One section of the website is for listening to different orchestral pieces. The site gives a description of the piece, including what instruments are in the piece:
Another section of the site is about composition, and contains different lessons related to theory and composition that students can use to get started! The lessons themselves are also interactive, which keeps them engaging and fun. I like how it breaks down all of the topics for students, and allows them to track their progress as they go through the lessons.
Perhaps the neatest part of the website is where students can learn what it's like to perform on different instruments! This would be wonderful to use when students are young and trying out different instruments, because they can explore so many instruments through this website much more efficiently and interactively than they would be able to in the classroom. If students were engaged with this beforehand, then they could already have an idea of which instruments they were really interested in to try out in class!
The website also includes music games: one that changes picture according to feeling, where users click which "feeling phrase" the part of the song is connecting with them and the screen changes according to the phrase chosen, and one that has a movable rabbit that collects stars in a pattern according to the pitches in the piece that's playing. They are both very fun, and introduce students to important musical concepts, like themes, tones, pitches, and lines:
I would love to give students interested in exploring instruments time to use this website in class, if we have access to computers. Alternatively, I think this would be a great example of a way that a flipped lesson would work well: students would be able to explore and play around on this website at home, and then come in ready to play on an instrument in class. The benefit of this site is that all kids need is access to a computer to use it!
No comments:
Post a Comment