Music Sites - part of Good Sites for Kids!

Look for to see what's been added lately!

Classic Maurice Sendak tale sung aloud by and arranged by Carole King. With backup singers, yet! Always leaves you with a happy feeling. Thanks, Mr. Sendak. Going in Literacy > Read Alouds and in Music.

Classics for Kids has four interactive music games, info on classical music and composers, a musical dictionary, and radio broadcasts. A good site for learning about classical music.

Creating Music is a children's online creative music environment for children of all ages. It's a place for kids to compose music, play with musical performance, music games and music puzzles. Come discover fun and easy ways to make music!

Cyberkidz [includes a music section, which is why it's also in Music] "is an educational platform for boys and girls in the age of 4 till 12 years. By playing the educational games, children will practise subjects they learn in elementary school (PK-5)." The games are sorted by year from age 4 to 12, using a sliding bar. There are dozens of fun, playable games in every curriculum category, with new ones being added. This is an excellent site from the Netherlands.

FreePianoLessons4Kids “Free, kid-friendly video piano lessons for beginners with expert piano teacher Joseph Hoffman. In addition to learning to play songs on the piano, you will also learn to read notes and rhythms, transposing, music theory, and solfege. A complete musical training program.” If you can't find a teacher, or can't afford lessons, this is a pretty decent alternative. Definitely worth looking at!

LenMus (link goes to download site at SourceForge) "A free program to learn music... LenMus is a free program for learning music. LenMus program allows you to focus on specific skills and exercises, on both theory and aural training. The different activities can be customized to meet your needs, and it provides interactive feedback until mastery of each concept is achieved. It also includes an score editor." Small download - 5.8 Mb.

Mike & Monica's Music Room: Songs That Teach Music OK, so we here at GSFK do not usually plug somebody's iTunes music, but this is kinda different! This is from two talented elementary music teachers in New Canaan, CT. We'll let the artists explain: "The songs are from our children's show Mike and Monica's Music Room which will be released as a web series this fall. The songs, which are in a variety of styles, teach musical concepts such as harmony, rhythm, and expression in music." In other words, a good teaching resource! Thanks, Monica Fitzgerald, for the email!

Music from Starfall is part of Starfall's literacy site. This section covers some of the main composers, with biographies, and plays some of their music as well.

Music Sites For Kids - A HUGE music resource site. Cross-curriculum links, too. Go there and take a look!

Musicards Online Music Theory Flash Cards. "Welcome to Musicards, an ever-growing collection of highly-customizable online music theory flash cards. These music flashcards can be used by beginning music students who are becoming acquainted with key music rudiments, all the way up to intermediate and advanced students who wish to fill in gaps here and there or increase fluency with existing knowledge." Excellent!

Musopen! Free classical sheetmusic and mp3 downloads! All you want! "Musopen is an online music library of copyright free (public domain) music. We want to give the world access to music without the legal hassles so common today. There is a great deal of music that has expired copyrights, but almost no recordings of this music is in the public domain. We aim to record or obtain recordings that have no copyrights so that our visitors may listen, re-use, or in any way enjoy music. Put simply, our mission is to set music free. Musopen is a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity, operating out of Palo Alto, California." A Kim Komando Cool Site, kudos to the Komando crew. Great stuff in here!

Mutopia "The Mutopia Project: Free sheet music for everyone! Classical and Contemporary Music: The Mutopia Project offers sheet music editions of classical music for free download. These are based on editions in the public domain, and include works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Handel, Mozart, and many others. A team of volunteers are involved in typesetting the music by computer using the LilyPond software. Why not join them?! See the page on how to contribute for more information. We also host a growing number of modern editions, arrangements and new music. The respective editors, arrangers and composers have chosen to make these works freely available. All of the music on Mutopia may be freely downloaded, printed, copied, distributed, modified, performed and recorded. Music is supplied as PDF files for easy printing on either A4 or US Letter paper."

MyMusicTheory.com "I offer free online music theory lessons, which follow the ABRSM syllabus. I also have a blog which covers other general music related subjects like the history of music, or instruments of the orchestra, aimed at the beginner/intermediate level. Please come and take a look!" So we did, and are happy to report this is a fine, serious music ed site. It'll be a fine addition to our Music and Teachers & Parents sections. Thank you, Victoria Williams, for emailing us re: your excellent site!
"What you can do at MyMusicTheory.com...

