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
Fun Music Company Music Teaching Resources – One of the original and best archives of music teaching resources on the internet!
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.
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.
26 Best online games for classrooms – this comprehensive guide gives a great overview of the current apps and websites available for school use.
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
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.
Hi:
I would like to share my YouTube channel at sense-reflect-act (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbhoL7ZwkrxAOeysSvEd69A). It has videos using kaleidoscopic imagery that is responsive to pitch and to dynamics of mostly classical piano music. They are entirely free, and the audio is derived from AIFF files based upon MIDI I personally sequenced using Logic Pro X. I add new materials on a regular basis. All of the music is in the public domain.
Cheers!
David A. Porter, Ph.D.
Great list! An additional category might include Mental Skills for Peak Performance. Many performers suffer from debilitating performance anxiety, are not able to perform as well as they practice, or just want to take their performing to the next level. I’d like to share my website with you:
Peak Performance for Musicians
http://www.musicpeakperformance.com
Thanks!
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!
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
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!
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.
Thank you for sharing such a comprehensive list of educational music web sites. Thia will certainly be an invaluable resource to music teachers.