Free Resources for Music Teachers

Free Resources for Music Teachers

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All Available Free Products

All of the links below link to FREE downloadable products (mostly through Teachers Pay Teachers) that you can use in your music classrooms!

Interactive Music Staff & Music Note Display

Interactive Music Staff & Music Note Display

This year my husband and I created interactive staff displays for both our band room and our choir room.  Here’s our “how to” blog post for creating this great simple classroom tool.

Interactive Staff Display Step 1

Step One: Print out or make a staff and note heads.

You can buy my printable staff & notes HERE. This includes treble & bass clef and it comes with appropriately sized notes for fitting properly upon the staff. There are 4 different types of note heads included: Boomwhacker colors with letters, Boomwhacker colors without letters, B&W with letters, & B&W without letters.

Print out however pages of staff you want (I usually use three). Trim the edges of the page so the black lines will line up, then tape them together. Cut out the note heads. I would recommend laminating everything to make it all more durable.

OR you can absolutely make a staff and notes out of construction paper or whatever else!

Interactive Staff Display Step 2 – Make it interactive.

Idea One: Magnets
If your whiteboard or chalk board is magnetic – OR if you have a large cookie sheet or ANYTHING magnetic in your classroom! I purchase small round magnets from the local department/craft store or here’s an Amazon Affiliate Link to a small bunch.

I use hot glue to attach the magnets to the note heads (you HAVE to laminate them if your using this method!). Tape the staff up against the magnetic surface and you’ll be able to place the note heads anywhere on the staff. This will allow you and/or students to make brief melodies, do some note name quizzes, work on proper note placement – etc!

Idea Two: Hook & Loop
Apply hook & loop dots to the note heads & the position you want them placed on the staff.  You can purchase these at almost any department store OR – I have had great luck with this budget off brand (Amazon Affiliate Link) – You get a TON of dots for SUPER cheap, and they work exactly like the brand name ones! I use the clear dots ON the staff itself so they are less visible when not labeled, and the white/softer dots on the back of the note heads (so you won’t see the white).

This method will give you less flexibility with the overall display as notes will only be able to be positioned in the places you put the hook & loop on the staff (not anywhere like with the magnets). Maybe that is your goal though, to help students understand where the notes are properly placed! If so – this method should work well for you!

How can I use this in my music classroom?

This can be used for SO MANY things in the music classroom.  One of my favorite activities is to do a bell ringer as students are entering the room. I randomly pass out notes to students and before they sit down they have to place their notes in the correct position on the staff. Super simple! Brief composition activities – short note name quizzes – word of the day activities – really anything you can think of!

Hopefully you can find some uses for this in your classroom! Thanks for reading!

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Using Meet Edgar to Simplify Social Media

Using Meet Edgar to Simplify Social Media meetedgar

Through the past years as I’ve gone deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of marketing my Teachers Pay Teachers products and everything else I’ve tried SEVERAL social media management tools. I’ve tried Tailwind to manage my Pinterest, I’ve used Buffer to try to push out to more platforms.

I’ve never truly seen success and growth from a social media manager until I started using Meet Edgar.

What is Meet Edgar?

Meet Edgar is a content silo. You fill up your “Categories” with content that is ready to post to your social medias. Then you add time slots to your schedule for WHEN you want to post from those categories.

For example, I have a category for “Motivation Monday” and I’ve filled it with 15-20 inspirational posts. I tell Edgar to post from that category to all my socials on Monday at 8:30 AM.

Edgar will always post fresh content first unless specified. And if your categories ever run out of fresh content? Edgar automatically recycles previously posted content. Now you’ll want to be sure you’re posting evergreen content (non-seasonal), and be sure to keep him well fed with plenty to post so you don’t look spammy. It does take a good time investment to set-up. BUT – once Edgar is RUNNING you can easily add new content in that will also be recycled in the future if you ever run out of content. This keeps your social medias posting regularly without having to post to each individual one every single time. PLUS – you are creating a HUGE database of social media posts as you add more and more content.

