Right on! Classroom Music for Secondary Ed.
Have a look through the following resources.
Use the filters at the top to narrow your search.
Virtual Classroom Music Room Instructions
Ever wonder how to make a Virtual Classroom? Want your students to make their own virtual classroom? Check out this resource for step-by-step instructions! Olivia Yachnick offers instructions to build a customized classroom using bitmoji, google slides, and google images. Virtual Classrooms can [ ...→ ]
Marveling the Music in Movies Unit
Teacher Doreen Steinmacher created this 7-week virtual unit on music from the movies. Each unit essential questions, learning objectives, 3 student tasks, editable assessments, and extra assignments. Teachers can easily adapt and use each unit individually or use them as presented. Price: Free [ ...→ ]
Composers for Kids YouTube Playlist
The "Composers for Kids" playlist provides descriptions, fun facts, and biographies of composers. The videos vary in ways of presenting information; this playlist includes lectures as well as animations. Videos range in length from two to twenty minutes. Most videos will appeal to [ ...→ ]
Composers for Children YouTube Playlist
Ideal for general music classes of any level, this YouTube playlist provides descriptions and biographies of composers. Contents range from short, animated videos covering information about a single composer to two-hour-long audiobook readings and everything in between. This playlist draws content from several [ ...→ ]
Five Minute Mozart
Ideal for beginner or general music classes, Five Minute Mozart provides videos on basic theory, piano tutorials and brief composer biographies. The basic theory videos cover concepts like note names, intervals, and rhythms. The piano tutorials include sheet music as well as piano [ ...→ ]
WURRLYedu
Teachers of general music and popular music will find a wide range of useful virtual lesson plans on this site. There are several classical music listening examples as well. Genres like pop and rock have chord play-alongs or vocal sing-alongs. There is an [ ...→ ]
Lesson Planet
Lesson Planet provides music educators with a range of dependable, high-quality lesson plans. Those with memberships to this site have access to 2000+ lesson plans created by music educators for music educators. There is a free trial period available before one needs to [ ...→ ]
@ms.powers_musicedu Instagram Account
Ms. Powers Music Instagram focuses on secondary general music. The page includes videos from classroom experiences that incorporate guitars, percussion, and vocals. Additionally, there are also occasional livestreams/videos on popular music in the classroom. All one needs is an Instagram account to get [ ...→ ]
Music at Home Bingo
Lauren Marcinkowski's "Music at Home Bingo" provides students a non-digital activity to enrich their musical experiences. This PDF includes multiple sheets for different ages of learners as well as multiple days' worth of lessons. With the included instructions, both teachers and parents would [ ...→ ]
Education Through Music
ETM partners music teachers with schools and parents so that music is part of every students' life. Their website details how their program works and what resources/services they provide. Their excellent distance learning resources provide parents with many opportunities to aid and participate [ ...→ ]
Teachers Pay Teachers
This website is full of resources for any teacher. With ideas for every topic, there are lesson plans, worksheets, games, and other activities for any age. Most have a small cost, but there are several free resources as well. Price: Varies Link: Teachers [ ...→ ]
KHS America & IMES Virtual Clinics
KHS America & IMES are posting new clinics each Thursday at 2PM ET until April 30. Topics addressed include everything from practice tips to philosophy. These are ideal for students at the secondary level and up. The website provides links to new livestreams [ ...→ ]
The Singing Space Facebook Group
This group gives music educators a place to share original songs, songs for their classrooms, and songs pertaining to quarantine. Many videos are educational in nature and can act as both resources and inspiration for other teachers. All one needs is a Facebook [ ...→ ]
Word Synth
Created by Google, Word Synth allows students to experiment with language and music. Users input their own words/phrase to be spoken on pitch. Drag the blocks up or down to change the pitch on any given word. Users can change the tonality and [ ...→ ]
In Tune Monthly
This magazine for teenage students incorporates popular music and classical music and also includes a podcast. Each edition contains a listening list, guitar chords for a song, articles about a modern artist and more. There is also a teacher edition that explores these [ ...→ ]
iListenWI
