secondary ed

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

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 younger students, but some are suited for secondary-age students as well.

Price: Free

Link: Composers for Kids on YouTube

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 creators/sources, so a wide range of material is available!

Price: Free

Link: Composers for Children YouTube Playlist

YouTube Description:

“Five Minute Mozart is focused on providing quality music theory education for music students and independent learners through condensed, easy-to-understand video lessons.

Browse our collection of music theory educational videos, piano tutorials of classical favorites, and short composer biographies introducing you to some of histories greatest musical minds.

Music theory made easy,

Five Minute Mozart”

Price: Free

YouTube Link: Five Minute Mozart on YouTube

Website Link: fiveminutemozart.com

Lesson Planet provides music educators with a range of dependable, high-quality lesson plans. Those with memberships to this site have access to 10,000+ resources created by music educators for music educators. Lesson Planet also generates music-specific resources with more than 80 AI teacher tools.

Price: Free trial available, $4-7 per month for membership

Link: Lesson Planet

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 view posts!

Price: Free

Link: Ms. Powers on Instagram

Teachers Pay Teachers is the world’s most popular online marketplace for original educational resources with more than four million resources available for use. It features ideas for every topic: lesson plans, worksheets, games, and other activities for any age.

Price: Free and paid resources

Link: Teachers Pay Teachers

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 Standards for Music Education.

Price: All resources free with a NAfME/WMEA membership

Link: iListenWI

Choir Baton is an instagram page that offers practical ways to teach choir. Worksheets, assessments and guided videos are also available on her website via the link on Instagram. Monthly mini-courses are offered as well as a podcast discussing choirs virtually.

Price: Free

Link: Choir Baton

This resource helps teachers with distance learning options that do not involve as much writing, but still engage students in learning. Providing three different possibilities for podcast models, this unit take students step-by-step through the process of creating, writing, recording, editing, and publishing a podcast. The PDF download includes editable student worksheets for multiple levels of learners.

Cost: Free During Covid-19

Link: Choral Connections: Podcast Project

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 and chords in real time while following along on the score. For teachers, there is a collection of lesson plan ideas to use with the program. In addition to the website, Solfeg.io can be used with the app, which is available on all mobile platforms.

Price: Free

Link: Solfeg.io

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 is a video with audio examples and famous musicians explaining the cultural history and unique musical components of jazz. Biographic videos include relevant recordings of the players being studied.

Price: Always Free

Link: Jazz Artist Biographies for Kids

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, melody, rhythm, and jazz.

Price: Free during COVID-19

Link: 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, melody, rhythm, and jazz.

Price: Free during COVID-19

Link: The Shed

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 for lessons or enrichment. The site includes some lesson plans as well! aQWERTYon allows for export into other audio programs like Soundtrap and Ableton.

Price: Always Free

Link: aQWERTYon

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 virtual private lesson teachers.

Price: Free

Link: 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 virtual private lesson teachers.

Price: Free

Link: Tunelark

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 music for every grade level with four different levels from k-12, and free interactive games for students. Subscribe to a Smithsonian Folkways Membership and get a discount on Smithsonian merchandise and free downloads each year.

Price: Free with upgrades available

Link: Smithsonian Music 

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.

Price: Always Free

Link: Edpuzzle

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 teachers to discover, or they include explanations as to how to implement them.

Price: Always Free

Link: Organized Chaos

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy YouTube posts jazz lessons and videos on developing a practice routine. These are led by members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. In addition, the JALC YouTube posts full concerts performed by the ensemble.

Price: Always Free

Link: JALC Jazz Academy on YouTube

These podcasts are designed for classroom choir directors as well as composers. Chris Munce is a composer and private voice teacher with choral classroom experience and shares his  thoughts about the world of choir, keeping quality of music education at the forefront of his discussions. A recent episode addresses COVID-19 and serves as encouragement for everyone quickly adapting to distance learning. Links to access PDF site licenses of arrangements and compositions are also included.

Price: Always Free

Link: Choralosophy Podcast

Elementary and middle school instrumental teachers can use this guide from NAMM to learn about recruitment. This focuses on instrumental music programs while going into great detail about how to communicate with parents and how to bolster retention rates in programs. Additional materials such as interest questionnaires, grading sheets, and exit surveys are included.

Price: Always Free

Link: A Practical Guide for Recruitment and Retention

This is an ideal resource for those teachers seeking to teach online lessons. This YouTube presentation by Terry B. Ewell addresses the setup of equipment, software configurations, and other helpful hints for successful online lessons for one-on-one music instruction.

Price: Always Free

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 to its wide range of content. A Facebook account is necessary for full access.

Price: Always Free

Link: Music Education Resources on Facebook

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 through the website as well as a number of apps. This service would be good for any age of student that is able to understand the thematic elements of a show; the appropriateness of each show varies by plot line.

Price: Free during COVID-19

Link: Met Opera Streams

RIAM Teaching and Learning Network has a collection of instrumental and choral lesson videos compiled by professors at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. There are piano lessons for beginners and intermediate players as well as more advanced. There are flute lessons and some choral lessons as well. Younger students may need some guidance navigating the videos, but secondary players could easily follow along on their own.

Price: Always Free

Link: RIAM on YouTube

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 NAMM Foundation, Mary Luehrsen, speaks with music advocates, parents, teachers, students, and leaders in business and communities to share what they are doing to support the arts.

Price: Always Free

Link: Talking Up Music Education Podcast

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 for free as well as additional paid courses, and is available for students as well as teachers looking for professional development.

Price: Some free courses, some paid

Link: Soundfly

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 discussion.

Price: Always Free

Link: The Music Educator Blog

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 the music; a simple, iconic notation; composition tool; and a curriculum guide for teachers. The lesson plans supplied vary from concert to concert; some are written with grades 3-5 in mind while others are for 3-12.

Price: Always Free

Link: NY Phil Young People’s Concerts Play!

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 or ask a question to get advice. All one needs to access this is a Facebook account!

Price: Always Free

Link: Music Educators Creating Online Learning on Facebook

The “I’m a Choir Director” Facebook group serves as a professional learning network for choral directors to share ideas, ask questions, give encouragement, and talk about the field. The group features discussions and conversations surrounding lesson plans and choral resources. This group is always free with a Facebook account.

Price: Always Free

Link: I’m a Choir Director on Facebook

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 more. Lessons range from beginner through intermediate difficulty.

Price: Always Free

Link: A Year of Sight Singing YouTube playlist

The Choral Clarity Facebook Group is ideal for choral directors of all levels. The mission of the group is to expand on ideas, refresh thinking, and to seek clarity on the choices directors make. This group serves as a forum for discussion and contains opinions on choral-related videos, questions, ideas, and resources.

Price: Always Free

Link: Choral Clarity on Facebook

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 Facebook account.

Price: Always Free

Link: Kodály Educators Facebook Group