Worthy Website for Music Ed: Creating Music

Wouldn't I love to be a teacher who has access to class computers for music??!! There are so many great ways to reinforce your lessons with Morton Subotnick 's Creating Music site!  Because I don't have access to computers for our music class, I recommend this site for students and parents to explore on their own time at home, and include it on a list on my edline page.  The goal of the Creating Music website is to "provide an environment for children to experience creative play in the creation of music, with the same ease they have been able to enjoy with toys, drawing tools, building blocks, puppets, etc." I recommend this site for students in grades K-3.

Some of the highlights of this site are:

• Sketch Pad and Rhythm Band
  Here one can ‘draw’ at the level of finger painting and get musical feedback. The participant can choose instrumental color and edit as a composer might, by changing pitches, making things go forward or backward, or inverting and duplicating.
• Sketch Pad: Students can compose music for four different instruments.
• Rhythm Band: Students can compose music for five different percussion instruments

• Hearing Music
  
  The puzzles are melodies broken into four phrases. The participant will learn to recognize (by ear) the ordering of these phrases. Rhythm, melodic intervals and harmonic progressions are learned since the phrases are differentiated by subtle harmonic, melodic or rhythmic differences.
• Comparing Game:  Student discriminates between same or different melodies. Suitable for grades 1, 2, 3.
• Pitch Game: On this game you must remember three pitches in order. Suitable for grades 1, 2, 3
• Rhythm Game: Student creates a rhythm, then is quizzed to see if they remember the rhythm. Suitable for grades 1, 2, 3.

• Playing with Music
  
  These activities are designed to allow the participant to ‘play’ with two of the basic qualities in music: tempo and dynamics. Two of the three activities also introduce notation.
• Playing with Beethoven: Using the keyboard, students can play Beethoven's "Sonate Op. 31, No. 3" in their own tempo.
• Playing with Scales: Using the keyboard, students can play C major, C natural minor and C harmonic minor scales on clarinet, oboe, and marimba.