You can also schedule and post seasonal or one-time content using Meet Edgar. The steps to do so are very similar to creating content for your categories but instead of adding it to a category you just select “Use Once” OR you can schedule a post to expire after a certain time.

Is Meet Edgar right for me?

There are actually 2 versions available. The light version is cheaper and is referred to as Eddie, the full version has much less limitations and is referred to as Edgar. The best thing is – they give you a 7 day trial for free to try it out! I dropped everything on my to-do list when I discovered Edgar and got it set-up and running immediately. It has been very worth it.

Try it out with the link below (and at the top of the page).

meetedgar

Try it out NOW! I am a Meet Edgar affiliate, and will receive a small bonus if you sign-up using the links in this post.

Music Note Manipulatives & Music Note Activities for Early Music Learners

Music Note Manipulatives & Music Note Activities for Early Music Learners

Music Note Manipulatives

Music Note Manipulatives for Early Music Learners

Here’s a really quick way to make some easy, durable, and cheap music note manipulatives. I used craft foam sheets – you can find multicolor packs in most craft aisles or here’s an Amazon Affiliate Link to some to order!

Craft Foam

Music Note Manipulatives for Early Music Learners

I cut out note shapes out of the foam using the colors as close to Boomwhackers as I could. I only used note heads as my goal for this activity was a VERY basic intro to composition and learning to read lines from left to right. There was no need for stems or flags as I’m not focusing on rhythm concepts at this time. We will do our best to play our songs with a steady beat, however! The notes don’t need to be perfect, and as you can see, mine are a bit rough – but they do the job!

Freebie Music Note Manipulative Product on TpT

Another option – I made a quick Freebie of manipulatives you can print and cut out. Music Note Manipulatives Freebie Link

Personally I prefer the foam cut outs because they are more durable, unless you laminate the printed version.

But if you do download this free product, do me a favor and leave us a review on our store if you found it useful!!

Music Note Activities for Early Learners

Placing music note manipulatives.

I use these with my own 3 year old toddlers to do some very basic composition and note reading activities. We take turns picking what color comes next, typically they want to just put them in rainbow order 🤣. Again, my goal for this activity was a VERY basic intro to composition and learning to read lines from left to right. I have varying degrees of success with my three year olds, but I don’t expect a ton from them at this age. This activity can work well for pre-school, kindergarten, and even the first few years of grade school!

Write out a tune with the color notes.

Another activity I do with my toddlers is to “write out” a melody they know. So I’ll place the notes in the order of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, then play it for them and work on melody recognition.

Other good songs to do: Row Row Row Your Boat, Mary Had a Little Lamb, This Old Man, etc.!

Thanks for reading!

I hope this can be useful in some way to you in your classroom or with your own children! I’m hoping to do some more activities like these in the coming months so if you liked this be sure to follow us on our socials (top and bottom of page) to stay updated. Thanks!!

Song Writing Part 2: Students write their own song!

Song Writing Part 2: Students write their own song!

Song Writing Part 1 (previous post)

After working through Part 1 of this activity (view that blog post here), I like to have the students try to write their own song.

Song Writing Part 2 (this post)

I give each student their own copy of this file (FREE) – Song Writing Worksheet for Students (Editable Google Drive & DOCX Versions)

As a heads up, I like to do this with my middle school music students. I tell them that this is more about the PROCESS, than about the product. They will be self-conscious about their song, in particular their lyrics. I have had songs all about cheese, flying, their favorite movie, etc. It really doesn’t matter what they write about it so try to not let them stall on lyrics.

Also, there are many ways to write a song! You may think this process is backwards and crazy – that’s fine! This is a method I used because I was more focused on students learning how chord progressions are unpacked and used within accompaniments to songs they hear every day.

I do this activity in six steps and provide students with a guide. I’ve made that guide available FREE on our Teachers Pay Teachers store and it is editable so you can adjust this activity to fit your students needs!

Step 1: Lyrics. Write a brief chorus, and 2 verses. Don’t let the students hang up on this for too long.

