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 instrument class, directs the FH Philharmonic, is the Performing Arts Department Manager, and teaches privately in the after-school conservatory after being the director for over 20 years. She has authored four books and numerous articles on how to integrate tech 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, and the 2017 NJ Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year Awards. Her most recent publication, Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches (2020), published by Oxford University Press (OUP) is available from 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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Still teaching? I like to end my year or begin a holiday break with my younger students playing music activities that reinforce musical skills like steady beat, piano and forte, sol-mi-la combinations, movements, and more. Here is an activity using Doggie Doggie. It involves the movement game, singing sol-mi-la combinations, and a simple orffestration/boomwhacker arrangement, all in one video.
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Join in the fun with this exciting play-along for the song, "Puppy for Hanukkah" written by Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes. Gather your instruments, including C, E, F, and G boomwhackers, tambourines, rhythm sticks, and maracas and shakers, and get ready to play!
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One of my favorite holiday pieces is “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24” by Savatage / Trans-Siberian Orchestra (1995). It is a combination of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” played in the beginning of the song by a solo cello, and then in a round with a flute and guitar. The next part picks up the tempo and is the melody of “Carol of the Bells” or “Shchedryk”, the Ukrainian New Year’s song by Mykola Leontovych, written in 1916. I recently arranged this piece for my school’s Philharmonic, which consists of students in grades 4-8 who play strings, brass, woodwinds, and piano. They had a wonderful time learning to play and perform the song, and it inspired me to create this play-along video. For this video, I edited the song and slowed down the tempo so that it could be successfully performed by elementary and middle school students.
Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech.
Read MoreTwo years ago, I created a rhythm play-along and later added a body percussion activity. Due to the varying meters, rhythms, and tempos, I suggest trying it personally before using it in class. This rhythm play-along emphasizes gratitude with a fall theme, incorporating snippets from songs about thankfulness and appreciation.
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Well, it's that time of year in the States. Personally, I loved Katie's picture of the few pumpkins and the purple packages of tangerines being sold in her area where here, if you turn around, you are presented with a pumpkin patch, hayrides, and pumpkin spice everything...not that I mind. I do love my pumpkin spice.
If you need some Halloween/Fall Play-Along Videos, especially if you are teaching on Halloween, please feel free to use these. If you like my resources, please consider buying me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech.
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Though this is not one of my popular rhythm play-along videos, I have to say that it is one of my favorite ones. This is a Halloween-inspired rhythm play-along video with all live, instrumental selections. Taking five familiar live instrumental selections played often around Halloween time, this is a medley rhythm play-along intended for older elementary and middle school music classes. This is one of many play-along videos for the fall. Click like and subscribe, check out other play-along videos, and if you like my resources, please consider donating me a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
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In this video, I am using Canva's animation tool to record the movement of the snail. This can be used as a play-along video and a sing-along video. You could also use this as an assessment and place it in an LMS platform or Seesaw to share with your students. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
Resources: Blog Post:
Seesaw Activity: https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_activity?prompt_id=prompt.e995c45f-2425-4b93-a737-abe664e428c4&share_token=b-lfU1JtS6qZy3NrDJH-4g
Snail, Snail: https://kodaly.hnu.edu/song.cfm?id=833
Canva for Education: https://www.canva.com/education/
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Last month, I was thrilled to be able to present at the ISTE Live23 Conference in Philadelphia, PA. I presented a poster session titled “Making Elementary Cross-Curricular Connections Intuitively With Book Creator”. It was a 90-minute session that explored the following:
“Elementary special subject areas like music, STEAM, and more have numerous cross-curricular connections. However, showcasing those connections to administrators and parents can be challenging. Book Creator gives educators ways to achieve cross-curricular connections and allows students to use multiple modalities to showcase their work.”
Check out the webinar and the blog post. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech.