iListenWI provides listening-based lesson plans created and tested by and for music educators. Students can broaden their exposure to a wide array of musical genres and develop higher-level thinking and listening skills. It features a variety of lesson plans that fulfill National Music [ ...→ ]
Ashley Danye on “How to Transition to Teaching Lessons Online (Due to COVID-19)”
This is an ideal resource for music educators looking for dependable, tested resources reviewed by a music educator. This comprehensive post gives insight into how to switch onto online music teaching. There is also an overview of different applications and websites to help [ ...→ ]
Midnight Music
This site is designed for music educators who need help using technology! In 12 online courses, teachers can learn how to use programs such as GarageBand, Mixcraft, Sibelius, Audacity and more. There are lesson plans to go along with each course, and the [ ...→ ]
Flat
This online resource allows you to create sheet music and educational activities for students. Teachers are able to assign assignments, mostly with score work. This would be successful in a theory classroom. It is compatible with Google Classroom, Clever, Office 365, Schoology, Canvas [ ...→ ]
Fender Play
Students looking to learn acoustic or electric guitar, bass, and/or ukulele should know about this website! This website has over 2.5k online video lessons (and counting!) taught by professional musicians in addition to many different songs they can learn. These lessons are customizable [ ...→ ]
Solfeg.io
This program teaches general music skills as well as guitar, ukulele, bass, and piano through popular music. The free teacher membership includes a selection of pop and rock music that students can play along with. The interactive play-along mode shows the hand positions [ ...→ ]
Jazz Artist Biographies for Kids
Ideal for younger students as an introduction to jazz, this resource provides different articles and videos on the style of jazz and famous jazz musicians. Each article presents the information in a style geared for younger students. In the introduction, "What's Jazz?", there [ ...→ ]
The Shed
The Shed is a website with online music classes that contain free audio, video, and PDF resources. Classes are provided in music technology, guitar, band and music theory. The site also has PDF worksheets, lead sheets, quizzes, and videos covering subject including harmony, [ ...→ ]
aQWERTYon
This computer application allows students to improvise, learn, and compose music with their computer keyboard. It is perfect for allowing students to compose and share music in a time when many of them are away from friends and peers. Teachers can utilize this [ ...→ ]
Mixxx
Mixxx is software perfect for secondary technology and general music classes. Teachers can utilize Mixxx to create and perform live mixes with digital music files. Students can upload several songs to the software, then mix them into their own compositions. Students mix on [ ...→ ]
Tunelark
This program makes music fun with scaffolded games that teach basic music concepts like theory, note reading, and ear training. Teachers can assign games and monitor progress directly from the app or website. There is also an option for parents to search for [ ...→ ]
Nearpod
Nearpod is an instructional platform that merges formative assessment and dynamic media for collaborative learning experiences. Encompassing all K-12 subjects, teachers can either use platform lesson plans or create their own to upload for students. Teachers are able to track students' progress, hold [ ...→ ]
Yousician
This software and app contains songs, exercises, and lessons to aid students in learning guitar, bass, ukulele, piano, or voice. The follow-along videos allow students to practice at their own tempo and learn at their own pace, gradually adding note/chord reading. For pianists, [ ...→ ]
Smithsonian Music
Smithsonian Music provides general music teachers an online museum of World Music. Teachers can browse lesson plans, playlists, albums, and more by genre, geography, or artist. They also provide podcasts and playlists online for free. There are also free lesson plans about world [ ...→ ]
Edpuzzle
This free site is perfect for creating interactive videos in any music class. Choosing from online video sources like YouTube, teachers can add closed captioning, questions, notes, voice overs, and more. Students can view the videos and submit their responses on the website. [ ...→ ]
Finding Music Resources
The music students of Gettysburg College created this website to offer an easy way to sort through resources. Arranged in 30 categories, students curated and linked each resource. Price: Free Always Link: Finding Music Resources
Talking Rhythm
