Essential Music Education Resources for Teachers
The role of a music teacher extends far beyond the simple title. It encompasses conducting ensembles, managing diverse student groups, staging musicals, and ensuring resources are available for competitions. To support these "superheroes" of education, a wealth of music education resources exists to ensure all students have access to quality music education. These resources encompass various formats, including blogs, newsletters, podcasts, organizations, platforms, apps, books, and lessons, catering to general music teachers and families of elementary students learning music both in school and at home.
Advocacy and Support
The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) stands as a strong advocate for music education at all levels, from preschool to graduate school. Your state's Music Educators Association is also a crucial source of local support. Attending your state's MEA conference sessions can contribute towards professional development requirements.
Blogs, Newsletters, and Podcasts
Several online platforms offer valuable insights and advice for music educators:
- The MakeMusic Blog: Provides ensemble directors with clear, actionable advice.
- Elisa's Blog: Focuses on improving the daily professional life of music teachers, with general education articles applicable to the field.
- Chris Russell's Blog: Includes product reviews relevant to music education.
- Wendy Higdon's Contributions: An experienced middle school band director who has written for several blogs.
- Recruitment and Retention Resources: Everything (we mean everything) you need to know about recruitment and, more importantly, retention.
Resources for Elementary Music Education
Foundational music learning in elementary school (pre-kindergarten through 4th, 5th, or 6th grade) is vital. Here are some resources tailored for this age group:
- UKULELE RESOURCES: Save The Music has partnered with Music Will to bring ukulele teaching and learning resources to elementary music classrooms! Includes free curricular resources for educators and students, including instructional videos, play-along tracks, and a PDF guide for teachers.
- ALFRED MUSIC: A music publishing company providing quality method books, performance sheet music, and reference materials.
- AMERICAN ORFF SCHULWERK ASSOCIATION (AOSA): A national organization providing elementary music resources and methods in the Orff Schulwerk pedagogy. Consider joining your local AOSA chapter to access more resources, content, and advocacy tools.
- BETH’S NOTES: Songs, classroom lessons, assessments, and worksheets for Pre-Kindergarten to grade 6 general music, instrumental and choral ensembles, and more!
- CARNEGIE HALL: Produces educational programs like Musical Explorers and Link Up that include lesson plans, professional development and full concert videos for teachers and K-5 students that focus on music from around the world. The toolbox currently features grade-specific music education resources that address fundamentals of rhythm and meter, form and design, expressive qualities, pitch, and performing. Designed to be effective and adaptable in a wide variety of music classrooms, the resources were developed through Carnegie Hall’s five-year residency in a New York City elementary/middle school.
- CHROME MUSIC LAB: Explore hands-on experiments that make music learning more fun!
- HUNNY & KOKO: Sing and dance through music and K-2 SEL activities with Hunny & Koko, animated dog best friends. Chase The Happy is a new release of a lively album blending jazz, pop, rap, and rock. Paired with SEL lessons for K-2, it promotes friendship and positivity.
- MUSIC AND THE BRAIN: Brings music literacy curriculum, teacher support and whole-class keyboard instruction to K-12 students. Explore free online lessons today!
- MUSIC CONSTRUCTED: Is the one-stop shop for elementary music teachers and arts administrators looking for resources and professional development designed specifically for the elementary general music classroom. Content is updated regularly with free lesson plans, downloadable resources, researched articles, products, and professional development, including an annual subscription.
- MUSIC WORKSHOP: Empowers educators with high-quality, culturally responsive music education resources. The free curriculum engages students through diverse musical traditions, artists, and genres. Check out the sponsored, no-cost professional development courses focused on music and well-being to support teachers’ growth and classroom impact.
- ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN KODALY EDUCATORS (OAKE): Supports high-quality music education and promotes universal music literacy and lifelong music-making. Kodály’s concepts are based on learning music through singing in various ways.
- PRODIGIES: Prodigies Music is a colorful, fun, and accessible program to get young learners ages 2-12 singing, playing instruments, and learning music theory. Explore 1000+ videos and lessons, plus check out the apps and platforms for Prodigies on the go and in your home.
