Elementary Music Technology and Integration

Amy M. Burns has taught PreK-grade 4 general music for over 25 years at Far Hills Country Day School (FH) (https://www.fhcds.org/). She also teaches grade 5 instrument class, directs the FH Philharmonic, is the Performing Arts Department Manager, and teaches privately in the after-school conservatory after being the director for over 20 years. She has authored four books and numerous articles on how to integrate tech into the elementary music classroom. She has presented many sessions on the topic, including four keynote addresses in TX, IN, St. Maarten, and AU. She is the recipient of the 2005 Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) Teacher of the Year, the 2016 New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) Master Music Teacher, the 2016 Governor’s Leader in Arts Education, and the 2017 NJ Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year Awards. Her most recent publication, Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches (2020), published by Oxford University Press (OUP) is available from OUP and Amazon. Burns is also the Community Coordinator for Midnight Music (MMC) at https://midnightmusic.com/, the General Music Chair for NJMEA Board of Directors, and the Elementary Music Consultant for MusicFirst (https://www.musicfirst.com/), a company built by music educators for music educators, dedicated to helping music teachers and their students make the most of technology in the classroom.

Create: 2nd Grade Compose Melodies and Create Accompaniments

January 30, 2022 / Amy M. Burns

The second graders have become composers during the winter trimester! They have been reading and performing notes on the treble clef staff. They used that knowledge to compose a four-measure melody using the notes C D E G and A, along with quarter and half notes. During the first round, they composed the melody shown above with the assistance of the cloud-based notation software, Noteflight. During the second round, they are using Soundation4Education or Soundtrap (both cloud-based music programs) to create an accompaniment to go along with their melodies. In the second round, the second graders will explain the process of creating their accompaniments for their melodies.

Here are some examples from my students. We hope that you enjoy their songs!

3 Likes