This resource is a great series on lesson plans centered around rhythm. Easy to use, teachers can gradually introduce duple and compound rhythms, syncopation and the Kodaly rhythm syllables. Each lesson includes a summary text, listening examples and exercises. Price: Free Always Link: [ ...→ ]
Audacity
This source is perfect for creating music in general music or music technology classes. Features include recording, exporting/importing audio, editing audio, and MIDI input. Price: Always Free Link: Audacity
Chrome Music Lab
Chrome Music Lab offers a variety of musical "experiments" for students to explore. The program is user-friendly and easy to navigate. This lab allows students to explore and discover various elements of music on their own. The activities are colorful, highly engaging, and [ ...→ ]
BandLab for Education
Teachers of any level and area can use BandLab to teach recording, mixing, audio editing, and more. It is easy to use from both a student and teacher perspective, and students can submit assignments directly through the website. The program has a wide [ ...→ ]
Soundation
This is an ideal resource for music educators looking for a web-based digital audio workstation (DAW). Soundation is a DAW for those editing music who prefer a higher quality of output and recording. This resource features virtual instruments and over 700 loops and [ ...→ ]
Organized Chaos
This is an ideal resource for music educators looking for additional resources for online learning. This blog post gives ideas for remote learning in 4 categories: virtual teaching, online resources, no-tech resources, and professional learning opportunities. The specific resources are all linked for [ ...→ ]
MIMphx YouTube Channel
The Musical Instrument Museum of Phoenix channel features tours and behind-the-scenes footage including musical instruments from all cultures, musical theater performance videos, and diverse talks from musical professionals of every background.Teachers can use these videos as listening assignments, on a platform like Edpuzzle, [ ...→ ]
Music Education Resources Facebook Group
Music Education Resources is a Facebook group for music teachers of all areas and levels. It features lots of informational articles, links to additional teaching resources, and some entertainment to lighten the mood. This group should prove helpful to many music educators due [ ...→ ]
Nightly Met Opera Streams
The Metropolitan Opera is streaming a different opera every day. Teachers can use this resource for guided listening, enrichment, voice/theater classes, and more. Streams begin at 7:30PM ET, and the video remains available until 6:30PM ET the following day. The streams are available [ ...→ ]
Talking Up Music Education Podcast
Talking Up Music Education is perfect for all music educators as well as for interested secondary students. Each podcast features a guest; Vanessa Carlton speaks about being a singer-songwriter, and Eric Whitacre speaks on being a composer. The host, Executive Director of The [ ...→ ]
Ableton Live
Ableton Live is perfect for teachers to teach about recording, mixing, and other fundamentals of electronic music in a secondary general music or technology class. The large program includes many pre-recorded tracks that students can use to supplement their own recordings. There is [ ...→ ]
Tone Savvy
Tone Savvy is perfect for any level of Music Theory classes and performing ensembles. This resource has many customizable exercises for students to work on their fundamentals of music, ranging from note reading to melodic dictation to interval identification. The teacher can create [ ...→ ]
Little Kids Rock YouTube Channel
Little Kids Rock is a great organization that promotes the inclusion of modern band in the music classroom. Their YouTube channel provides free video lessons on drums, guitar, bass, keyboard and ukulele. There are also some inspiring performance videos and professional development videos [ ...→ ]
Soundfly
Soundfly is an online service offering professional-quality music courses not often offered in traditional school. Topics range from the role of producers to songwriting and performance. Many of the production and electronic composition classes require additional programs/software. Soundfly has many available courses offered [ ...→ ]
The Music Educator Blog
This blog is perfect for music educators of all grades and areas. The content ranges from articles about supporting one's students to podcasts with guest professionals about the classroom. Recently, helping the music educator teach from home has come to the forefront of [ ...→ ]
MusicTheory.net
This app provides teachers with simple, interactive music theory instruction through available lessons and exercises. This app is perfect for ensemble teachers and theory teachers looking for supplemental materials to assist students with becoming familiar with and practicing music theory concepts, as well [ ...→ ]
New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts Play!
