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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Bolero Boomwhacker Play-Along Video

May 31, 2026  /  Amy M. Burns

Tip: If you cannot see the video below, click the link to go to the original post.

This post and video brings me back four years ago when I created my first play-along video where the music is scrolling across the screen and the boomwhackers on the bottom of the screen play along with the music. This was also my first play-along using a video of a live recording (the credentials and the link to the original video are below). I enjoyed creating this, but I am not perfect and there are times when the downbeat rushes slightly. With that said, this boomwhacker can be used to practice, reinforce, or used as a tool for multiple modalities with the following musical concepts:

  • Dynamics (pp, p, mp, mf, and f)

  • Performing at a slow tempo

  • Performing a triple meter

  • Performing rhythms of quarter and eighth notes, and quarter rests

  • Reading music

  • Watching the boomwhackers to know when to perform

  • Watching an amazing orchestra and following a wonderful conductor

  • Study of instruments in the orchestra (and discovering some untraditional orchestral instruments for this specific piece of music)

  • Study of Ravel

  • Study of an adapted melody (due to the original being 17 minutes in length)

  • Form

Please enjoy and be patient when the downbeat is rushed at times.

Need Virtual BoomWhackers? Click https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/662880985/fullscreen/

Blog Post about the process: http://amymburns.com/elmusedtech/boomwhackerravel

Original Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh9bUD-hC0A Wiener Philharmoniker Maurice Ravel - Bolero Regente Gustavo Dudamel

At the closing concert of the Lucerne Festival 2010, the Wiener Philharmoniker performed Maurice Ravel's probably most famous piece of music under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel: Boléro. The concert was broadcast live in more than 50 cinemas in Europe on 18 September 2010.

Recording Date: 18 September 2010

Composers: Maurice Ravel

Orchestras: Wiener Philharmoniker Conductors: Gustavo Dudamel

Director: Michael Beyer

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