Arts Alive: Music
A great interactive site from the National Arts
Centre of Canada. Lots to learn, lots to do and all
presented in a lively and colourful way. It's a
fantastic resource for teachers and children. There
are lesson plans in PDF format, instruments to
examine, online activities for pupils, composer's
biographies, music to listen to, videos to watch and
much more. Well worth exploring in depth.
Compose a Minuet
This is a game that Mozart played (He my even have
invented it). You dice and use the results to select
prewritten musical phrases to make up your minuet.
Creating Music
An children's online creative music environment.
Looks like fun.
Dictionary of Instruments
Simple information about a huge variety of
instruments, classified by the way their sounds are
produced. A voice pronounces the name of each
instrument. Many of the instruments are pictured.
Early Birds Music
Lots of downloadable MP3 tracks with pages demonstrating actions to
go with them. Great for Foundation / KS1.
Greenwich Downloads
This page from Greenwich LA has a number of free
downloads, including some useful music programs.
Grooveblender
An online sequencing program found among the games
on the Shockwave website. Haven't tried it myself
yet, but it looks fun.
Guide to the Orchestra (BBC)
Just what it says. Find out about the instruments
and hear them play. Historic Musical Instruments
An extremely detailed site from Edinburgh University. Everything you could wish to
know about musical instruments, in text, sound and pictures. Useful for primary children
(with help) and secondary/university work. In particular,
this link takes yoiu to a page with streamed
video of some of the instruments being played. Lindsay Music
This music company sells a wide range of sheet music and scores suitable for use in
schools.
Learn About Instruments
Information about instruments and sound clips of
them being played.
Making Tracks
BBC Radio Three's daily 20 minute programme for
children has this excellent website, where children
can experiment online with making and recording
music. Great! Mother
Goose Rocks
A good fun site - Cartoons of well known nursery rhymes to versions
performed in Rock-style. Great, among other things, for older pupils
with learning difficulties. Music by Arrangement
David Bellwood is a part time "peri" in Leeds and in
his spare time writes original music for use in
schools. He will provide scores for your specified
selection of instruments and abilities. There are
some free samples available from the Music By
Arrangement website.
Music Games
Free downloads from Inclusive Technology, these
games are intended for KS1 but some may be useful
with KS2 as well.
Music Notes
Excellent site from ThinkQuest. There are sections
about instruments, theory, history and more.
Music Teachers' Resource Site
Just what it says. Some free stuff - some
subscription-only stuff. Music
Teachers UK
A free site aimed at supporting musicians and music teachers. You
can download a variety of manuscript papers and there are resources
and links. Music Notes
An excellent ThinkQuest site. The site has several useful sections: Theory, Music History
from medieval to modern times, instruments (with illustrated descriptions and histories of
all the commonly used musical instruments), Musical Careers and Interactive Games. There
is also a links list. The
MusicLand
This is a UK-based online community for music education. You need to
join to take part (it's free). It seems to be mainly secondary
focused. Music Room
Music Room is an online music shop which has a useful school's section.
New York Philharmonic Kidzone
Wonderful! Lots of Flash animated pages for
children.
Pianographique
Amazing Flash site that turns your computer keyboard
into a sound and image processor. Bit difficult to
describe. Try it!
Plays and Musicals
Plays and Musicals is a commercial site that you may
find useful. They are a source of scripts and
performance licences for amateur dramatic groups /
schools etc.
Play Music
Fun site for children. Lots of interesting stuff,
including a guide to the instruments of the
orchestra - you can hear them play, too.
Music by Arrangement - SchoolBand
David Bellwood's pages of help and advice for teachers wanting to start their own
orchestra or band. Includes some free easy music to get you started.
Tony's Music Links
The ever-reliable Tony Poulter has produced this page of Music
links. It's full of gems.
Using Web-Based Resources in Primary Music
This is an addendum to Tony's Music Links. Here he lists most of the
links mentioned in Becta's Guidance document of the same name.
Virtual Gamelan
This is a freely downloadable program. I haven't
tried it, so cannot say how good it is, but it looks
like a fun idea.
Virtual Orchestra
See and hear the instruments of an orchestra. A simple idea and a
good one. (From Northumberland Grid for Learning). Youth
Music
Leading UK music charity / funding agency. Lots of information and
other useful stuff. Well worth a look.
Classical Net - Composer Master Index
A catalogue of resources, including recordings, books, articles, scores and CD buying
guides, with links to other 'Classical' music sites. Useful for keen musicians and
secondary/university research work. Edward Elgar
Home page of The Elgar Society and The Elgar
Foundation
Benjamin Britten
Official site of the Britten-Pears Foundation. The Ralph Vaughan
Williams Web Page
Biography, list of works, information about his major works, trivia and more. J.S. Bach Home Page Franz Joseph Haydn
Lots of info about Haydn. Franz Liszt
AN interesting site from someone who obviously likes
Liszt's works. He has even produced an animation of
Liszt playing! There is more serious information
here, too. The Mozart Project
Biography, Bibliography, Catalogue of works and Essays about the man and his music.
Music Web - Composers
Music Web is basically a CD review site but has this
page with profiles of British and international
composers. The Secrets behind
Franz Schubert
His life, his music, his musical friends and foes, and much more. Robert Schumann
Biography, a comprehensive guide to his works and some less well-known facts about the
him. Richard Wagner Archive
Lots of information about Wagner, his work and his family.