Step 2: Generate a chord progression. Don’t worry, I use an auto generator for students to experiment with. Very little theory required! I direct students to autochords.com. They can experiment with the feel and key and select something to use. Just have them write their selections down in the worksheet boxes to use later.

Step 3: Enter the chord progressions into Noteflight (or another notation software). This is the step that it is probably crucial to have had students do the steps in Part 1 of these blog posts. I have them put the bass line in first, and then build the chords after. How I teach my students to complete this step is laid out from Part 1 of these blog posts.

Step 4: Write your melody. This is another step that students can get hung up on. I give them just a few pointers (included in the worksheet) and try not to let them worry too much. Again this is about PROCESS rather than product!

Step 5: Add drums. This is always one of my students’ favorite steps. This step can be optional if you want it to be, but I’ve found some students really enjoy adding crazy ridiculous drum patterns to their song. Anything that gets them excited, right?

Step 6: Create an ending. This is another simple step that can be optional. I usually only focus on this for the students that have been keeping pace and showing lots of effort. This can be an extra step to give their song some more finesse to their song.

Have the students share their songs with the class. This can be daunting for some – try not to let them stress about it. I know I sound like a broken record, but I will tell them process, not product!

I hope this activity can work in your classroom in some way – it is pretty open ended and really leaves a lot in your hands. I thought it could be useful for some to have a road map to help students create their own song.

Chance Music in the General Music Classroom with FREE Downloads

Chance Music in the General Music Classroom with FREE Downloads

General music can definitely be challenging. Balancing between teaching music literacy while “keeping it fun” and hoping to retain students for future ensembles is a CONSTANT battle it feels like. It seems like we always want something that will grab their attention and be FUN, but still teach them something valuable and leave them wanting more. One of my go to activities to accomplish this is Chance Music.

With chance music activities in the general music classroom I can:

Let students get as creative as they want.
Let students create something as complex as they want.
Let students invest as much effort as they want.
Let students explore new instruments and sounds.
Let students create their own system of notation.


All of these things while having an easy couple of days of teaching. (I personally like to do this at the beginning of a new school year!)

Here’s what I do and what grade levels I’d recommend for each step.

Chance Music in the General Music Classroom Activity Steps

Steps 1 & 2

Step 1: (K-8) Complete a class or group chance composition. I like to use Boomwhackers and dice. I have students assign a Boomwhacker to each color of the die, roll the die, then write the results. I keep it basic and slim – no rhythms, just the pitch of the Boomwhackers. Our Boomwhacker Chance Music Worksheets are available for FREE on TpT! I have the students perform the song(s) they wrote.

Step 2: (2-8) Using these songs we just wrote – I ask the students, “What makes these different from typical songs?” Ideally I’m looking for someone to mention things like just pitch, no specific rhythm, no lyrics, single sounds, etc. From here I will ask the students how we can add something like rhythm to this song. There are a LOT of ways you can go here – this is just what I do when my class doesn’t take me down a different creative path. We’ll work together as a class to use the same method of randomization (rolling dice) to assign a rhythm to each pitch. Check out our rhythm dice we handmake! Or with standard dice – Do something as basic as a 1 is a quarter note, 2 is a half note, etc. Students roll through their songs again, this time notating rhythms WITH the pitches. Perform the song(s) again!

Step 3

Step 3: (4-8) Here is where we can get into some REAL creativity. I like to show this video. Then, I have the students work through some simple questions on a worksheet (FREE download available HERE). It’s healthy to have a class discussion and work through answers to the questions on the worksheet (listed below with my answer goals).

Chance Music Starting Questions

What is chance music? Music that has been created by leaving some or all aspects completely up to chance or methods of randomization.
What aspects of music can be left to chance? Pitch, Rhythm, Dynamics, Timbre, Instrumentation, Meter, Phrasing – etc. (basically ANYTHING)
What are some methods of randomization? Rolling dice, drawing a card, flipping a coin, wheel spinner, drawing straws, etc. (Amazon affiliate links)
What is a notation system? A method of keeping track of information so another individual can understand it. (more on this later!)

