The internet makes the world a much smaller place – it is possible to be in contact with people on the other side of the world with very little cost due to the internet.

This idea came from Beth in Manchester NH, where she said:

“I was trying to think of ways to integrate music with cultures around the world, in more of a hands-on approach than just listening to CDs. Then it hit me: if children are exposed to penpals so that they can write and get a feel for new cultures, why not do the same with music? I would love to find some sort of a way to record my students performing music from the United States, and send it to another class of students in another country. The students in the other country could, in turn, perform some of their music for us. I was thinking the kids could sing, play instruments, do dances, perform their National Anthem, maybe even sing a song they know from the radio. They could even talk on the recording about what the piece of music means to them. This way, they could see in what ways music is the same among different cultures, and what ways it is the same”

What a fantastic idea – and we would love to help you make contact with a school to do this for you, so that is why we are posting this here.

If you are interested, or would like to make a similar collection, all you need to do is join our facebook group, and contact beth or someone else to make “musical penpals” for your class. If you’ve never used facebook don’t be concerned about signing up – its just a way to get in touch with people and communicate, and best of all its completely free.

Click here to join our facebook group – and while you’re there make sure you add me as a friend – I’d love to catch up.

I’ve just found some quizzes and listening exercises based on Two movements of Handels concerto Grosso Opus 6 No 5 in D major that you could use with your classes as a bit of fun learning

The resource is called Baroque On and thanks to the folks at ABC, Musica Viva in schools, The British council and English chamber group Florilegium they’ve put together some really fun and interactive activities to bring Baroque Music Alive to students.

Just visit the website below to check it out:

In case you haven’t heard about this latest “buzz event” on YouTube yet, the song Doh Reh Mi made famous in the Sound Of Music by Julie Andrews made a busy peak hour rush train station into a dance hall recently in a Train station in Belgium. Unsuspecting passengers couldn’t help but watch the busy crowd become dancers – and all this with just two rehearsals!

Check it out and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did

I say this because I’ve got wonderful students that I’ve taught in the past with very different examination experiences with theory, and I wonder if you have had similar stories.

Firstly, lets meet Jane (all the names in this article have been changed for obvious reasons)

Jane is a great girl, quiet and hard working. She never achieves top marks in her practical assessments, even though she works really hard. She wants to be a music teacher one day, but never really seems highly motivated about anything.

She reached grade five level in her practical, and so after talking to her parents we all decided together that it was time to make a start with theory, before it all got too hard to fit in.

We started her on grade one, even though she probably was a little ahead of this level. We didn’t want to assume she had knowledge of theory so we started from the beginning.

This was the right choice for Jane, because as soon as she started doing the theory homework she started to understand more, and felt that she could achieve it.

We entered her for a grade one theory exam as soon as we could – and she loved the motivation of the exam coming up – it gave her the push to make her do the homework and complete the assignments.

When the grade one exam came she believed that she could get 100% – because we had told her that she could, and she went into the exam with confidence yet a serious attitude. She came away with …… guess what…. 100%!

This was a great motivational achievement for her, as she had almost never achieved 100% in her lifein any subject before. She then picked up in all her other musical studies – she was motivated to practice, went on to learn other instruments, and of course entered for the next grade as soon as possible. Good marks in grade two and three set her up for a musical career and entry into teaching studies.

Now… thats a good story of a great outcome from theory exams… but there is another side to this too from another perspective.

Tom is a really hardworking student, who gets mostly A’s and B’s in his school subjects, and if he isn’t achieving that level then his parents will do anything that is required to get him up to that level.

Tom came to us after studying music theory with other teachers, and showed all the signs that he understood the material in early theory grades.

When preparing for his second grade exam he would do all the homework on time, he would complete past papers very well and recite the musical terms easily, however when he sat for the exam he came away with….. a C!

A C was not acceptable for him or his parents – they knew that he was more capable than that.. but what went wrong?

He just made silly errors, rushed things, and didn’t perform in the exam room. He was capable and knew all the materials but the pressure of the exam constricted his abilities and results.

After consulting with his parents we decided that he should do the same grade again, even though he had passed we wanted him to come up to the standard that we knew he was capable of.

The result the second time?…. a B- !

Still not a result that he wanted.

Most concerning of all was the drop in his attitude over this time. Rather than a student who looked forward to coming to music lessons he gradually lost his interest. He became apathetic about it and we searched for other ways to inspire him about music.

Eventually we dropped music theory exams for him, as it really didn’t help him move forward with his musicianship, and he was a lot better off with his practical, without having to remember the negative experience he had with his theory.

So.. there are two strong views based on our personal experiences.

Everyone can say.. music exams are right for some people, and wrong for others… but how do we know as teachers?