The New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts are perfect for elementary music students, but there is value for secondary students as well. This site offers free NY Phil concerts with activities for students. Each concert listed has videos allowing students to interact with [ ...→ ]
Read Ahead App – Sight-reading for the Modern Musician
This is an ideal resource for keyboard or piano teachers looking for online learning resources. This app is designed for building successful sight-reading skills on piano, including different exercises to build skills without the presence of a teacher. The provided lessons and supplemental [ ...→ ]
Four Chord Ukulele Playlist
This YouTube playlist contains 86 popular songs that can all be played using only 4 chords. All videos display the chord diagrams during the song for students to follow along. This would be a perfect at-home practice resource for ukulele players of all [ ...→ ]
52 Homemade Musical Instruments
This website provides a list of 52 instruments students can make at home. The instruments vary in complexity and necessary materials, so students will have plenty of options using items they already have at home. Most instruments work best for elementary students, but [ ...→ ]
Music Educators Creating Online Learning Facebook Group
All music teachers can find something of value in the "Music Educators Creating Online Learning" Facebook group. It contains resources for instrumental, choral, jazz, private instruction, general music, and more! This group is a "teachers-help-teachers" setting where anyone can post about a resource [ ...→ ]
A Year of Sight Singing and Ear Training Playlist
This YouTube playlist is an excellent resource for students to learn and/or review different aspects of sight-singing technique. Each video, ranging from 3-8 minutes, covers different concepts including dictation, meter, key signatures, rhythmic practice, etc. as well as simple tunes, folk songs, and [ ...→ ]
Dancing Alone Together
Dancing Alone Together is a website that has free, live-streamed dance classes. This resource is perfect for older students. While there are a few beginner classes, most of the videos are targeted to people with some dance experience. Class times go throughout the [ ...→ ]
Music Theory Units
Ted Gibson provides leveled music theory units with Level 1 (7th and 8th), Level 2 (9th and 10th), Level 3 (11th and 12th). There are 10 units for each Level. Choose a link, and it redirects to a Prezi on the topic. The [ ...→ ]
Protest Music Lesson
This lesson gives secondary students the chance to research elements and examples of protest music. After researching, students write a piece of protest music on an issue that is important to them. The composition requires the students to use looping tracks to back [ ...→ ]
Jessica Peresta’s Instagram Account
Known for her work as a mentor, blogger, podcaster, and music educator, Jessica Peresta uses her Instagram platform to share ideas and tips for music educators. Music educators from all levels can benefit from her work but especially elementary music teachers! Jessica shares [ ...→ ]
Kodály Educators Facebook Group
Teachers interested in the Kodály philosophy will find much of use here! This group encourages the sharing of ideas, asking questions, and communication with others through helpful tips and resources for all grade levels shared daily. This group is always free with a [ ...→ ]
Middle School Chorus Directors Facebook Group
Middle School Chorus Directors Facebook Group is ideal for choir teachers who are looking for advice, new ideas, and resources to help strengthen their teaching. This Facebook group allows teachers to ask for help with classroom problems, post lesson plans and helpful resources, [ ...→ ]
Online Spinner Music Wheel
This resource is ideal for elementary and secondary instrumental teachers but would require some modification for use in online/distance instruction. One can use this board game-like spinner to randomly select an option to play a passage a certain way (staccato, quietly, loudly, and [ ...→ ]
Theory/Aurals Review
This resource is perfect for collegiate professors looking for aural skills resources during a period of online learning. This resource was created by Dr. Julia Alford at Temple University. She has made her Aural Skills classroom syllabus for online learning available - specifically [ ...→ ]
How to Make a Funky Beat in 30 Seconds
This website is great for K-12 general music teachers who want to allow their students to create their own beat patterns. The list features 6 websites and apps that allow students to quickly produce beat/rap patterns on their own. Students require a computer [ ...→ ]
Little Kids Rock Jam Zone