Then I ask the students to:
“Create a chance composition using any notation system you desire.  Write down whatever is required to correctly perform your song on separate paper(s).  Be specific!  Make sure someone else could look at your song, understand it, and perform it without being able to ask you questions.”

Before you turn them loose – have a serious talk about your expectations of a notation system. I put zero limitations on this (which can present challenges) – it can be as simple or complex as they want. I expect to see things that are literally just letters on a piece of paper, maybe a line of different colors, sometimes I have students use full music notation and even put their composition in with notation software – it really can be whatever they want. BUT – I have to be able to understand how to perform their song JUST by looking at their notation system. If that means there is a key of to the side where a red block means this and a blue block means this – that’s fine! It HAS to be on the paper. Not worrying about a specific notation system frees those students who don’t have a good grasp of music notation to be creative. Okay, ready?

Prepare for creative chaos!

I open up the room and tell the students to get creative.
I provide dice, cards, and coins for students to use (or let them create something on their own for randomization).
I let the students use the classroom instruments, their OWN band instruments (if they are in band), and whatever else they can think of to create music (within reason of course.)
Give the students time to work as long as you feel they are being productive (I usually give them about 2 periods of 45 minutes to compose their song.)
Then have them perform the piece for the class – using friends if need be to cover other parts!

What about the “I’m done!” crowd?
-Wow your song is four notes and that’s it? Okay, how about we roll a die for each of those notes and see how many times you are going to play that note. Then flip a coin to see if it repeats or not!

This activity is less about the final product and more about the complete process underwent.

I absolutely stress this statement to my students. Sometimes the songs sound cool and fun – sometimes they sound like nonsense. It’s about what you put into it. There are no wrong answers with this activity!

PROCESS NOT PRODUCT!!

My Favorite Student Creations:

I have had an entire composition that could be played on a single chair using a pencil – and it was actually really cool! They flipped a coin numerous times to see if they were supposed to hit the seat or the back (which each had different sounds). Then I pushed them to take it a step further and see if they could find a method to add dynamics by chance.

My personal favorite was a student who created a 12 by 12 grid of color blocks. Each color meant a different instrument was supposed to play an unspecified pitch. He had 3 friends perform with him. But what I LOVED about this was before his performance he asked me to pick a number between 1 and 4. Whichever number I said was the direction he rotated his grid and that was the direction of how the song was played through. So he basically was able to write 4 songs in one simply by rotating his piece of paper.

I had a student who randomized EVERY possible aspect he could and put his composition into Noteflight (music notation software). He rolled a die to see how many measures, flipped a coin to see what time signature, drew cards to see what pitch, flip a coin for what dynamic, rolled a die to determine what rhythm, etc. The end result sounded ….. pretty outlandish – but I absolutely LOVED the creativity and initiative he showed in his work.

Give it a try!

Well … that was a rather lengthy post! I hope this at the very least gave you some ideas to help conquer the beast that is general music class! This definitely seems like a daunting process, and it is! But it can be such a fun and rewarding activity to do with students I really recommend giving something like this a try!

Here are some other great resources for general music classrooms!



Self-Grading Listening Activities with Google Forms

Self-Grading Listening Activities with Google Forms
Free Digital Listening Journal Image

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” ― Victor Hugo

Listening Selections for Listening Journals

I like to have my 6-12 general music, band, and choir students do an online listening journal activity about every other week. We use a standard format to keep it straight forward and use a wide variety of music to have the students listen to. We complete these via Google Forms which is an amazing resource for just about any classroom. The 2nd best part of these listening journals? They are SELF-GRADING! (keep reading for the #1 best part of these listening journals – hint: THEY ARE FREE!) I insert a YouTube video into the beginning of the form – HOW TO video! Then, each activity has 11 questions.