Do we risk setting up negative anchors in students minds by entering them into exams?

Or are the potential gains much more, like what happened for Jane?

As usual, I’d love to hear your comments, feedback and input. The comments on this page are one of the most valuable resources, so please do leave a story of your own or an opinion on the topic… its most welcome!

Open courseware has been available online for many years, however MIT is the first major educational institute to market open courseware to students and non-students alike. Open courseware is free access to lectures, notes, books, videos and other reference materials, just as if you were actually paying to take the program. Open courseware classes typically cannot be used for credit, however for those just wanting to learn music, an instrument or brush up on theory it is wonderful opportunity.
The following 10 free open courseware classes are excellent choices for musicians of all ages and ability levels.

1. Classical Music and the Music of the Classical Era – offered through Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons, this class is designed for children at the primary and secondary level to learn about the theory and style of classical music. For adults looking for a brief overview of classical music this is also a terrific and basic starting point.

2. Composing Using Computers – this advanced level course offered through MIT OpenCourseWare provides students with a step by step method of combining technology with musical composition. The course builds on techniques and ends with the student developing their own integrated computer composition. Digital sampling as well as editing and combining hardware and software application in music development forms the core of the course.

3. Popular Musics Of The World – another MIT program, this course samples traditional and modern music from different areas of the globe. Issues such as the internet, globalization, society and even marketing and their impact on music are all addressed.

4. Common Music Terms – for postsecondary students and mature students this in depth look at musical terms and their meanings provide a framework for understanding musical literature. Offer through Connexions.

5. Creating Musical Sounds – a unique look at what defines music and how musical instruments actually produce the sounds we enjoy as music. This course is offered through Open University OpenLearn.

6. Reading Music: Common Notation – a course designed for those wanting to increase their ability to read basic or complex music notation. The course begins with the basics and moves into much more complex musical notation. Can be a great resource for those wanting to teach music to others. This course is offered free through Connexions.

7. Fundamentals of Music – this three component lesson series includes hands on activities in the basics of music composition, a sight singing lab as well as a piano lab. Students are encouraged to focus on the fundamental elements, the pitch, rhythm, melody and understanding of music notation. This course, offered through MIT OpenCourseWare, is designed for post-secondary level students.

8. Theme and Motif In Music – designed to teach students of classical as well as modern music to search for themes and motifs through songs and music. This course is appropriate for students of all ages and is offered through Connexions.

9. Ear Training – this course is based on a downloadable game that encourages the listener to train his or her ear to listen to the various elements within music. A must for those interested in fine tuning their musical listening skills. This free open courseware is offered through Connexions.

10. Hip Hop – this MIT OpenCourseWare course traces the last 30 years in the rise of hip hop music across the world. Cultural and global influences as well as how the style of music has developed are the focal concepts discussed in the course. Throughout the course students will have the ability to create their own music within the hip hop genre.

We’ve been busily engaged this month putting the finishing stages to the Fun Music Company latest publication called “Printable Music Theory Books” which will be launched on Monday, 1st June.

Leading up to the launch we are really interested in your opinion on the topic of how students learn, particularly relating to theoretical concepts in music.

Over the next couple of days on this page and in our emails I’m going to delve into some really big questions on how students learn, and how as music teachers we can adapt some simple principles to make our teaching more effective, and even fun!

Firstly let’s examine what learning really is….

How often have you read a book on a subject that you weren’t really familiar with, such as computing or science and felt like you were “lost” within a few pages?

I know its happened to me LOTS of times! Particularly when looking through technical manuals for computers or software – the language of it can just completely overwhelm you within moments of starting.

Why does this happen? And how can we avoid that as teachers?… making our students feel totally overwhelmed is such an easy thing to do and often we aren’t even aware of it happening!

When you learn something you take something which is unknown and make it known – its that simple!

That seems quite obvious, but sometimes educators, and definitely authors of publications in music theory forget this.

The best way to do this therefore is take something which is unknown and relate it to something known.

Lets start with an example: Suppose you were an expert in sound equipment and you were trying to explain to someone what a compressor does.

You could say something like:

“A compressor measures all the velocity peak levels of the incoming audio signal and applies a limiting threshold to them, so that the underlying decibel level can be normalized”

Did you get that?

Trying to explain it that way is bound to confuse most… those who know anyway will be ok with this definition, however those who have no idea what a “velocity peak level” or a “limiting threshold” are sure to be totally lost with this method of teaching.

Sadly, this is the way that many books are written these days, making our jobs as teachers way harder than they need to be!

OR… you could say:

You know what a lawnmower does? It cuts off the tall bits of grass so that all the lawn can be at a consistent level. A compressor is just like that for music – it cuts off the loudest bits so that the music can all be at a consistent level.

