Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra - Part One: Introduction and the Four Families

Benjamin Britten's "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" is one of the staples for introducing the instruments and instrument families of the orchestra to students. There are a lot of interactive websites out there that attempt to teach the instruments to students, but why mess with a good thing? Carnegie Hall didn't mess with a good thing; they improved it!

Carnegie Hall's "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" takes your students on an online safari to find all of the instruments in the orchestra in the wild. It is up to you, Violet, and her Uncle Ollie to find them, collect them, and guide them to the orchestra stage.

Through the game you follow the form of the actual music.  You start by listening to the full orchestra play the theme, followed by the four families playing the theme, followed by the individual instrument variations, and ending with the fugue.

This online adventure can take a long time to complete, so I am breaking it up into five parts:

1. The introduction and four families

2. The woodwind family

3. The strings family

4. The brass family

5. The percussion family and finale

IWB Music Going Social

IWB Music is now on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter, and is ready to share great interactive music resources!  You can add +IWB Music to your circles by pressing the link here:

While you're on the page, you can also press the +1 button if you like something I have posted, or the "Share this page" button if you'd like to share it with your circles.  Those buttons will look like this:

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IWB Music is all about sharing great ideas, so have fun making and sharing music!

Les Paul Google Doodle

Mashable.com recently posted their list of the 30 Best Google Doodles of 2011, and number 11 on the list (any Spinal Tap fans out there?) was the Google tribute to Les Paul's 96th birthday.  What a great way to make music history fun!


Your students can simply strum the strings to create music.  You can also discuss the major scale, intervals, and chords by playing the notes on a computer keyboard.  Each row will play the same scale, and you can press up to four notes at a time to create chords.


Finally, have fun recording and sharing your compositions!  Simply press the record button, play a song, and press the record button again to end your song.  You will be given a link with your composition to share with other students, teachers, parents, or friends.  Click here for an example of a little tune I made to sound a bit like The Who's "Baba O'Riley."  Try sharing your composition links in the comment section below!


Rock on, and happy new year!

The Nutcracker

I know, I know, I know... Winter break is just around the corner, and it is way too late to get started on a unit about the holiday classic, The Nutcracker.  I am writing this blog to simply share some of the great interactive Nutcracker resources that are out there either because I used them, or because I'm like you and just found them, too!

Introducing the Staff

Every Good Boy Does Fine
Memorize it.  Got it?  Good... here's your quiz.


BORING!!!  Leaning the names of the lines and spaces on the staff doesn't have to put your students to sleep.  There are tons of songs, video clips, games, and tools that can make it easy to remember those pesky seven letters.  Here are three of my favorites:

Creating Music - Block Game

image via www.creatingmusic.com

Click here to go to The Block Game

This game comes from the Morton Subotnick website Creating Music.  Use blocks to create simple melodies.  Memorize your composition, and then try to find it again by listening to it.  I used this game with my students when we were working on songs with Do, Re, and Mi.  Here is a description of each difficulty and level setting:

Easy - Level 1 - 3 beats with 3 pitches (Do, Re, Mi)

Easy - Level 2 - 3 beats with 6 pitches (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La)

Easy - Level 3 - 3 beats with 8 pitches (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do - full Major scale)

Medium - Level 1 - 5 beats with 3 pitches (Do, Re, Mi)

Medium - Level 2 - 5 beats with 6 pitches (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La)

Medium - Level 3 - 5 beats with 8 pitches (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do - full Major scale)

Hard - Level 1 - 8 beats with 3 pitches (Do, Re, Mi)

Hard - Level 2 - 8 beats with 6 pitches (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La)

Hard - Level 3 - 8 beats with 8 pitches (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do - full Major scale)

Sample Lesson Plan by Will Braune:

Hands Symphony

image via www.handsonlycpr.org

Click here to go to Hands Symphony

I just got re-certified in CPR yesterday, and it made me think of the great website.  The American Heart Association reminds us that hands can do incredible things!  Use loops of different hand sounds to create rhythmic patterns.  You can create patterns in hip-hop, dance, and Latin styles.  Have your students mimic the sounds together to create your own Hands Symphony in the classroom!

UPDATE: Unfortunately the American Heart Association has taken down the "Hands Symphony" website and has replaced it with a different kind of music-related site.  Hands Only CPR teaches you how you can help save a life.  The song they recommend you use to find the steady beat for chest compressions is "Staying Alive" by the Bee-Gee's.  It's not as cool of a site (for a music educator,) but it's still pretty groovy!