Amy M. Burns

Elementary Music Technology and Integration

Amy M. Burns has taught PreK-grade 4 general music for over 25 years at Far Hills Country Day School (FH) (https://www.fhcds.org/). She also teaches grade 5 instrumental class, directs the FH Modern Band, is the Performing Arts Department Manager, and teaches privately in the after-school conservatory, having served as director for over 20 years. She has authored four books and numerous articles on integrating technology into the elementary music classroom. She has presented many sessions on the topic, including four keynote addresses in TX, IN, St. Maarten, and AU. She is the recipient of the 2005 Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) Teacher of the Year, the 2016 New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) Master Music Teacher, the 2016 Governor’s Leader in Arts Education, the 2017 NJ Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year, and the 2026 NJMEA Distinguished Service Awards. Her most recent publication, Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches (2020), is available from Oxford University Press (OUP) and Amazon. Burns is also the Community Coordinator for Midnight Music (MMC) at https://midnightmusic.com/, the General Music Chair for NJMEA Board of Directors, and the Elementary Music Consultant for MusicFirst (https://www.musicfirst.com/), a company built by music educators for music educators, dedicated to helping music teachers and their students make the most of technology in the classroom.

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October Rhythm Play-Along Mashup

October 20, 2024  /  Amy M. Burns

This was one of my first rhythm play-along videos that I created a couple of years ago featuring five songs and various rhythm values and meters. If you can use Halloween-themed songs, this is a good one to reinforce performing rhythm patterns for assessment, retrieval practice, and more.

Rhythm Patterns

The rhythm patterns featured in the song are:

  • 4/4 and 3/4 meter

  • Eighth notes or quavers

  • Quarter note or crotchet

  • Half note or minim

  • Dotted half note

  • Whole note

  • Quarter rest

Featured Songs:

  • The Addams Family by Vic Mizzy

  • Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr

  • The Munster’s Theme Song by Jack Marshall

  • Hedwig’s Theme by John Williams

Manipulatives

There are manipulatives for each rhythm pattern found at https://studio.buymeacoffee.com/extras

Teaching Ideas

  • This could be used to introduce new rhythm values.

  • This could be used at a station to assess rhythm reading and performing.

  • Place the names of the students in Wheel of Names and spin it twice so you can have two students perform the rhythm pattern together before they choose their instrument.

  • Have students copy each rhythm pattern using paper and pencil. Then have them use a platform like Seesaw to record themselves performing the pattern.

Enjoy this fun play-along video!

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