The post discusses a play-along activity for learning ukulele chords of C Major and A minor using a digital audio workstation. The play-along includes specific measures for each chord and provides instructions on how to teach it using manipulatives. It also offers two choices for performing the play-along: YouTube video or Soundslice. Additionally, it suggests using percussion instruments as alternatives if there aren't enough ukuleles and mentions virtual instruments as well. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech

Join me as I share a tech tip about using Soundslice, a versatile tool ideal for music education. Key points include customization options, transposition features, and benefits like focused learning and practice. Soundslice complements classroom use, offers advanced features, and allows exploration of artists' work. Consider checking out Midnight Music for helpful resources on creating content with Soundslice.

This week’s play-along is a tribute to the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, France. It is titled “Boomwhacker and Percussion Instrument Play-Along to John Williams - Olympic Fanfare and Theme conducted by Gustavo Dudamel - Performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with the help of the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” at the 2014 Walt Disney Concert Hall Gala”. It features many instruments and some complex rhythm patterns. The manipulatives feature fun facts about John and Gustavo, along with the score of the boomwhackers and percussion instruments.

You can view this on my YouTube Channel or my Soundslice Channel. The benefit of the latter is that you can alter the tempo, isolate the parts, change the key, mute certain parts, and more.

The manipulatives have the score along with fun facts about the music, composer, and conductor! They can be found on my Buy Me a Coffee Channel in the Extras Section.

This summer, I have been getting into Coldplay’s music. I am not sure why I am so late to join on this bandwagon, but their music has evolved throughout the almost three decades that they have been making music and I am enjoying listening to their progression.

The rhythms included in the play-along are:

• Quarter Note - Crotchet and rest

• Eighth Note - Quaver

• Half Note - Minim and rest

• Whole Note - Semibreve and rest

• Accents

• Crescendo/decrescendo

• Dynamics

Use this as retrieval practice for reading and performing rhythms, as a fun play-along to introduce a new concept, to welcome a new school year, or to celebrate that you all made it through a full week of school.

Last week, Bryson Tarbet and his amazing team at thatmusicteacher.com hosted a free online summer professional development conference called the Elementary Music Summit. This event was tailored for elementary music educators, offering sessions focused on their specific needs. The event was sponsored by Musically Minted and Music is Elementary.

The summit showcased a lineup of workshops and sessions led by seasoned music teachers and industry experts. The primary objective was to equip attendees with practical teaching strategies, techniques, and classroom-ready resources. I was so honored to be a presenter at this great event!

Read more for key highlights, takeaways, and what is coming up soon!

I'm excited to announce that the Elementary Music Summit® begins tomorrow! This fantastic event offers insights from 25 inspiring speakers who will share valuable skills and strategies for making this school year your best one yet. Who wouldn't want that?

I'll be speaking on Wednesday, July 10, at noon about "Free Internet Resources" alongside other experts like Stephanie Leavell, Ashley Cuthbertson, Bryson Tarbet, and more!

Each presentation will be available to you for 24 hours, but you can also get an entire year’s access (along with some other amazing bonuses) by grabbing the All-Access Pass.

If you have any questions at all about the summit or the All-Access Pass, leave a comment below.

Get your free ticket to the Elementary Music Summit®

This play-along video was created for two pitched C instruments. In my elementary music classroom, that would be recorders and metallophones. However, you could use either pitched instruments like bells, xylophones, flutes, ukuleles, possibly boomwhackers, virtual instruments, or other instruments your students can access. For practicing purposes, isolate one of the parts and also highlight the middle to work on the passage that has different notes than the other passages.

Though this video is also on my YouTube channel, it works much better on this SoundSlice channel (https://www.soundslice.com/slices/tmKzc/) as you can make the screen less busy by only showing the video or isolating the parts.

Fourth of July

Today's #techtiptuesday celebrates the Fourth of July. For the past three years, when the school year ended, I would teach in our school's summer elementary program. When this occurred, I devised weekly lessons around themes. Since the Fourth of July is occurring next week, here is a quick lesson you can use in your future class or your summer music camp from MusicFirst Elementary (and the fun video of Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” with the world record of 189 piccolos!

This past weekend officially started my summer projects! I love setting summer goals. Will I meet most of them? Probably not, unless the goal is to avoid the other goals I set! 🤣

However, my summer goals for this summer are:

1. Spend time with my family.

2. Relax and sleep more.

3. Read one or two books about music and teaching.

4. Go to Broadway and see a couple of shows at discounted rates.

5. Create some classroom instrument arrangements for play-along videos.

6. Work for Midnight Music and MusicFirst Elementary.

7. Work every day on Duolingo learning Spanish.

8. Exercise daily.

9. Clean out more of the basement for my girls to use.

10. Powerwash the house and stain the deck.

11. Go on vacation!!

These are in no particular order. Last night, I started #4 and saw The Outsiders, which was amazing! And today, I am working on #5: Create some classroom instrument arrangements for play-along videos. This play-along includes recorders, boomwhackers, classroom instruments, xylophones, metallophones, and sound effects (I used Star Wars sound effects in Flat!). These can be substituted for any instruments you have access to.

Tip: If the video is too busy, use the Soundslice link to change the view of the video.