I was just looking through youtube for music theory videos and I stumbled across this teacher who was actively involving her students in remembering musical terms they have played in their pieces. This is quite a small Suzuki style group, but there’s no reason why it couldn’t be adapted to larger classes . Thanks to Janet for posting it on youtube.

Dancing in Liverpool Station: The T-Mobile Dance

the making of T-mobile Dance in Liverpool Station

T-Mobile Sing along in Traflgar Sqaure to the classic “Hey Jude”

T-mobile Sing along……with Pink appearing

Last year that we ran a competition that resulted in a fantastic e-book called “Lifesavers for the Music Teacher” and everyone who got their story published got a free copy of the book.

This year, all you have to do is let us know the SINGLE BEST idea or lesson plan that can be used for a substitute music lesson.

What do you do when you have to fill in for another teacher at a moments notice?

What do you give a substitute to fill in your lessons in your place?

This may be included in a new ebook which we are putting together called:

“Substitute Lesson Lifesavers For The Music Teacher” (or something similar!)

• What if you could get access to a collection of the best simple and practical ideas, that make music teaching, easy, effective and fun and can be easily printed out ready for your next substitute music lesson?
• What if you could get the best collective wisdom of 10,000 music teachers across the globe, and all their simple and always work lessons and solutions?
• How good would it be to get access to this information for no cost whatsoever?

This year what we’d like to do is compile a collection of simple ideas for substitute music lessons: They can be lesson plans, lesson plan ideas, worksheets, games or other activities that can easily be written down for any substitute teacher to take at a moments notice.

Last year, there were over a hundred ideas and we narrowed the entries down into forty. What we are looking to do with this information is to create a small bonus item which will be given away with some of our other music teaching products.

Your Reasons for Contributing:

1. You’ll will go into the competition to WIN a $50 itunes or Amazon (Your choice) sent direct to your door with our compliments and congratulations, as well as a preview copy of our latest module of “Printable Music Lesson Plans- Great Composers ”

2. Everyone Who contributes will get a copy of the e-book when it is compiled. Think about it – you’ll get the collective wisdom of everyone who contributes!! Last year it took us approximately 3 months to compile – which means you’ll have it ready for the start of 2010.

How to contribute:

All you need to do is send me an email with your idea – just use the contact form on this page.

1. Remember that the idea does not need to be long
2. The idea does not even have to be original – you can share an idea that was shared with you from a mentor, friend or teacher
3. It does not need to be in any particular format; just something you can write down and easily explain in an email.
4. You can choose whether or not you’d like your name and/or contact details published with the idea: just let us know!

The Competition – Win a $50 Itunes or Amazon Voucher

At the Fun Music Company we love giving things away, so we’ve decided to give away a free itunes or Amazon voucher. The winner will be the person who has suggested an idea which is the most practical and useful for everyone.

The competition will close on the 31st October, 2009, after which I’ll pick a winner and announce it the following week in a further email – so keep an eye on your mailbox!

Some quick rules, which you agree to by entering:

1. If there is more than one person who has made the winning (closely related) idea, the winner will be picked at random from all those who made that suggestion.
2. You can only enter once – just give us your best idea!
3. No Compensation will be paid for your ideas, other than the prize as stated, and sharing of the e-book on its completion. You agree to release the idea to us for publication in our ebooks and anywhere else appropriate with no compensation paid.
4. Please don’t submit anything that violates any persons or companies copyrighted material – just use your common sense!
5. You must be at least 18 years of age to enter, or over 21 if you are in the United States. The Voucher will be sent to the winner within 28 days of the competition close date.

Here’s to making music lessons fun for all!

With the invention of the interactive whiteboard it will save many hours of boring line drawing saving valuable time with a better look afterwards. The question is – What else can we do with this new technology?

Interactive whiteboards seems to be the “buzz “ word amongst teachers at the moment. I view them as fantastic tools which get students interacting with the content and becoming actively involved.

I would love to get some feedback from teachers out there currently using interactive whiteboards and how you use them.

Do you play games on them? Do you use fact sheets? Do you link to videos? and what published resources are you currently using both at the primary level and the senior level ?

Has anyone been using the Fun Music Co resources on an interactive whiteboard? I would love to hear your stories and feedback.

Click here for  an article demonstrating how an experienced teacher in Holland uses interactive whiteboards for general primary classes:

Here are some great links to some interactive music teaching materials:

San Francisco Symphony Music Fun: This website has a few games on it and listening examples of instruments.

Thinkfinity: free music resource topics for many levels of classes, many  have some interactive whiteboard resources.

Education Network Australia: By clicking this link, you will be able to find free resources for Instruments of the Orchestra Games, Musical House Games and a virtual keyboard.

Printable Music Lesson Plans: Instruments of the Orchestra – this is a term module of lesson plans, fun sheets, fact sheets and an entire power point presentation which is perfect for interactive whiteboard use.

Currently at The Fun Music Company, we are really busy finishing and editing our next “Printable Music Theory Book” and this question came up so I just wanted to ask for your opinion on how to teach the cycle of 4ths or 5ths.

Some say that students should be able to remember the order of sharps and flats by rote. I feel that that’s okay for a more advanced player who uses the scales on a daily basis, but we’re talking here about teaching this concept to beginners with little experience even playing scales.

I know that to help me remember the colors of the rainbow I still have to think ROYGBIV! So what’s the harm in using a simple rhyme to help remember the order of sharps and flats in the cycle of 4ths or 5ths. I have always found that in teaching children musical concepts such as this one, it was all so abstract that little rhymes just made it easier for them to remember. At this level, most students don’t even play all the scales yet and I found it was just too hard to get them to learn it all by rote.

