Whether you’re a music teacher looking for a way to keep up with your students on the go or a parent looking for a fun project with your little ones, there are tons of online resources available.
This blog takes a look at some of the best online music teaching platforms and teacher resources.
General Resources
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.
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.
Fantastic resource from Musedlab that allows students to play-along with YouTube videos using their QWERTY keyboard. There are some sample songs already on the website, alternatively you can copy in any YouTube video and select the appropriate scale and instrument to play-along. Great for learning parts or having a go at improvisation. Try with a 12-bar blues track from YouTube and ask students to practice improvisation over a pentatonic scale!
Another resource from Musedlab that uses a pizza to represent different drum patterns. This easy-to-use drum machine allows students to explore beats from famous songs and create their own using rhythmic grids.
This website provides an insight into music from around the world, as you may expect from the title! Complete with relevant examples linked to YouTube, the site covers everything from the Tango, to English folk music, reggae and Bellydancing music! Ideal website to use as the basis for an online quiz using Kahoot/Microsoft forms/Show My Homework etc.
An online quiz creator that’s ideal for revision. Use one of the ready-made quizzes, or create your own. Free sign-up required. If you don’t have a school-wide system in place, such as Office 365, this is ideal for easy quiz-setting.
Noteflight Learn
Noteflight Learn is a music-writing platform used to create, edit, view, and share professional music notation, specifically for educational purposes. This site can help students with writing, formatting, adjusting audio levels, recording, performing, and sharing scores of their original creation. Furthermore, Noteflight Learn allows teachers to give personalized feedback and score student assessments. This application integrates well with online learning management systems like Google Classroom, Blackboard, Canvas Schoology, Moodle, and more.
Through June 30th, Noteflight Learn is free for all educators and students. During this time, the typical 60-day demos are extended to assist students and teachers with the software and give them prolonged access to content libraries. Not to mention, the site features many resources to support distance learning, including webinars, tutorial videos, lesson plans, and tips for getting started.
► Complete a Noteflight Learn demo request form here.
Little Kids Rock
Little Kids Rock provides free musical instruction and professional development ideas to music educators. Throughout school closures, this site is offering materials for music teachers such as song-based lessons, instrument lessons, and video series.
In addition, the Little Kids Rock team is posting online lessons to their YouTube channel, covering various musical topics every day at noon EST. Site visitors can also view their “Jam Zone” video series of music lessons and games. Other helpful resources include virtual instruments, concert streams, musical game sites, and distance learning aids.
► Visit Little Kids Rock here.
Prodigies
Prodigies boasts more than 450 instructional videos, lesson plans, games, and activities. This program makes it fun for students to learn how to sing in tune, play their first instrument, and understand music language. Meanwhile, it provides educators with worksheets, lesson plans, sheet music, and colorful video lessons. Check out their YouTube channel for a collection of free videos, and sign up for a 21-day free trial to see if Prodigies is a good fit for you and your students.
► Begin a Prodigies free trial here.
SmartMusic
SmartMusic educates students about rhythm, sight-reading, and other key music concepts. Music teachers can use this site to assign practice exercises and songs, monitor individual student progress, and provide feedback on assignments. Users can search for music by category or skill level and can choose from more than 50 instruments – from the guitar to the xylophone.
Teachers and students impacted by COVID-19 school closures can now acquire a free Premium All-Access subscription through June 30th. Teachers can simply sign up for free access and invite their students to join a class. Additionally, SmartMusic offers free webinars and online courses to anyone looking for assistance while navigating remote learning.
► Obtain a free SmartMusic subscription here.
Solfeg.io
Solfeg.io interactively teaches students how to play instruments and helps them understand how music works. This platform showcases the melody, chords, and rhythm of popular songs in real-time and provides hands-on experience. Solfeg.io can be used with any available instrument, and there is no limit on class size. Solfeg.io is free for all schools for the rest of the school year, offering many lesson plans and exercises for at-home instruction.
► Create a free Solfeg.io account here.
Chrome Music Lab
Chrome Music Lab is a fantastic tool for music exploration and experimenting with various rhythms, chords, sound waves, harmonics, piano rolls, arpeggios, and more! Users can turn to the song maker for guidance or assemble original musical creations utilizing recordings from live instruments. Chrome Music Lab can also be used to make connections between music and science, math, and art with various activities – check out these Chrome Music Lab lesson ideas for inspiration!
► Visit Chrome Music Lab here.
The Shed
The Shed offers free tutorials, resources, and videos for students and teachers during remote learning. The site includes rhythm worksheets, guitar practice pages, play-along lessons, and other materials for general music study. Furthermore, you can check out free music lessons hosted on their Youtube channel and informative blogs listed on their website.
► Visit The Shed here.
Soundtrap for Education
Soundtrap for Education is a music creation platform that incorporates the latest STEAM curriculum. At any skill level, students can produce music with access to more than 400 instrument sounds, non-music sound effects, and loops – or they can mix in their own recordings. Teachers can create an invitation-only group for their classes and check-in remotely, add new assignments, comment on student progress, and check on project status. Not to mention, this application integrates with Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Noteflight, MusicFirst, and Canvas Schoology.
Due to school closures, Soundtrap for Education has extended the standard 30-day trial to 90 days. To support educators adjusting to distance education, they are providing free webinars, training, and virtual office hours. Educators can also find a collection of ideas, lesson plans, rubrics, and other beneficial resources. To get free access, create a school trial account and follow the steps in the Getting Started Guide.
► Create a Soundtrap school trial account here.
Alfred Music
Alfred Music is a music publishing company that supports music education by supplying quality method books, performance sheet music, and reference materials for students and teachers. This site offers piano, band, orchestra, vocalist, digital, and general music resources. All materials can be broken down by grade, skill level, or subject. Curricular music books, links, and additional resources for music teachers are available for free during school closures. Make sure to check out the free Alfred Music publications, which are accessible through SmartMusic until June 30th.
► Access free Alfred Music content here.
Conclusion
Teaching music is a major component of being an elementary school teacher. Music teachers have to know how to convert students who are playing notes or singing lines into musicians who can play or sing complex music. These teachers also have to be able to manage the children’s emotional states while they are taking part in their classes. With all of these tasks, it isn’t really surprising that most music teachers, even the best ones, can get overwhelmed. This is especially true if they are still new to the profession and haven’t fully gotten used to the challenges that come with it yet.