- QUAVER MUSIC: A world leader in online curriculum development, Quaver equips PreK-8 educators with evidence-based resources and professional development to engage today’s students.
- ROCK HALL EDU: Developed by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s education team, this platform is packed with free, standards-aligned resources that help teachers across grade levels harness the cultural, historical, and creative force of music to deepen student learning. Rock Hall EDU contains a mix of multimedia resources to amplify your teaching. Always free. Always music-driven.
- SOULSVILLE FOUNDATION: The Stax Museum of American Soul Music & Stax Music Academy are the world’s only organizations focusing on the rich legacy of Stax Records and The Memphis Sound. Free and accessible Black History Month Virtual Shows pay tribute to Stax Records and explore the roots of Black American Music.
- WEST MUSIC: Save The Music’s partner for elementary musical instruments and world-class retailer, West Music hosts a community blog full of resources and ideas for making music at home, setting up the classroom for success, remote teaching, and more!
- WORLD MUSIC DRUMMING: The World Music Drumming Curriculum engages learners of all ages in multi-faced music-making experiences that align with the principles of West African, Caribbean, and Latin drumming, singing, and moving traditions. Professional development courses are available each summer in locations throughout the US.
Additional Online Resources
The web offers numerous free resources for music teachers:
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- About Music Education: This About.com site is entirely devoted to music education. Covered topics include instruments, music theory, and music history.
- Music Education Magic: This teacher-created site is an excellent resource for music teachers.
- 8 Notes: This site is an excellent place to find free sheet music and music lessons.
- 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.
- Blank Sheet Music: This site is perfect for teachers who are looking for blank sheet music.
- 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.
Resources for All Ages
Save The Music offers curated online music resources for students, teachers, and families, spanning music history to music theory, tailored for learners at all levels. Enhance your lesson plans with resources for music teachers that introduce students to instruments, classical music, modern music-making, celebrated musicians, and the intersection of all art forms. Check out the online music curriculum resources created by experts in music education, developed to encourage creative and standards-based learning.
Sheet Music Resources
Musicnotes has been transforming the way people purchase and play sheet music since 1998. A free membership for both teachers and students, Musicnotes Pro for Education offers you savings on every sheet music purchase automatically! Go digital with the free Musicnotes apps and take your sheet music everywhere! Get access to interactive digital versions of your Musicnotes purchases, complete with a whole suite of practice tools like playback, markup, and transposition! Great for lesson planning or sharing with students, we offer a variety of digital and printable guides on the building blocks of music theory. From school plays to college prep, student musicians always have an audition around the corner. Build their confidence and help them prepare with audition advice from the Musicnotes Now blog.
Advocacy Resources
High-quality music programs should be accessible to every student in every school as essential to a well-rounded education. Below are articles and resources for teachers, administrators, leaders, and all those in school communities to effectively advocate for music education in schools and provide the best music learning experiences in the classroom.
Specialized Resources
- TeachRock: TeachRock has partnered with PBS, Higher Ground, and Show of Force to create materials that bring the eight-part, Emmy and Grammy nominated Soundbreaking series into K-12 classrooms.
- Groovin’ to Jazz: Groovin’ to Jazz includes thirty-one original recordings with lesson plans designed for intermediate level (ages 8-13) and middle level (ages 13-15) students. Some lessons have worksheets to go with them. Through the Preservation Hall Foundation.
- MIM’s Educator Resources: Bring the world of music to the classroom! MIM’s Educator Resources are meant to deepen and extend the learning that takes place on a field trip to the museum.
- S.O.S.: Via the Society for Ethnomusicology's Crossroads Section for Difference and Representation.
- Resources for Western Tonal Music Theory: This site contains musical excerpts intended for use in the undergraduate Western tonal music theory core curriculum. Each theoretical concept is illustrated in a series of examples by women and composers of color. I have intentionally chosen examples that are aimed for the pedagogical moment when each concept is introduced in the majority of Western tonal music theory curricula.
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