What we strive to do when we teach is always take something which you don’t know, and move it into the sphere of the known. In this example we took something unknown (a compressor) and related it to something known (a lawnmower).

This is perhaps a silly example, and of course you could say that the lawnmower definition definitely doesn’t give the same level of detail as the original one… however someone who doesn’t know the first thing about compressors is going to really struggle with that definition.

This is what we do to students all the time… particularly in the area of music theory.

So often in popular music you see instrumentalists and musicians who “can’t read music”. Often these can be well known and established “superstars” of music. One who instantly comes to my mind is Paul McCartney… how could someone so established and so talented not really be able to read music?

Its incredibly common – and so often the reason is that Music theory has been taught to them in a way that has caused them to “switch off” and stop trying to learn. They have learned enough to get by with their instrument, and that’s all they really need… so they never bothered to learn any more.

So what caused them to “switch off” to the point that they can’t read a note of music?

My suggestion is that in the majority of cases it is because they have tried to assimilate too many pieces of information at one time, and there was no association with all these different pieces of information to any known concepts… which caused overwhelm and the brain said “no thanks…. I can’t be bothered!”

What do you think? Is there other reasons why musicians don’t gain a level of proficiency in music theory?

How else as music educators can we instil a love and a passion for the theory of music – just as much as the practical components?

What are some of the tips and tricks that you use to make music theory fun and easier to learn?

The more ideas that are shared on this page will help everyone in our family of educators here at the Fun Music Company make their music teaching more relevant and rewarding – so go ahead and fill in the comment box below!

The handbook deals with a subject that many new music teachers haven’t been properly prepared for: how to begin and build up public school music programs. Topics covered include:

• Course, curriculum, and performance development;
• Classroom management;
• Special needs;
• Relationships with administrators, colleagues, parents, and the community;
• Publicity; and
• Budgeting.

The book also includes questions for discussion and student assignments, which makes this book great for teaching training courses.

Ryan has been involved in music education for years at various levels from pre-kindergarten through university; she was inspired to write this book by her own early college teaching years:

I was working with students who were very bright, exceptionally talented, and who were going through a very rigorous music teacher-training program. I began to notice, over a variety of courses and semesters, that in spite of the excellent training they were receiving, my upper-year students still had a lot of uncertainties and questions about the day-to-day job of a music teacher within a school setting — they seemed to soak up any bits of information that came up with respect to the implementation of practical aspects of school music programs.

Ryan is currently an assistant professor of music education at the Berklee College of Music in Boston; she is also the former chair of music education at Montreal’s McGill University and past-president of the Quebec Music Educators Association. As a specialist in elementary music education, Ryan also founded the Very Little Musicians and Little Musicians early childhood program in Montreal.

You can order “Building Strong Music Programs” from Rowman & Littlefield Education; the paperback edition costs $21.95 and clothbound is $65.00. MENC members receive a discount of 25%. Find more information at Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Guest post by Michelle Fabio who write about online education news at OnlineEducation.net.

We know this because when someone orders a product from us there is a question on the order form which asks where the person heard about us. An increasing number of people have been writing “from a friend” instead of the usual answer of “google search” or “over the internet”.

We’ve also had a few teachers use our affiliate program, but for many the technical issues with this are hard to manage, so we’ve been searching for something much more simple.

We know that our customers will tell others wether we ask them to or not, so we’d like to give them something back for their loyalty and support!

So here it is…… the brand new, easy to use………..

Refer a Friend Program

This is how it works:

1) Members are given a special “coupon code” to share with their friends. This will give their friend 10% off their first order with us. We also ask that the friend enter the referring members name in the “where did you hear about us” box.

2) Once we get this coupon code and the name of the member who referred us, we’ll send that member a discount code offering them 50% off their next purchase. If you are a member who has purchased just one product from us this can save you up to $35 on your next purchase with us. You can use it immediately, or save it until we release a new product.

With the large number of new products we have in the pipeline for 2009 members will be able to save heaps of money on the latest music teaching resources.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s a discount code and how does it work?

A discount code is simply a word that you type into the special box on our order forms – It automatically calculates your discount before you purchase.

Where do I get the code to pass onto my friends?

It is available inside the Fun Music Company members area.

Do I need to make a purchase to participate?

Yes – this is for members who have purchased one of our products in the past, including Printable Music Games, Instant Print Music Lessons or the Junior Musicianship system.

What if my friend forgets to write my name in?

We have an infallible backup system – honesty!

If you know you referred someone and they didn’t write your name in just let us know, and as long as you can tell us what their name is and the approximate date they purchased something just let us know and we’ll send you your bonus 50% discount code.

Can I get cash commissions instead?

Not with this program, but if you wish the Fun Music Company affiliate program is still operating. This is an alternative and you can do this as well if you wish!

