit

The Piano Player

The Conductor

Interactive Music Theory Drills

This Theory Games website is a must!!
I encourage my students to practice their music theory skills using this website at home.  The site offers interactive lessons with the keyboard, pitch, rhythm, scales, key signatures, intervals, etc.  Most exercises are timed and increase in difficulty with correct answers.  

Copyright Center

The web address to the MENC resource regarding information about copyright issues that was mentioned in one of the articles for this week has changed slightly.  The Music Education Copyright Center is a valuable site that features access to information about:  Licensing Resources, Asking for Permission, Teaching Students about Copyright, Deciphering "Fair Use," and Helpful Links.

Marcel the Shell

Thought I would share this video... Sorry, this has nothing to do with music...it made me laugh!!

2011 Music Education Blog Carnival

What is the Blog Carnival?  I read about it on the MusicTech.net blog I follow.  It is a way to promote the great work of Music Education bloggers.  From what I gather it is like a journal of music related thoughts.  I thought it sounded neat, and you can even submit your own blogs!!

I also enjoyed this quote by Oscar Levant from the same blog...he was explaining his way out of a speeding ticket:   "You can’t possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven’s Seventh and go slow."

Guitar Tuner

This site has a free guitar tuner, it is pretty cool.  Once you select the string and pitch you want, just press play and it will sound the pitch over and over again until you stop it.  There are also preprogrammed chords.  Guitar Tuner would be a great site to bookmark!

112 Ways to Celebrate Jazz

Click here to skip the articles on the JAM page and access a list of fantastic ways to acknowledge, experience, and celebrate jazz with your students. This list even has suggestions for parents.

JAM

April is Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) and this year marks the 10th anniversary.  The National Museum of American History offers a very nice website with a load of valuable information.  Check it out!
Jazz Appreciation Month Info

The Sound of Music - quiz page

Quizzes for "The Sound of Music"

I love to show this musical to my third graders at an end of the year as a treat before summer break. This website has easy, average, and tough quizzes to go with the movie.  My favorites are the "fill in the blanks of the lyrics" quizzes.

Bicycle Built for Two

Noteflight Assignment

In my opinion the Noteflight program was not as easy to use as MuseScore. However, I believe it to be a notable free website to use to create and share compositions.  I was most drawn to the countless compositions that became available to me after I created a username.  That was the feature of Noteflight that I benefitted from the most.

I was surprised at the print feature.  There were some options I would have liked to try out, except they were only available to people who purchased the program. Adding notes wasn't difficult, but the three voice chord part took a longer amount of time to accomplish without being able to access other voices.  Adding lyrics and chord names was a cinch.  All in all, a great free program.

I think some of my students would benefit from this program just because it is free and easy to navigate.  Some of my piano students would enjoy looking through other compositions on the website to play through.  Also, I could see a group of students having fun with arranging and composing together, much like our "Pieces of Eight" selection!

Beethoven's 5th Symphony (from the viewpoint of ESPN)

I know that this video has been around for a while, but I still think it's entertaining...especially in the general music world. Enjoy!

Link of Awesomeness

Link of Awesomeness is what Brain Laakso (President of Ohio TIME) calls it.  He emailed me one zipped folder that contains six powerpoints.  I am sharing them with you!
Topics include:
Awesome Applications of Audacity
Music Tech for Free NOW
The Technology of Hip Hop
New Paradigms in Music Education
Remixing Youth / Remixing Culture
Music Biz Basics (and one way to teach them)
Enjoy!

John Feierabend Biography and Resources

I attended one of John Feierabend's presentations at the OMEA conference and was drawn to his curriculum for preschoolers. I ended up attending four more of his classes and I want to attend some of his workshops.  GIA publishes all of his books, CDs, DVDs, materials, etc.  This link will take you to his biography, and there are additional resources that are interesting on the site. He's great!

Straight No Chaser Official Site

http://www.sncmusic.com/
I love this singing group, they are my new favorite! I follow their blog on my PLN.  You can listen to their awesome arrangements on the site. Enjoy!

Music Instinct: Science and Sound

I recommend watching this documentary - it is available on Netflix for free! http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/
"Its impact bridging time, geography and culture, music serves to unite all peoples of the globe. This groundbreaking documentary explores how and why humans are so inexorably affected by rhythm and melody. Art and science intersect as leading researchers and prominent musicians such as Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma reveal surprising connections between music, the brain, the body and human evolution."

Hi everyone!

Hi!  This blog was created for a course entitled, "Technology for Music Teaching and Learning" as part of a set of requirements for the Kent State University Master of Music Education Program.  I will use this blog to reflect on various course readings as well as jot down some thoughts throughout the next seven weeks.

Blogging is a new concept for me, so here we go!!!!!!