Learn about Music Theory...
•free online music theory lessons and exercises, following the ABRSM syllabus for grades one, two, three, four, five and six.
•printable pdf versions of all lessons and exercises, (for a small fee)
•marking service by email
•music theory worksheets and tests in pdf format, ready for printing (for a small fee)
•Composition Masterclass for Grade Five students

Resources for Music Teachers...
•printable pdf versions of all lessons and exercises, (for a small fee)
•music theory worksheets and tests in pdf format, ready for printing (for a small fee)
•free supplementary teaching materials
•a handy ABRSM syllabus reference guide by grade/topic

For Everybody...
•forum for chat and questions about music theory (separate registration required - free)
•blog (news, reviews, exam tips, articles on music and instruments and more)
•free registration - for updates, news and special offers
•paid membership for instant access to all downloadable music theory materials

negrospirituals.com is the site for African-American hymns and how the meanings changed over time. Special emphasis is given to code words in lyrics, that really meant escape to the North or referred to the Underground Railroad. There's an example of lyric change during the Civil Rights struggle: "Marching ‘round Selma" to the melody of “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho". There are sections about history, composers, and lyrics of over 200 traditional spirituals. This site is a treasure.

Roxie's ABC Fish is a computer version of a venerable children's card game. Practice upper and lower case letters, numbers, and a surprise music composition program at the end! Thanks to its publisher, Latticework Software (thanks guys), Roxie is now freeware!

New York Philharmonic Kid Zone! Oh, yeah, we are always looking for more good music sites! This one is all you would expect from this legendary orchestra. A Game Room of musical games. An Instrument Room area that explains every instrument and lets kids hear it play. An Instrument Lab that lets kids create their own instruments, and a Composition Workshop that lets kids compose! (That one needs Shockwave.) Kids can also learn about famous composers, famous NYP conductors and soloists, and NYP musicians.

The Music Room This Dallas Symphony Orchestra site is laid out like a music classroom. Every object is a link that can be clicked. You'll probably want to try them all. Includes a composer trivia baseball game that's a hoot! Also has a Teacher's Lounge with even more things to click.

PBS Kids Music The music section of the huge PBS Kids site. Links to songs from various PBS Kids shows.

A read-aloud video sung and arranged by Carole King. Priceless. American adults may remember seeing this on TV as children. In honor of Maurice Sendak. Going in Literacy > Read Alouds and in Music.

Songs for Teaching "The Definitive Source for Educational Music" Based on what we've seen of this site it is THE SOURCE for classroom music! " Creative teachers can use music to teach content across the curriculum -- to students of all ages. A host of educational experts brings you tested ideas for using the magic of music in your lesson plans. This site contains thousands of pages for you to peruse -- many with lyrics, sound clips, and teaching suggestions. The top educational pros offer practical suggestions based on the latest in brain-based learning. Innovative teachers share their classroom pointers and extension activities using children's music. Songs from a wide variety of popular artists are presented by academic subject. See the categories below to find educational music and children's songs that complement your lesson plans."

SFS Kids is the kid friendly music ed site of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra! Various parts of the site explain principles of music so kids can understand. Interactive activities so kids can experiment, too. Colorful, well done site.

Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu! A round in Middle English from the 1200s, with the music and voices, for your listening pleasure. Below is the first line:

"Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu! Groweþ sed and blomeþ med And springþ þe wde nu, Sing cuccu!"

(Summer is a-coming in, Loudly sing, Cuckoo! Seed grows and meadow blooms And the wood springs anew, Sing, Cuckoo!)

Virtual Shamisen The unique three string "banjo" of Okinawa! "What does a shamisen sound like? Click to this page for a rare opportunity to hear the sound of the shamisen using a "virtual shamisen". Let's play Itchu Bushi shamisen! Click on the strings to play." For old time's sake.

Zebra Keys "Free Online Piano Lessons Our site provides over 50 free piano lessons for various levels of difficulty. Each piano lesson is accompanied by visual flash animations that allow learners to view and hear songs as well as play along with the animations on their own piano keyboard. Learning piano with Zebra Keys is fun and easy!" Those among you who learnt piano the old fashioned way may be a wee bit skeptical. Worth your checking out or it wouldn't be here. For ages 13 and up.

We need more music sites! If you know of some good ones, let us know! With NCLB chasing Music out of US public schools, this is more important than ever.