Have You Checked Out MusicFirst Elementary?
Try it for 30 days: https://www.musicfirst.com/software/musicfirst-elementary
Have you checked out MusicFirst Elementary Powered by Charanga? Check it out here!
Read MoreBody Percussion Play-Along to Dua Lips Dance the Night (Radio Edition) from Barbie
For the past few weeks, I have been on the Barbie kick and have created an Advanced Boomwhacker Play-Along, a Diatonic Boomwhacker Play-Along, and a Rhythm Play-Along to Dua Lips Dance the Night (Radio Edition). I am following it up this week with a Body Percussion Play-along to Dua Lips, “Dance the Night” (Radio Version). "Dance the Night" is a song by English and Albanian singer Dua Lipa from Barbie: The Album, the soundtrack of the film Barbie (2023). Songwriter(s): Dua Lip, Andrew Wyatt, Caroline Ailin, and Mark Ronson. Producer(s): Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, and Picard Brothers.
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Read MoreRhythm Play-Along to Dua Lips - Dance the Night (Radio Version)
After creating an Advanced Boomwhacker Play-Along and a Diatonic Boomwhacker Play-Along, it was time to create a rhythm play-along to Dia Lips, “Dance the Night” (Radio Version). "Dance the Night" is a song by English and Albanian singer Dua Lipa from Barbie: The Album, the soundtrack of the film Barbie (2023). Songwriter(s): Dua Lip, Andrew Wyatt, Caroline Ailin, and Mark Ronson. Producer(s): Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, and Picard Brothers.
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Read MoreA Tribute To "Kenough" and Using Soundslice to Create a Play-Along Boomwhacker Video
Last week, Katie Argyle of Midnight Music gave a webinar to her community members titled, “😎 5 Must-Know Free Tech Tools for Music Teachers” where she covered topics that ranged from creating karaoke videos to play-along videos.
The tool of choice for the play-along video was Soundslice. Soundslice.com is an innovative platform that invigorates the way musicians learn and teach music. Created by Adrian Holovaty and PJ Macklin, Soundslice combines sheet music and audio/video recordings into an interactive experience, providing a comprehensive tool for music education and performance. With its intuitive platforms (free and paid), Soundslice is a great choice to create notation play-along videos for boomwhackers, private lessons, classroom instruments, and more.
Learn how to create a boomwhacker play-along video using Soundslice!
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Read MoreAI: Educator's Tools and Uses in the Classroom
Level up from ChatGPT and try some of these AI tools specifically created for educators! This blog/episode focuses on three AI tools that educators can use to save them a lot of time and energy. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
Read MoreA Music Activity Idea using Seesaw's Infinite Cloner
Seesaw listened and now we have an infinite cloner! I have been looking forward to this as the last time I was able to create musical games and activities was with the SMART Notebook program. Now that Seesaw has the infinite cloner, I can recreate some games and the students can use them for retrieval practice, assessments, and more. Check it out in the video!
Read MoreBack To School or Before a Holiday Break Play-Along Videos
Source: https://unsplash.com/
Welcome Back!
For some in the Northern Hemisphere, this week marks the return to the school year. For others, it means the end of a holiday break and the beginning of the next term. And for some, it means that the thoughts and dreams of returning to another school year are coming.
Here are some play-along videos to use as ice breakers, rhythm reading assessments, movement activities, and for community building.
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Read MoreSnail, Snail Boomwhacker Play-Along Video
In this video, I am using Canva's animation tool to record the movement of the snail. This can be used as a play-along video and a sing-along video. You could also use this as an assessment and place it in an LMS platform or Seesaw to share with your students. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
Resources: Blog Post:
Seesaw Activity: https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_activity?prompt_id=prompt.e995c45f-2425-4b93-a737-abe664e428c4&share_token=b-lfU1JtS6qZy3NrDJH-4g
Snail, Snail: https://kodaly.hnu.edu/song.cfm?id=833
Canva for Education: https://www.canva.com/education/
Read MoreArtificial Intelligence (AI) and Concert Programming Resulted Snowflake-Samba Body Percussion Play-Along Video!
Recently, an elementary music educator asked the music education community if they inquired with the AI tool of choice on what music to plan for their winter concert program. ChatGPT created a list and it had "Snowflake-Samba" on it. Upon research, the only song I could find was the one written by Doneus. I could not find an elementary song with that title. Maybe someone will compose one. Until then, please enjoy this post about AI and this body percussion play-along to this very nice song!
