Unite for Literacy
Unite for Literacy: Create and Play: Musical Families
Learn about the different groups of musical instruments. Book includes audio narration in 6 additional languages with text in English.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain
When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What's going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks...
Other
Wesleyan University: Learning Objects Studio: Virtual Instrument Museum
Access the world musical instrument collection of the Music Department of Wesleyan University through this virtual museum interface. Search for and learn about instruments by type, geographic location, instrument material, and genre....
Other
Discover Eso: Musical Instruments: Woodwinds
Website with information on four woodwind instruments: clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and flute. Students learn about the history and qualities of the instruments and can listen to audio excerpts of the instruments being played.
PBS
Pbs Kids: Design Squad: Build: Build an Instrument
This challenge is to build a four-stringed musical instrument that can play a tune on different pitches.
New York Times
New York Times: Crossword Puzzle: Musical Instruments
An interactive and printable crossword puzzle developed by the New York Times Learning Network. The theme of this puzzle is Musical Instruments.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science of Music: Accidental Scientist
Learning about the science of music is what this site is all about. With clever activities that lead to writing, mixing, and experimenting with music; with videos that explain tuning, stepping (or rhythmic movement), instrument building,...
PBS
Pbs Kids: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: Music Shop
During this interactive game based on the PBS Kids series Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Daniel Tiger and his friends practice playing instruments in a music shop. [Requires Flash Player].
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Kids: Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Students will enjoy this interactive website. There are many musical topics to explore while having fun. Learning how to make your own instrument, playing games and listening to music are just a few of the things you can do here.
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Kids: Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Students will enjoy this interactive website. There are many musical topics to explore while having fun. Learning how to make your own instrument, playing games and listening to music are just a few of the things you can do here.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Music for Kids: Listen, Play, Learn
On this site, students learn about brass, string, and woodwind musical instruments. Listen to tunes, discover artists, and find out how music and notes work.
Other
The Joy of Cello Playing
A great site with teaching examples, excerpts from his book and cartoons. Site promotes and endorses book, "The Joy of Cello Playing".
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Do Re Mi With Straws
Check out this fun science fair project about the physics of musical sound production. Here you will make musical instruments with drinking straws, one for each note on a one-octave major scale. You will figure out the right lengths for...
Music Theory
Music theory.net: Keyboard Trainer
A fantastic resource for music teachers and students learning to play the piano. This online quiz can be customized to test students on specific keys. Students can click "Toggle helpers," to check answers along the way.
Read Works
Read Works: Instrumental Talent
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about a young lady named Ruby Jane Smith who can play eleven different musical instruments. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Gettysburg National Military Park: Camp Life
Colorful exhibit showcases the actual artifacts used by the Civil War soldiers at Gettysburg. View their camp materials, clothing, equipment, and personal items. Also, like soldiers of all wars, long hours passed when they were not...
Other
Pay the Piper
A resource for children who want to play a musical instrument, and their parents, this website includes answers to such questions as "Where do you get lessons?" and "How much will a new instrument cost?" Also included are informational...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Music as a Language
Can learning to make music be as unstructured as learning to speak as a small child? Bassist Victor Wooton makes that argument in this TED Ed talk. Free registration is required to receive full access to the the complete lessons.
Curated OER
Web Gallery of Art: Elegant Company With Figures Playing Musical Instruments
An image of "Elegant Company with Figures Playing Musical Instruments", created by Franz Christoph Janneck, c. 1750 (Oil on copper, 40 x 58 cm).
South Carolina Educational Television
South Carolina Etv Commission: Artopia: Music
Enter a world of music in Artopia. Here, you can become a music critic, meet a musician, play a game, and even compose your own remix music in the virtual music studio.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Finding the Common Beat
The CyberSquad figures out how to represent the patterns of music played by four instruments in this Cyberchase video segment.
Illustrative Mathematics
Illustrative Mathematics: 8.sp.4 Music and Sports
This task looks at a possible relationship between playing a sport and playing a musical instrument. Students collect data from classmates, summarize the data into a two-way table, make some observations, and construct a bar graph of the...
E-learning for Kids
E Learning for Kids: Math: Music, Dance Performance: Chance & Data
Nadir and his family play in a band. Can you help him get all the instruments together? In these activities, students will write data using symbols, use one object to represent one item, create a column graph, and determine whether...
Other
University of Vermont: The String Pedagogy Notebook
A great resource for teachers, students, and performers of string instruments. Very indepth "how-to" descriptions, care information, procedural movies, and more.