Questions Asked:

  • What instruments do you hear?
  • Are there voices in the music?
  • What other sounds are in the music (if any)?
  • What type of group is performing?
  • What dynamics are used in this song?
  • Are the dynamics consistent from the beginning to the end of the song or do they change throughout the song?
  • What tempos are used in this song?
  • Is the tempo consistent from the beginning to the end of the song or does it change throughout the song?
  • When do you think this music was composed?
  • In your opinion, what emotion does this piece of music evoke?
  • Write one paragraph about this piece of music. Examples of what to write about: Did you like it? Why or why not? What did it remind you of? If it was telling a story, what would it be? Would you listen to it again? ETC.

Now, obviously some of these questions are opinion and/or subjective – therefore they are not “self-grading”. But, I just made the questions that have clear right and wrong answers worth points. The other questions were required, but were there more to get the students thinking about the music rather than worrying about the right answer. I would go back through and briefly read their responses to the other questions, just to ensure they weren’t simply going through the motions – overall I saw a lot of engagement from students while doing these! These even led to some really interesting class discussions!

The #1 best part? We’re giving our listening journals away for FREE!

The best part of this blog post? I’m sharing 16 of my listening journals I created FOR FREE! All you have to do is sign-up for my newsletter and you’ll automatically receive a document that will allow you to make a copy of all of these into your Google Drive and you can immediately assign them to your students (via Google Classroom, emailing, or sending them the link). PLUS I’m including a blank one for you to create your own! These questions work with ANY piece of music so you can really use whatever you want the students to listen to! You’ll have to add the correct answers and adjust the answer key to make sure it grades it for you – HOW TO video, but it’s actually very simple! For a more in depth description and general overview of how to use Google Forms (and integrate with Google Classroom) check out this YouTube video.

Music Selected

When I said variety, I MEANT it! Jazz, hip-hop, concert band, choral, pop, acoustic, orchestral, video game soundtracks, country, and more… The list really just spawned from things I heard that I liked, things we were maybe looking into for band or choir. There is zero rhyme or reason to this list!

How do I get all this great free stuff again?

Sign-Up for our newsletter below and you’ll automatically receive an email containing a PDF that will link you to make a copy of all of the listening journals for the songs listed above. This is a great FREE product that we do not make available in any other way! We will also send updates on new products, future freebies, and info about upcoming sales. You won’t get a crazy amount of emails from us (maybe 2 a month) and we won’t give your email to anyone. PROMISE!

How to use Presentation and Guided Note Units for Distance Learning in Music Class

How to use Presentation and Guided Note Units for Distance Learning in Music Class

Hey everyone! We’ve got some ideas & how to’s for using our presentation/guided note units for distance learning.

The products we’re using are our Music Cultures: World Music Unit, Composers of Music History Unit, and Instrument Families Unit. But there are good ideas for distance learning in general throughout the post – including several helpful How To videos (linked throughout and below)!

We’re laying this out based on 5 different situations, so read through to see which one most closely resembles your own. Please also know that we have the most experience with Google Classroom and are working from our experience with it. Other LMSs (Learning Management Systems) are fully capable of making things happen but it will take adjusting. We cannot possibly cover every detail required to make things work for every LMS and situation. You can certainly Contact Us. We are willing to help out in anyway we can, but please be understanding if we cannot answer all of your questions!

Music Distance Learning through Synchronous Instruction (live teaching through video conferencing)

Video Conference Class & Student access through LMS
If you are teaching live via video – almost all of the most common services offer a share screen option. You can simply have your screen share be the presentation and take the students through it almost like a normal classroom! Send students the Digital Guided Notes through your LMS. Make sure you get each student their OWN copy of the guided notes (you don’t want everyone trying to make edits to your original document!) – In Google Classroom be sure to change the settings to “Make a copy for each student” when you create the assignment VIDEO GUIDE. For other systems you can send them the link to the Digital Guided Notes but change it to make what’s called a “Force Copy Link” VIDEO GUIDE.

