Last May, I joined the wonderful team at MusicFirst as their Elementary Music Consultant. They introduced me to Charanga, which is a music education curriculum based in the UK, but used in various countries as well, that supports music educators in teaching music with technology. The curriculum has a spiraled, scope-and-sequence approach, that encourages making music, performing music with voices, classroom instruments, and band and orchestral instruments, creating music, and integrating all subjects into the music classroom from history to science. It is a curriculum that has technology enhancing the teaching going on in the classroom and keeping the students actively “doing music” and not passively watching a screen.

MusicFirst Elementary (MFE) Powered by Charanga is fully aligned with the National Core Arts Standards. This involved a meticulous process to ensure that each standard was approached at every grade level. Essentially, we took a product that was working very well in the UK and rewrote it to fit with our education system here in the U.S.

Grade Levels

Every elementary general music classroom includes singing, moving to music, listening, improvising, performing on instruments, learning music theory, learning music from various countries, cultures, languages, and more, MFE encourages all of this and more. Each grade level introduces new concepts as it reinforces musical concepts taught in previous grades. It includes original and public-domain music. The song-based approach allows the students to dive deeper into the music and utilize higher-order thinking skills to thoroughly experience and learn the concepts being taught.

Instrumental Parts

One of the items that connected with me was that many of the songs in grades 3, 4, and 5, have instrumental parts included in them. Whether it is the melody of the entire song or just a portion of the song, my students can grab their violin, saxophone, clarinet, flute, or trombone, or bring in their guitar, and perform the song that we are learning. Many of the songs have multiple levels of parts so that your beginner saxophonist and your advanced flutist are challenged. If you were trained at an institution as a vocal, concert band, modern band, wind ensemble, chamber ensemble, brass ensemble, orchestra, jazz band member, etc., and you have elementary general music on your teaching schedule, this curriculum will speak to you.

Built-In Activities

Another component that drew me in was the activities included in the lessons. These activities encouraged improvisation, composition, and performance. The lesson plan can guide you through these activities if any of those concepts are uncomfortable to teach in an elementary music classroom. Or, if you have a great handle on teaching these concepts, then the activities enhance beautifully what you are currently teaching.

Music Creation Apps/Creative Tools

MFE has six music creation apps in the curriculum. Some are written into the lessons, especially for your older elementary students. However, these can also be used as stand-alone activities for your students.

• Rhythm Grids: These can be used for decoding and practicing rhythm patterns to wonderful accompaniments.

• Quickbeats: Have students create their own beats in an age-appropriate app.

• Percussion Writer: Play and compose with classroom percussion.

• Music Explorer: My students love composing their own melodies and adding musical accompaniments of various musical styles.

• Music Notepad: A fabulous music notation program specifically designed for students up to grade 5 or 6.

• YuStudio: A cloud-based digital audio workstation with scoring video included! And, it has Music Notepad built into it so your students can compose a melody, add loops, and score videos all in one program! 🤯

Since MFE has student login access, you do not need to go out of the program and use free creation tools that could gather student information. It is all included in MusicFirst Elementary.

Want to see more?

Check out these 14 videos I created that deep dive into each grade level, FAQ, customizing the lessons, and all of the creative tools.

Also, check out these resources:

• Jim Frankel’s Blog Top Ten Reasons to buy MusicFirst Elementary

• Profiles in Teaching with Technology with Dr. Mary Birkner & Joanna Mangona, two creators of MusicFirst Elementary

• Introducing MusicFirst Elementary

Try it for 30 days: https://www.musicfirst.com/software/musicfirst-elementary