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Read MoreTech Tip #7: 123apps.com
Have you ever needed a one-stop shop of audio, video, image, doc, and converter tools that is web-based, free? Take a look at 123.apps.com!
Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech.
Read MoreTech Tip #6: Guitar Chord Tools Extension
Google Chords Tool Extension will transpose the chord lead sheet that you paste into a Google doc!
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Read MoreTech Tip 5: Bite-Sized Beats
This is #techtip #5 in a 7-day series. This one is a basic and fun alternative to Incredibox using M&Ms! Check out Bite-Sized Beats today!
If you like my resources, please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
Read MoreTech Tips #4 - Canva's presentation tools/goodies to use in the music classroom!
It's Day #4 of my week of #techtips for #music #education, especially #elementarymusicteacherlife! Today's tech tips show some fun presenter tools in Canva that can intuitively be used in the music classroom. Check back for more tech tips this week!
Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
Read MoreWeek of Tech Tips for Music Educators! Tech Tip #3: Two Sites to Create Musical Dice and Stories
Tech Tip #3: Two Sites to Create Musical Dice and Stories
Check out this post to find ways to help your students improvise music and read and perform rhythm patterns!
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Read MoreWeek of Tech Tips for Music Educators! Tech Tip #2: Canva's AI Tools!
This blog post comes from last March when Canva introduced its AI tools! If you are a K-12 educator with a school email address, you qualify for the free Canva for Education version that has many of the same items that you find in the Pro Version.
Read MoreWeek of Tech Tips for Music Educators! Tech Tip #1: MusicFirst Elementary Kindergarten Curriculum! 🎶
Many elementary music educators are in the midst of summer break or holiday break, which means relaxing, taking time for themselves, spending time with families, and exploring some new materials and professional development for their return to the school year. I thought I would join in this by having a "Week of Tech Tips!” Check back daily with me this week as my YouTube channel and blog posts will reflect on tech tips for music educators.
Tech Tip Day 1: 🎥 Join Music Educator Amy Burns in a Fun 5-Minute Tour of the MusicFirst Elementary Kindergarten Curriculum! 🎶
Read MoreElementary Music + Book Creator = Showcasing Cross-Curricular Connections!
Last month, I was thrilled to be able to present at the ISTE Live23 Conference in Philadelphia, PA. I presented a poster session titled “Making Elementary Cross-Curricular Connections Intuitively With Book Creator”. It was a 90-minute session that explored the following:
“Elementary special subject areas like music, STEAM, and more have numerous cross-curricular connections. However, showcasing those connections to administrators and parents can be challenging. Book Creator gives educators ways to achieve cross-curricular connections and allows students to use multiple modalities to showcase their work.”
Check out the webinar and the blog post. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech.
Read MoreSummer Music Camp Part 2: Surfin' USA Boomwhacker Play-Along
If you are coming to summer break or a holiday break where warm weather might be involved, this play-along will bring your students to break in a fun and educational way. Plus, it celebrates Beach Boy Brian Wilson's birthday on June 20. This is an intuitive play-along for elementary students to perform successfully. The blog post also contains interesting facts and resources to learn more about the artist. #students #artist #elementaryteacher #elmused #elementarymusic
Read MoreSummer Music Camp Part 1: Ukulele Play-Along Video with Two Chords
Image by Unsplash
It is officially summer break and school has ended. For the next week, I am working at our school’s summer camp, which is a very nice camp for elementary grade-level students. For the last two years, I have had a small informance for the parents and caregivers. This year, I am going to have them all culminate with a recorded informance of Eric Litwan’s book, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. I will have my oldest elementary students perform the song on drums, boomwhackers, xylophones, ukuleles, and classroom instruments. My middle-aged elementary students will act out the book. And my youngest elementary students will perform the sound effects. I am looking forward to seeing this come to fruition!
Read MoreHave You Checked Out MusicFirst Elementary Powered by Charanga?
Image provided by MusicFirst Elementary found at https://www.musicfirstelementary.com/
This past week I was able to present a 50-minute webinar with a 10-minute Q and A session about MusicFirst Elementary Powered by Charanga. This elementary music curriculum developed by Charanga and used in the UK, Australia, and other countries, is now available here in the States. It is a spiral-based curriculum that includes original and public-domain music, instrument parts for classroom instruments as well as band/orchestra/guitar/ukulele/keyboards, easy-to-navigate digital resources, and assessments. It is completely aligned with the National Core Arts Standards and includes DEIB songs, social themes, creative tools including music composition, improvisation, a web-based music scoring DAW tool, and so much more. Check it out in this blog post and watch the video included to learn more!
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