Video Conference Class & No LMS In Place
If you are teaching live via video but do not have an LMS in place, do everything from the paragraph above as far as video conference screen sharing, BUT – To get the guided notes to the students you can either send home a printed packet for them to write on, or email the students a copy of the Digital Guided Notes. There are a few ways you can email these to students:
As a PowerPoint File – Anytime you download Google Slides out of Google Drive they convert to a PowerPoint file. VIDEO GUIDE
Force Copy Google Slides – Create a force copy link for students to each get their OWN copy of the Guided Notes Google Slides files in their Google Drives. Do this by creating a force copy link and sending it to students. VIDEO GUIDE
After the students complete the notes, they can email them back to you.

Music Distance Learning through Asynchronous Instruction (teacher assigns, student works at own pace)

Fully Digital – Full student access through LMS?
Send the Presentation & Digital Guided Notes to students through your LMS as an assignment. You need each student to get their OWN copy of the guided notes. In Google Classroom be sure to change the settings to “Make a copy for each student” VIDEO GUIDE. For other systems you can send them the link to the Digital Guided Notes but change it to make what’s called a “Force Copy Link” VIDEO GUIDE. You will also need to send the students a link to the presentation so they can view it on their own. VIDEO GUIDE It is important to change the sharing settings so they cannot just copy and paste the presentation into the Digital Guided Notes– this is covered in the previous VIDEO GUIDE.
In this situation students will have the presentation AND the digital guided notes open at the same time. They can go back and forth between them or have one window open on one side of the screen and the other window open on the other side of the screen (I even had a student use her phone as a second screen). They will not get all of your extra tidbits you can add during a live presentation, but they can still read the information and watch the videos.
One afterthought – Instead of sending the students the presentation, you could record yourself GIVING the presentation and send that video to students instead! You could use screen capture software like Screencastify or ScreencastOmatic so students could properly see the presentation information and hear your recorded voice.

Sending packets home & home has internet?
Print the PDF guided notes to send home, and send the link to VIEW the presentations through your LMS – VIDEO GUIDE. If you don’t have an LMS in place – you can send home a list of short links VIDEO GUIDE for students to easily type into a browser to access the presentations. Students read through the presentations online and fill in blanks of printed guided notes.

Sending packets home & home has no internet?
One option is to print the PDF guided notes AND print the Google Slides presentations out for students to take home. Students read through printed presentations and fill in blanks of printed guided notes. This is probably not ideal for this particular product as students would be unable to view the YouTube videos, but if you have a situation where only one or two students in your class don’t have internet and the rest do, it would suffice.

Link to Playlist of All Included How To Videos

That’s it for this blog post – be sure to check out more Distance Learning ideas we have!

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Music Distance Learning

Music Distance Learning
Untitled presentation

We’ve put together a list of materials that we’ve created and/or can be used for E-Learning/Distance Learning/Remote Teaching. This post is being updated as we create new content – to receive updates when we add new products – sign up for our newsletter below!!





Updates to our Music Distance Learning Products

Theory Experts: Music Theory Curriculum – Printable PDFs and Digital Interactive Google Slides. This curriculum was designed to work in person and for distance learning. We have created 3 different levels to work for all ages K-12, you can purchase them as a bundle or individually as you need.  Each lesson contains instructions and guides on the page for students to be able to learn on their own or with a parent’s help. We have ALSO created video lessons that directly accompany the lessons. View the YouTube playlist HERE.

Music From a Distance – A completely no prep packet for shorter term distance learning that can be used on Google Slides, TpT Easel or printed and sent home. Also includes several samples of our other products that work for distance learning.

Check out our growing list of Boom Cards available on our Boom Learning store!
Boom Cards are digital interactive task cards that make learning fun and provide instant feedback for students.


FREE Music Distance Learning Resources

We are giving away 16 FREE Listening Journals that use a variety of music, are ready for distance learning, are self-grading, and are done via Google Forms. You can’t go wrong with free things right? Find out more info in our new blog post SELF-GRADING LISTENING ACTIVITIES WITH GOOGLE FORMS.

