A World of Musical Explorers
I wrote about this neat resource a couple of years ago. A recent post on the Maps Mania blog prompted me to revisit it. Carnegie Hall hosts some excellent online instructional resources for music teachers. One of those resources is called Musical Explorers Around the World. Musical Explorers Around the World is an interactive map […]
How Sound Is Created Through Brass Instruments
Music is my oldest daughter’s favorite special class at her elementary school. The other day when I picked her up from school we talked about music class and how I played the trumpet, trombone, and tuba in school. That prompted her to ask how to play those instruments which led to my impromptu explanation of […]
How to Read Music – And 17 Other Lessons About Music
Music Snippet is a Google Docs add-on that I’ve written about in the past. It’s handy tool for writing music in Google Docs. A reader recently asked me about it which prompted me to search my archives for other music-related resources. One that I came across was a TED-Ed lesson that explains the fundamentals of reading […]
Lessons About the Instruments in Symphony Orchestras
Last week I was chatting with a friend and he told me about one of his daughters learning to play some music from Phantom of the Opera. That took me back to my own middle school days when I played tuba in the band and we played some music from Phantom of the Opera. All […]
Experiment and Create New Sounds on WolframTones
Wolfram Tones is a neat offering from Wolfram that students can use to can play with sample sounds and rhythms to create new own sounds. Wolfram Tones uses algorithms, music theory, and sound samples to generate new collections of sounds. Wolfram Tones allows visitors to choose samples from fifteen different genres of music on which to build their own sounds. Once […]
Musical Explorers World Map
Carnegie Hall hosts some excellent online instructional resources for music teachers. One of those resources is called Musical Explorers Around the World. Musical Explorers Around the World is an interactive map designed to introduce students to musicians, instruments, and music from around the world. To use Musical Explorers Around the World students simply have to […]
Citizen DJ – A Free Tool for Remixing Music and Spoken Audio
Citizen DJ is a free tool for remixing and creating new songs from audio files that are in the public domain. The tool was developed by Brian Foo who is an Innovator in Residence at the Library of Congress. On the Citizen DJ website you will find large collections of audio files that are in the […]
Dave Grohl Comes to the Defense of Teachers
On the surface Dave Grohl, the drummer for Nirvana and front man of Foo Fighters, doesn’t seem like the celebrity who would come to the defense of teachers amid controversy over school re-opening plans. But that’s exactly what he did in a video that was released today on the Foo Fighters YouTube channel. I won’t […]
Four Good Places to Find Audio Files for Multimedia Projects
Whenever I talk to students or teachers about using music in multimedia projects I emphasize that just because a song is available to stream or download through the Internet, doesn’t mean that you have the rights to re-use it. Therefore, you should strive to use public domain or Creative Commons licensed music. To that end, […]
SFS Kids – Lessons on Listening and Composing Music
SFS Kids is the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra’s website for kids. It is loaded with good activities for elementary school and middle school students. On SFS Kids students can learn to compose and play music. Your students can jump into any section of SFS Kids and start learning, but it is probably best if they work through the […]
Bensound – Free Music for Video Projects
On Tuesday I wrote about the impending closure of the Free Music Archive. In that post I shared some other sites to find free music to use in your multimedia projects. Thanks to an email from Kari Kakeh I’ve learned about another good site to find free music. That site is called Bensound. Bensound offers […]
Five Places to Find Free Music and Sounds for Multimedia Projects
From adding music to a slideshow to adding sound effects to videos to bumper music for podcasts, there are plenty of classroom projects that require free audio files. If you find yourself or your students in need of some free music or sound effects, take a look at these sites that offer thousands of free […]
Jamendo Can Help Students Understand Copyright
Copyright is one of the topics that I always cover in my webinars and workshops about making videos with students. The subtopic under copyright that many students struggle to understand is how copyright affects the music they can or cannot include in their video projects. That confusion is often rooted in the idea that someone […]
Dig CC Mixter – Find Music for Your Next Video Project
In this week’s tip of the week newsletter I featured sources of public domain and Creative Commons licensed videos. I’ve had a couple of people reply with questions about using music in multimedia projects. Just because a song is available to stream or download through the Internet, doesn’t mean that you have the rights to […]
Three Ways to Add Audio to Google Slides
One of the questions that new Google Slides users often ask me is, “how do I add music to the slides?” In the early days of Google Slides that wasn’t possible at all. Today, there are three methods that you can use to add music to Google Slides. AudioPlayer for Google Slides is a free […]
Specialized Add-ons For Google Docs
Google Docs are already a wonderful tool to use in our classrooms. They allow us to work together and share our ideas with the world. But sometimes there are things that seem impossible to do in Google Docs. Before you give up and think that Docs just can’t be used in your content area, check […]
25,000 78 RPM Records for Your Listening Pleasure
A few years ago I spent time preparing my grandparents’ home to be sold. In the process my uncles and I came across many artifacts of a bygone era in American culture. Included in those artifacts were some 78RPM records. Unfortunately, lacking a record player we weren’t able to play the records. But today there […]
Learn About the Sounds of Nature on Wild Music
Wild Music is a fun and educational website on which students can learn about sounds commonly heard in nature. On Wild Music students can listen to the sounds of nature and explore what creates those sounds. Some of the activities students will find include a game of animal audio memory in which students hear sounds […]
Soundtrap Now Offers MIDI Export
Soundtrap is a great tool for students to use to create music online. Soundtrap offers a wide variety of virtual instruments that students can use to create music on Chromebooks, Mac and Windows computers, and iOS and Android tablets. Soundtrap also lets kids record music they play with real instruments. The best part is that […]
7 Places to Find Free Music & Sound Effects for Multimedia Projects
Creating your own music and or sound effects to use in videos or podcasts is one way to avoid violating someone’s copyright rights. Another option is to look for music and sound effects that are either in the public domain or have been labeled with a Creative Commons license. The following seven places offer music […]
Wild Music – Songs and Sounds of Wildlife
Wild Music is a fun and educational website on which students can learn about sounds commonly heard in nature. On Wild Music students can listen to the sounds of nature and explore what creates those sounds. Some of the activities students will find include a game of animal audio memory in which students hear sounds […]
Need a Metronome or Timer – Just Google It
Whenever I run a workshop that is longer than an hour I use Google’s built-in timer function to time breaks. All I have to do is type “set timer 5 minutes” into a Google search and a timer appears and starts counting down. You can enter any amount of time after set timer and you […]
Soundtrap – Collaboratively Create Music Online
Soundtrap is a fantastic tool for creating music. I tested it out last winter and used during a couple of my workshops this past summer and fall. The really cool thing about Soundtrap is that students can use virtual instruments to create music or they can record themselves playing music on an instrument and then […]