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If you are coming to summer break or a holiday break where warm weather might be involved, this play-along will bring your students to break in a fun and educational way. Plus, it celebrates Beach Boy Brian Wilson's birthday on June 20. This is an intuitive play-along for elementary students to perform successfully. The blog post also contains interesting facts and resources to learn more about the artist. #students #artist #elementaryteacher #elmused #elementarymusic
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Earlier this week I shared the Rhythm Play-Along version of the medley including excerpts from female solo singers dating 1967-1990. They include Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin, and Whitney Houston. This week, I include the body percussion version and the manipulatives to complement both videos.
Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
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The other day, a friend of mine asked how to create individual slides from a series of images. I knew how to do this in Keynote, but I was not sure how to accomplish this in Powerpoint or Google Slides. Turns out that all of the programs can do this. In this video, I will show how to do this with Google Slides and Keynote. There is also an additional video shared from YouTube showing how to do this in PowerPoint.
Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech.
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March Music Madness with a creative focus using Chrome Music Lab Song Maker. Read through the post or watch the YouTube video to see how to use or adapt this for an elementary music class across grade levels. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
Read MoreThese are two tips that let you change a video so that it is mirrored. This is helpful for any movement videos or choreography videos where you need to mirror the teacher on the screen and they are using the terms left and right. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech Tools Used: https://www.mirrorthevideo.com/ https://clipchamp.com/en/
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New! Valentine’s Rhythm Play-Along Video to That Thing You Do! Here is a fun, simple rhythm play-along video to the song, That Thing You Do, written by Adam Schlesinger. The song is performed by the fictional 1960s band The Wonders, who are the focus of the film with the same title. The song peaked at No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1997. The note values that are covered are quarter, eighth, and half notes, as well as quarter rests. It also includes a dance party in the middle of the song. This song will be featured in my TMEA/TI:ME session tomorrow where you can see how to create the video in two different ways using free tools! Have fun with this!
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Credit: unsplash-image-N8MDgWvUW-8.jpg
Need a fun Valentine Medley Rhythm Play-Along with the teaching manipulatives? Check this out! If you enjoy my resources, please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
Read More#2 The trick of adding - between the t and the u in the URL
This is a quick video for #2. And “oldie but goodie” tip.
This is a trick that sometimes works, but not all of the time. To make the YouTube video become full screen with no ads, no comments, and no videos that will play right after, take the YouTube video’s URL that you would like to show, add a - between the t and u, and refresh the screen.
There are a lot of other ways to do this. Another way is to load the YouTube video you would like to show, click on the share button, and click on embed. A large iframe code appears. Click copy and paste the iframe into a new tab. Look for where the https begins and the URL ends, usually with letters. Delete the other items so you have a URL in the tab. Click refresh and the video is now embedded onto the screen with no ads, comments, etc.
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Need a one-stop shop to create presentations, play-along video slides, manipulatives, programs, posters, and so much more? Want to see how to begin creating a play-along video using a free and amazing tool? Canva for education is it! Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
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Have you ever needed free notation graphics that you could easily grab and use at a moment’s notice? Or have access to them to create manipulatives, presentations, worksheets, posters, and more? Look no further than Katie Wardrobe’s Midnight Music’s Big Free Music Notation Library COMPLETE 2022! Check out the webisode and blog about this great resource. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
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Many of my favorite music educators from Katie Wardrobe to Jim Frankel have spoken highly of the free website, Vocal Remover (https://vocalremover.org/) created by Melnik Dmitry. This site can do so many things that you need for your music classroom, and it can do it for free on various devices because it is web-based. You are not required to login to use this, but if you become a patron, you will be able to use the website often. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech.
Read more to find out how to remove vocals, split accompaniment tracks into separate, instrumental tracks, and so much more!
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Countdown to 2023-10 Tech Tools or Tips for Elementary and Middle School General Music: #10 Two Important YouTube Tips
For the past few years, I have counted down to the new year with a top ten list. I begin on 12/23 and end on 1/1. The list is comprised of 10 tech tools or tips for elementary and middle school general music. This top ten list will have a tech tool or tip featured each day in a short video and blog post. When we reach number one, I will follow it with a video of all ten tools and tips. Therefore, you can follow me daily, or come back on New Year’s Day and catch all ten at once.
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