The rhyme that we grew up with here in Australia was “Fat Cat Got drowned At East Brighton” to remember the order of sharps and to get the order of flats we simply remembered Be Early And Don’t Get Cold Feet.
Of course you could just reverse the first letters of the first rhyme to get the order of flats as well.

Through our extensive review process where 5 reviewers from around the world examine the book contents, we stumbled across the problem that US students may not find it relevant because of the East Brighton – plus it just sounds old fashioned and out dated.

Kevin, my dear husband and the man who has been specializing in writing the Printable Music Theory books came up with a fun rhyme to help it become more world wide and fun!

Fat Cats Go Dancing And Elephants Boogie

What do you think? Would you use it?

I would love to get your feedback on what rhymes work for you if any and how you would teach the concept. Please just use the comment in the box below and I look forward to finding out what you think.

I can’t deny that I feel this game would be a perfect motivating tool to use as a reward or fun activity for Classroom music lessons this year -especially for all those out there who are teaching the History of Rock and Roll.

Video Games can certainly be great motivating tools for this current generation of students. They connect with the idea of video games and are very good at picking them up quickly while they are enjoying a new experience. Just think through using this game they get to experience what it would really be like to play at a gig like the Cavern where the screaming of the girls in the crowd is louder than their actual playing anyway!

Seth Schiesel from the NewYorkTimes.com said;
“In the game’s story line mode, players inhabit the various Beatles as they progress from the Cavern Club to Ed Sullivan’s stage; Shea Stadium; the Budokan in Japan; Abbey Road; and their final appearance on the Apple Corps roof in 1969”

Don’t worry, I’m not about to say that this should take the place of teaching a subject like the History of Rock and roll entirely. But imagine how attentive and easily your classes would get through the material presented to them if they saw a set up of a two guitar, rock drum kit and vocal microphone set up on the side for afterwards!
Imagine how effective it would be to revise the history learned by actually being involved and interacting in it. Sure I know they would only be playing on plastic buttons instead of real strings, sticks and microphones, but if it’s used once in a while does it really matter!- we can still teach a few chords on real guitars as well and I bet the student would retain more knowledge about the Beatles in that one game interaction than they would in a whole lesson of lectures.

Apparently the game is just as entertaining for the onlookers than what it is for those playing, so it wouldn’t take too long to rotate an entire class through with having a go while keeping your audience fully entertained at the same time with four playing at a time. (I think it is possible to have two extra singers playing in the new game as well.)

There’s just no denying that interactive video games are becoming great learning tools!

Here’s a video I found on you tube about the game ;

Let me know what you think. Has anyone got one already and has anyone already tried it with their classes?
I hope this has sparked a few thoughts so please let me know what you think using the comment box below.

On the 10th september, 2009, the UK Government is kick starting a schools music program which has been dubbed the biggest music lesson ever and will reach thousands of schools and children throughout the UK.

This year, the British governemnt will invest 330 million pounds into their “First National Year of music” . This came about as a result of some conclusive research undertaken by Professor Susan Hallam of the Institute of Education, University of London.

In her research she found:

• Students who learned music over time, increased their general IQ by 7 points, while drama subjects only increased their IQ by 4.3points.
• Playing an instrument improves general behaviour because it requires a students to trust, respect and compromise with others
• Learning a musical instrument improves behavior, memory and intelligence
• musically trained students retain up to a fifth more information

Ed Balls, Secretary of the State said:
“Music is at the very heart of British popular culture – it’s what kids talk about, it’s what they aspire to. It’s fantastic that TV talent shows like X Factor attract millions of viewers each week, but young people need to know that they can only become stars by mastering the basics when they’re young and by learning about a range of music, from classical to country. This is exactly why we need world-class music education in schools. We know that learning to play an instrument can improve both reading and writing. It is right that music should play an important role in school life and beyond.”
Just check out his you tube interview realeasing the program the other day.

If there are any UK teachers out there reading this, I would love some input into this discussion. Did you take part in the Biggest Music Lesson ever; What was it like; what did your students think and do you know if and where we can get some footage of the broadcast on you tube?

If anyone has any ideas or footage, please leave a comment and links in the box below as I am most intrigued!

We never realized that everyone had a slightly different opinion. Kevin and I had been working in the same schools and using the same system of music teaching, yet we were amazed to find out that we had been teaching how to draw a treble clef differently all these years until we looked at writing the book.

I had always thought that because it was also called a G-Clef it needed to start on the G Line , but when we checked out Wilkopedia, I was amazed to find that I had been wrong all these years and it didn’t exactly start in the G line

Of course we checked out Wilkopedia, but even that didn’t clear things up totally for us.
So tell me what you think. Just how do you draw a treble clef?

At this website, you’ll be able to
- download videos, illustrations and information of over 140 instruments
- play musical hangman
- learn to compose a small arrangement using an online studio recorder

To use it you may need to register, but the resource is completely free

Click here to go to Vivazone

In This clip he is able to teach the concept of Pentatonic Scales and get a non musical audience to sing and here it while he improvises over the to. With humor and fun added along the way I can’t help wonder why I have never used this idea in my classes.

Has anyone out there ever used this concept in their teaching?

I would love to get some feedback and discussion on how we can implement this idea into the classroom .. I’m sure we all agree that the best teaching happens when it’s just plain fun and everyone gets involved!