The Jam Zone is great for students of all ages to find songs and jam! The Jam Zone has a large list of popular songs where you can select your rock band instrument and view it as regularly noted OR the little kid [ ...→ ]
Ukulele Play-along Videos
Ukulele Play Along videos are perfect for any student at any age wanting to learn to play the ukulele. There are hundreds of songs on YouTube that can be accessed through links on the document. The document provides the key and chords used [ ...→ ]
Great Grooves World Drumming
This resource focuses on Gahu African Drumming and Dance as well as grooves from a variety of different cultures. This is an interactive website where students can create their own drum beats using the instruments from the culture. Students will read about the [ ...→ ]
Name that Tune Solfege Worksheet
This worksheet is ideal for students who are studying solfege and also beginning music theory/aural skills. Multiple key signatures are included. Since it is addressed to a classroom, having a version that students could complete via Google Docs/Forms as a quiz would be [ ...→ ]
4 Simple Steps to Taking Your Music Class Online
This resource is ideal for general music educators looking for help on how to transition their instruction to online learning. This video "workshop" is free to sign-up for (must provide name and email), and the instructor talks through a PowerPoint presentation about transitioning [ ...→ ]
Composition Project: Melody Recall
This introduction to composition is perfect for theory classes, online band and orchestra, and secondary general music! Clear directions on how to compose a basic melody for different instruments are provided. Students need access to notation software and the knowledge to create at [ ...→ ]
Flipgrid – Empower Every Voice
Flipgrid is an easy-to-use app and website perfect for providing a digital platform for classroom video based discussions. Teachers can create a "grid," which is accessible to students through their school emails, student ID, or a link, and then create discussions that students [ ...→ ]
Lesson Plans To Inspire Your Classroom Activities (Soundtrap)
Teachers looking for Soundtrap lesson plans will find much of use here. This resource provides an extensive collection of lesson plans for all grades. Designed for general music while satisfying National Core Arts Standards, teachers can find objectives, ideal level, a detailed explanation [ ...→ ]
Acapella App from Pic Play Post
This resource is ideal for secondary music teachers looking for a composition medium for online learning. The Acapella App is a great way to have students collaborate and create music together. Students can put together a song with multiple voices either by themselves [ ...→ ]
Culturally Responsive Resources for Music Educators
This resource is ideal for educators who want help to be more culturally inclusive. An educator can get access to resources such as support in lesson planning, downloadable content, live Q&A sessions, and a monthly Newsletter. The Patreon includes four different levels with [ ...→ ]
Teaching Music History: Resources
This resource is ideal for secondary and post-secondary educators looking for music history-related online resources. This source includes great resources for every era of music history directly from the American Musicological Society Pedagogy Group. Resources include assignments, activities, handouts, syllabi, digital music reserves, [ ...→ ]
Staying Connected Webinar
This video is perfect for teachers struggling to teach through a virtual classroom. It contains weekly teacher-led discussions of ideas, strategies, and mindsets to help keep students engaged. The webinars include lesson plan ideas and guides on use other different apps to stay [ ...→ ]
Tonal Pattern Composition Lesson
This resource works well for vocally-oriented classes as well as the secondary music technology classroom. Students compose & record a vocal melody, add accompaniment tracks to match, and submit them for grading. The resource provides a grading rubric. This is a self-contained lesson [ ...→ ]
Soundtrap Remix Challenge
This quick lesson plan provides tools for helping your students create remixes on Soundtrap. Teachers can either download this as a PDF or use via Google Drive to copy and edit. This lesson plan is a great way to explore software such as [ ...→ ]
What in the World?? Unusual Musical Instruments
This resource is perfect for K-8 general music teachers for lessons about non-traditional instruments. Students only require access to the provided YouTube videos and PDF worksheet of accompanying questions. Teachers can easily tailor this lesson for inclusion in a larger unit. Price: Free [ ...→ ]
“Rap My Name” Lesson Plan