Over these past few months, some teachers have asked me how to adapt printable music games to help suit the needs of visually and hearing impaired people. I know that every teacher out there has different needs in their classes so please feel free to use, change and adapt the ideas for your own teaching classroom or venue.

I hope this game can be of use to teachers out there and I would love to hear your feedback and success stories with it so please feel free to write a comment in the box below.

Object of The Game:

To generate the most music cash by identifying the correct instrument through touch.

Game Preparation:

Have some real instruments laid out on a table in the room. Instruments could include things that you already have in the venue or classroom or new instruments that you bring in specifically for the lesson. Ideas of instruments could include both larger and smaller instruments such as the snare drum, castanet, maraca, clarinet, trumpet, banjo, saxophone, claves, guitar, triangle etc….

You will also need some music money- you can use the dollar bills from an old monopoly set or make your own “music money” templates.

How to Play the Game:

One player at a time has a turn at feeling and or playing the instrument in question. To identify the instrument in question you could sign, say or clap the answer.To score the music money, you could either get your students to use a chart and point to the correct instrument; you could clap the syllables of the instrument individually or as a whole class or you could sign it. You could give $1 for every student with the correct answer or you could give $1 for each syllable of the instrument name ie: sax -o -phone =$3 or snare -drum =$2.

General Resources

MENC – The National Association for Music Education (MENC) represents all levels of teaching from preschool to graduate school. Some of the resources that can be found on the MENC site include career information, lesson plans, teaching ideas, music education news, and an event calendar.

About Music Education – This About.com site is entirely devoted to music education. Covered topics include instruments, music theory, and music history. The site also offers free lesson plans, games, sheet music, and other resources for music teachers and students.

Music Education Magic – This teacher-created site is an excellent resource for music teachers. In addition to free downloads, lesson plans, and sheet music, Music Ed Magic offers education articles, news, and a special music education search engine.

SBO – School Band and Orchestra (SBO) magazine is written for school band and orchestra directors (elementary through high school). Teachers can read the digital version of the magazine online or request a complimentary print copy.

K-12music.org – This site is a regularly updated listing of resources for music educators. The site has been painstakingly researched and is presented commercial free.

Lesson Plans

ArtsEdge – This site, sponsored by the Kennedy Center, offers hundreds of K-12 lesson plans for music teachers. ArtsEdge also provides information on education standards and other teaching resources.

Rock and Roll Library -Although the Rock and Roll Library doesn’t provide a ton of music lessons, the plans they do provide are very good. Rock and Roll lesson plans are free to everyone and easy to view over the site.

Educator’s Reference Desk – The Educator’s Reference Desk has always been a great spot to find lesson plans. The site offers music lesson plans for nearly every grade level as well as other educational resources.

My Music Class – This MENC library plays host to standards-aligned teaching ideas, lesson plans, and other resources. The library is open and free to all MENC members.

Lesson Plans Page – HotChalk’s Lesson Plans Page has an enormous collection of free lesson plans for music teachers. Lessons are sorted by grade level and topic.

Sheet Music and Supplies

8 Notes – This site is an excellent place to find free sheet music and music lessons. 8 Notes also has a community forum, free music tools, and a music glossary.

Free-Scores.com – Also known as the Sheet Music World Center, Free-Scores.com is one of the largest sources of free sheet music on the web. There are currently more than 12,000 scores available for download; new scores are added each week.

Blank Sheet Music – This site is perfect for teachers who are looking for blank sheet music. Any kind of blank sheet music can be printed for free (piano, bass, guitar, etc.) and customized to suit a musician’s need.

Mutopia – The Mutopia Project offers thousands of music pieces that are free to download, print out, perform, and distribute.

Royalty Free Music – Royalty Free Music has a special program that provides award-winning, royalty free music to schools, colleges, universities, and other eligible organizations. This free music program is great for budget-conscious educators who need free music for the classroom or musical productions.

Free Music Education

MIT – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers nearly 50 free music courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. All of the courses can be taken online. Most include audio, video, readings, and other educational materials.

Berklee Shares – Anyone with an interest in music can take the free online courses offered by the Berklee College of Music through the Berklee Shares website. Each music lesson was developed by Berklee faculty and includes videos, mp3 files, and other learning resources.

Open University – The UK’s Open University offers many different free courses that may be of interest to music teachers, including a music theory course and a course on using film music in the classroom.

Wikiversity – Wikiversity’s School of Music and Dance is a good resource for self-learners who need instruction, ear training, and learning materials.

Free Guitar Videos – This site hosts the largest collection of free video guitar lessons on the web. New lessons are added each week.

This has been a Guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes for TeachingDegree.org, a site that provides information about online teachers degrees