What was your first experience of music? Was it dancing in the kitchen? Listening to a parent sing along to the radio? Or perhaps, pounding the piano keys with your sister or brother? As educators, we aspire to re-create the experience that made us want to learn more about music. At their most fundamental
Here is a short video which we just recorded, which explains in detail how to do complete our "Musical Terms for the Digital age" worksheets, using the special "mobile phone code breaker". Click here to download a free copy of the worksheet which is completed in this video:
Classroom management is an age old problem and topic of conversation with teachers, so it's always inspiring to get the perspective of what others do to tackle these issues. Back in April, 2010, I was fortunate to be involved in a twitter chat where we talked about behaviour management in the music classroom. These are
The Kodaly Method, which is also known as the Kodaly Concept, is an approach to music education, developed in Hungary during the mid 20th century. It was named after the Hungarian educator and composer Zoltan Kodaly. Though the method is named after him, it wasn't actually created by him. The Kodaly concept of music uses
As a music teacher you will have a curriculum to follow, and it is much easier to follow if you organize music lesson plans at the start of each new session. There is a wealth of information online if you feel you are running out of ideas. You want to have a plan organized for
There has been a lot of discussion around the Music Education community recently about the benefits of music education for children. There is a lot of talk about the “Mozart Effect” where the listening to certain types of classical music are shown to have benefits in ordering the brain and thus improving intelligence. Some have
Music Classrooms can often have loads of percussion instruments laying around. The question is what do you do with them all? Sure, you can play simple rhythms and percussion grids with them, but what do you do beyond this when your students are ready to learn bigger, more inspiring ensemble pieces? For a start, there
One very important thing that every teacher is taught is that you always need to be prepared for every lesson you teach. Of course, that is if you want to end the day in a stress free fashion! A lesson plan doesn’t have to be complex, and teachers who have been in the game a
Ludwig Van Beethoven has to be one of the most unusual and interesting characters to ever compose music. Here are a few ideas to help introduce him into your music lesson plans: Write a short children's story about the life of Beethoven. Include the most important parts of Beethoven's life that younger children may be
Planning music lessons? here are a couple of ideas to help you create some fun music resources for your lessons. In Salzburg, Austria, Mozart's childhood house has been turned into a museum. Design the front cover of a brochure advertising the Museum by briefly describing who Mozart was, what may be see in the Museum