5 More Ideas for Teaching Music Online
This tech stuff can be intimidating, I know. I wrote an blog post earlier this month called “6 Ideas for Teaching Music Online,” presenting you with some easy ways to engage with your learners in an online environment. This post will give you 5 more ways to engage with your learners to help you teach online. These software pieces don’t necessarily give you real-time access to your kids but they do give you ideas for your kids to interact with music at home, asynchronously.
5 More Ideas for Teaching Music Online
This collection of completely online apps help learners create music easily and with little guidance. There are very many cross-curricular connections here too. A number of the compositions can be turned into a link and sent to whomever they would like to. In this case, it could be you (the teacher) so you can see what they are doing. My favourites of these apps are:
Song Maker
There are a few useful features about the Song Maker app that I would like to point out: 1) The beat is subdivided into 8th notes by default so making really simple compositions is easy which also means you can transfer it to traditional notation quite easily; 2) the pitches are notated in the chromatic colour system like boomwhackers are. This means that C is always red; D is always orange and so on; 3) it is divided into a 4-measure phrase. The parameters are already laid out for you. These can all be changed in the ‘Settings’ tab. The compositions could be sent to anybody (you as well) by selecting ‘Save.’
Rhythm
This app has some clever features to it as well. There are four metres to choose from: ¾, 4/4, 5/4, and 6/4 and each has a different flavour so-to-speak. The second one (in 4/4) has a distinct drum set or rock and popular feel to it while the fourth one (in 6/4) has a very latinesque flavour to it. The beats are also subdivided into eighth notes.
There are a ton more interactive apps to get your kids interacting with music. Check it out here.
2. Incredibox
