« submit your article to our websites and earn yourself a $50 voucher | Home | Rich Instruments »
20 Online Resources for Music Teachers
By janice | April 8, 2009
The web can be an excellent resource for music teachers who need free lesson plans, sheet music, teaching ideas, classroom materials, and continuing education. The following 20 sites offer all of these resources and more:
General Resources
MENC – The National Association for Music Education (MENC) represents all levels of teaching from preschool to graduate school. Some of the resources that can be found on the MENC site include career information, lesson plans, teaching ideas, music education news, and an event calendar.
About Music Education – This About.com site is entirely devoted to music education. Covered topics include instruments, music theory, and music history. The site also offers free lesson plans, games, sheet music, and other resources for music teachers and students.
Music Education Magic – This teacher-created site is an excellent resource for music teachers. In addition to free downloads, lesson plans, and sheet music, Music Ed Magic offers education articles, news, and a special music education search engine.
SBO – School Band and Orchestra (SBO) magazine is written for school band and orchestra directors (elementary through high school). Teachers can read the digital version of the magazine online or request a complimentary print copy.
K-12music.org – This site is a regularly updated listing of resources for music educators. The site has been painstakingly researched and is presented commercial free.
Lesson Plans
ArtsEdge – This site, sponsored by the Kennedy Center, offers hundreds of K-12 lesson plans for music teachers. ArtsEdge also provides information on education standards and other teaching resources.
Rock and Roll Library -Although the Rock and Roll Library doesn’t provide a ton of music lessons, the plans they do provide are very good. Rock and Roll lesson plans are free to everyone and easy to view over the site.
Educator’s Reference Desk – The Educator’s Reference Desk has always been a great spot to find lesson plans. The site offers music lesson plans for nearly every grade level as well as other educational resources.
My Music Class – This MENC library plays host to standards-aligned teaching ideas, lesson plans, and other resources. The library is open and free to all MENC members.
Lesson Plans Page – HotChalk’s Lesson Plans Page has an enormous collection of free lesson plans for music teachers. Lessons are sorted by grade level and topic.
Sheet Music and Supplies
8 Notes – This site is an excellent place to find free sheet music and music lessons. 8 Notes also has a community forum, free music tools, and a music glossary.
Free-Scores.com – Also known as the Sheet Music World Center, Free-Scores.com is one of the largest sources of free sheet music on the web. There are currently more than 12,000 scores available for download; new scores are added each week.
Blank Sheet Music – This site is perfect for teachers who are looking for blank sheet music. Any kind of blank sheet music can be printed for free (piano, bass, guitar, etc.) and customized to suit a musician’s need.
Mutopia – The Mutopia Project offers thousands of music pieces that are free to download, print out, perform, and distribute.
Royalty Free Music – Royalty Free Music has a special program that provides award-winning, royalty free music to schools, colleges, universities, and other eligible organizations. This free music program is great for budget-conscious educators who need free music for the classroom or musical productions.
Free Music Education
MIT – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers nearly 50 free music courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. All of the courses can be taken online. Most include audio, video, readings, and other educational materials.
Berklee Shares – Anyone with an interest in music can take the free online courses offered by the Berklee College of Music through the Berklee Shares website. Each music lesson was developed by Berklee faculty and includes videos, mp3 files, and other learning resources.
Open University – The UK’s Open University offers many different free courses that may be of interest to music teachers, including a music theory course and a course on using film music in the classroom.
Wikiversity – Wikiversity’s School of Music and Dance is a good resource for self-learners who need instruction, ear training, and learning materials.
Free Guitar Videos – This site hosts the largest collection of free video guitar lessons on the web. New lessons are added each week.
This has been a Guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes for TeachingDegree.org, a site that provides information about online teachers degrees
| 5 | comments » |
Topics: Music Education Articles, Uncategorized
Thank you for sharing such a comprehensive list of educational music web sites. Thia will certainly be an invaluable resource to music teachers.
These resources look good. MIT pioneered the offering of free online courseware by tertiary institutions. Berklee have put a lot of effort into their (paid) online music instruction.
on a smaller scale, I teach harmonica online, in China and internationally. My Chinese site, at http://www.kouqin.com.cn has over 35000 members. The English version of the site is called Harmonica Academy, at http://www.HarmonicaAcademy.com
For those interested, there is a lot of good free stuff on the web for harmonica students. In particular, Adam Gussow has put up a great series on YouTube.
Great move! Your readers will definitely benefit from these websites. Us, music teachers, need to know these resources that can help us improve our craft.
I also like to add Music Teacher’s Helper on your list. This software has indeed help me and my colleagues manage our music studios. From billings, lesson schedules and even communication with our students, it really made our lives easier.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Janice,
I have just come across your blog by chance and was hoping to add ourselves to your list of resources.
SightRead Limited is supplying Music Theory Software and we have over 130,000 downloadable sheet music scores for purchase and print, including our free Solero software to enable transposing and midi playback.
I hope that your members will check us out.
Best wishes,
Bernard
I’d like to share my blog, Creativity Education for Young children, with you. It include many resources for art and music teachers. If you like it, please share it with your friends as well.
teacher-monica.blogspot.com
cheers!