This resource is great for both general music & music tech classrooms of all ages. This is a self-contained lesson and only requires speaking in rhythm. Teachers might use it early in the year as an “icebreaker” activity. The project allows for the [ ...→ ]
Mrs. Stouffer’s Music Room
Mrs. Stouffer provides resources ideal for student enrichment through distance learning. A "student friendly page" displays these links for sharing with students. She includes websites with games and activities, resources for instrumental music students, videos for younger and older students, YouTube videos and [ ...→ ]
Decolonizing the Music Room
"Decolonizing the Music Room" exists as a collection of podcasts, repertoire, research, articles, and books with a focus on non-Western music history and multicultural inclusion. Some resources are for educators exclusively. These describe philosophies and methods of musical decolonization. Teachers can review other [ ...→ ]
Music Tech Project
This lesson is perfect for a music tech project for middle school. Students will practice using GarageBand to alter their voices with different sound effects. An assessment rubric has been included. Price: Always Free Link: Music Tech Project
Zoom in “Music Mode” by RAMA Vocal Center / The Royal Academy of Music
This is a Zoom tutorial that shows how to change the audio settings to preserve the sound. Having access to the Zoom software is required, but this tutorial is a free resource. Overall, it's perfect for instrumentalists, vocalists, and any music teachers who [ ...→ ]
Teaching Music Online PDF
This informational article details how to design and structure an online music class. It has numerous ideas for assignments, assessments, and the overall layout of online learning. Teachers faced with moving to online instruction will find much of value here. Price: Always Free [ ...→ ]
SmartMusic
SmartMusic is a software that allows students to record and submit themselves making music, which can be used for assessments. Teachers can upload parts and full scores that students can use to submit a recording of themselves performing their part. This user-friendly program [ ...→ ]
MusicFirst
MusicFirst Classroom is the only comprehensive learning management system (LMS) for K-12 music education. It combines learning management software with engaging content and powerful integrated software to help educators monitor student progress, make lesson plans, and create assignments. Price: Cost Varies (You must [ ...→ ]
Blues Artist Instagram Project
Designed for the elementary/secondary general music classroom, this lesson plan incorporates information about blues musicians in a social media format. This is a barebones idea that the teacher would modify in order to maximize usefulness in the classroom. Likewise, the first slide encourages [ ...→ ]
Songwriting/Composition Assignments
This assignment is perfect for high school students in a music technology or general music class. This would be good for the middle or end of a unit on film music or on emotions in music. There are two projects in this lesson [ ...→ ]
Music Expression Project
This PowerPoint is suitable for secondary/post-secondary general music/music tech classes. It guides students through understanding how music can show expression. For the project portion of this resource, students create a short movie and pick two contrasting songs without words to act as the [ ...→ ]
Composition Project: Melody Recall
This introduction to composition is perfect for theory classes, online band and orchestra, and secondary general music! Clear directions on how to compose a basic melody for different instruments are provided. Students need access to notation software and the knowledge to create at [ ...→ ]
Soundtrap
Soundtrap is a website/app that allows students to make electronic music both individually and through collaboration. With music production activities for all grades and levels, students can easily combine tracks, create loops, and record themselves to create an impressive final product. By downloading [ ...→ ]
Musical Me: An Easy Back-to-School Tech Lesson
Perfect for junior/senior high music tech, this is billed as a back-to-school review. Students answer included questions about their musical backgrounds and then present that information through a medium of their choice. Any software that the teacher has available can be incorporated into [ ...→ ]
Piano Chords 101
This resource is an extensive Google Slides presentation suited for high school music appreciation and/or keyboarding courses. With many linked resources and websites, this resource covers the basics of the piano and music theory (naming notes, intervals, triads), as well as how to [ ...→ ]