I highly encourage everyone to take a look at my Noteflight Mystery Song Assignment Blog Post – This is a great FREE activity that teaches students about chord progressions, creating a bass line, etc. – It also helps them learn how to use notation software!  From there, if you want to continue along this path, I recommending looking into my Mystery Song Bundle.

A one week safety net review plan mostly using MusicTheory.net  This incorporates perfectly into Google Classroom with people dealing with a 1-1 computer situation.  You can literally copy and paste the information directly out of this and make assignments in Google Classroom!  View the Google Doc Unit Plan here.

Try some FREE samples of great products:
Music of Africa (Presentation & Guided Notes)
John Williams (Presentation & Guided Notes)
Color by Music Mystery Image


Project Based Learning – Middle School & High School


We have several projects geared towards Middle School & High School. Distance learning provides ample opportunity for students to work at their own pace on a project. View our bundle of projects (also available to purchase separately). Included in this bundle are a large scale Music Genre Research ProjectMusic Time Period Research Project, smaller Music Genre Presentation ProjectComposer Presentation ProjectMusic Culture Presentation Project, and an Instrument Presentation Project.


Presentation & Guided Note Units

All of these units are completely digital and ready for distance learning.  We have a Music Cultures: World Music Unit, Composers: Music History Unit, and Instrument Family Unit.  All units have Google Slide Presentations and guided notes (print and digital) to accompany them.  There are EXCELLENT links to YouTube videos for students to experience what is being discussed.  For a complete walk through of “How to use Presentation & Guided Note Units for Distance Learning” in multiple situations- read our blog post HERE.


Elementary Specific Ideas

We have three completely independent sing-along and activity books that could be sent home with students. All of the products come with sheet music, color by music pages, and other activities to keep students learning about music from home. Can You Count? is a song about learning the value of whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, and 8th notes . Name the Notes is a song about about learning the lines and spaces of the treble clef. Old Blue is a fun song about living with a faithful dog. These are great send home packets for elementary students. Each product also has a sing-along video hosted on Raonna Studio’s YouTube (linked below).

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I hope this list at least gives you some ideas to help during this difficult time! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to Contact Us.

Song Writing Part 1: Mystery Song Assignment

Song Writing Part 1: Mystery Song Assignment

To see the end result that students will be creating before reading this lengthy post, click here!

To read part 2, where students write their own song, click here!

This lesson plan is COMPLETELY FREE to use – however to build from here, I recommend purchasing my Mystery Song Bundle from my TeachersPayTeachers store to continue this project after the initial step.

To get started on this lesson plan, all students will need a computer (or tablet, though this was done on a computer), a Noteflight account (FREE, info below), and a copy of this PDF “Mystery Song Part 1”.

Have students sign up for a FREE account at Noteflight.com.

Students will need to enter an email address, verify that email address within the email, and then they will be able to create a username and password.

OR – Check out Noteflight Learn – the cost is very reasonable, and the added features you receive are definitely worth it! Free accounts will work absolutely fine for this project.

From your Noteflight home page, click on in the upper right hand corner.

Select “start from a blank score sheet” and click OK.

This is not a guide on how to USE the notation features of Noteflight. I encourage you to mess around with it on your own to get yourself used to it. To me, the software can feel a little backwards at first use, but after you get used to it – it’s very simple. Students will be a little confused and frustrated at first as well! Noteflight has amazing help resources available as well. Just search for what you’re trying to figure out how to do!

From this point forward this guide will assume you have associated yourself with the basic features of Noteflight. Again – if you can’t figure something out, use the search function!

For now, remove the bass clef, so you only have treble clef remaining.

(Click on the bass clef and hit “backspace” on your keyboard)

We’re ready to begin Part 1!

Song Writing PART 1

Pass out “Mystery Song Part 1” to students. Have them go through the steps listed.

This is also a great first assignment to get students associated with the basic features of Noteflight!!

When they have completed the steps listed on the linked PDF, their score should look like this. Again – this first part will probably take time for those new to Noteflight. It may take several class days JUST to get to this point – that’s fine!

2

Your students have probably figured out the song is BINGO at this point, so we can go ahead and give them the lyrics to add in, and they can title their song.  Use this PDF with Lyrics to show them where the lyrics fall and have them add them to their score (or if you prefer you can start with this PDF instead).  Now our scores should look like below:

Song WritingPART 2

Now that we have completed part 1, we are ready to move on to part 2. Part 2 will involve adding a bass line to accompany our melody. Referring to our “Mystery Song Part 1” sheet, remember those letters above the music that we ignored the first time? This is where they come in to play! I added them into my score – you do not need to, as the students can glance back at their original sheet to see.

From this point forward I recommend working in “Strip View” mode – it’s easier to manage, in my opinion. Click on “Page View” in the top right and then select “Strip View”.

The first thing we need to do is add a bass instrument. Click on “Instruments”. This will open a side menu, then click “Add Instrument” within it. Click on “Plucked Strings,” and then select “Electric Bass.”

From here, I explain it to the students as, “We are going to add the written in pitches in a rhythmic pattern.” For example, the first note we need in the accompaniment is D. So the first pitch we add to the bass line will be a D. Any rhythmic pattern is fine, but use mine if you choose. I chose 2 eighth notes and a quarter note. You don’t need to add anything to the pick-up measure (but feel free).

We have the first measure done. Now what? There isn’t a letter above the next measure! We are going to continue using the previous letter until we see a new one. So the next measure will be the exact same!

Now that we have a new letter, we are going to use that pitch instead of D. So G! Still using the same rhythmic pattern. We will continue this way until the entire bass line is full. When you get to the “Bm” – just ignore the “m” for now and place a B. If you understand how chords work – you’ll see that this is no sweat!

Now that the bass line is finished – give it a listen. It’s starting to sound like an accompaniment!

Song Writing PART 3

Our next step is to add chords to our accompaniment. Don’t sweat if you or your students aren’t a master at chords! I explain it to my students in a very simple way to build the appropriate chords needed (for simple songs like this one).

First step is to add another instrument (follow steps in part 2) but this time let’s add a “Guitar” (under Plucked Strings).

We are going to continue using those letters above the melody line, just as we did with the bass line. But this time we are adding even more than just a single note.

The first note that needs placed is the given letter (so again, D).

Then we are going to stack 2 notes on top of it. I explain it to students as if it’s on a line, stack the next 2 lines. If it’s in a space, stack the next 2 spaces.

Again we will be doing this in a rhythmic pattern. I chose dotted quarter eighth note.

Continue to enter the chords in exactly like the bass line. If it’s a new note – start there and stack. Keep the rhythmic pattern going throughout the guitar line.

Give it a listen!

Song Writing PART 4

Now for the fun part – adding drums! Once again – add another instrument, this time “Unpitched Percussion” and “Drums (Standard)”.

Drums are a different staff, with each line/space creating a different drum set sound. Again – we are going to create a rhythmic pattern.

And we are going to take that pattern through the entirety of the song (no need to change for different letters).

If you haven’t learned how to copy and paste measures yet – now would be a good time! It works the same as it does in just about any other piece of software.

Give it a listen!

I realize that accompaniment instruments do not play the exact same thing for the entire time they are accompanying a song – this is just a starting point and a learning tool! From here I often have students add an ending, drum fills, etc.

This is just the first attempt at a project like this. After this I typically have students take on a larger scale song. Sometimes I will step them through the steps again – other times I will give them a new mystery song and say GO!

You can purchase my “Mystery Song” bundle from my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking HERE!  This will give you 12 songs that work great for this activity. Plus you get the added bonus of them having to listen to the melody to discover what the song is!

After doing some additional songs in this format, I have students work towards writing their own song.  I cover this in Part 2 on this blog, view it here!

I hope you found this guide useful – I apologize if it was confusing, I did try my best to keep it clear and concise without getting overwhelmingly lengthy!

Good luck!