Five Favorite Web-based Games & Activities for the Music Classroom

We’ve all heard for the past several years how limiting screen time is the best. Some parents and experts are concerned about the negative effects of excessive screen time. A few of these negative effects are deterioration of cognitive performance in school and interference with learning.

Technology is like a fire; it gives a lot of benefits when used right. A growing body of evidence suggests that teachers can definitely use web-based games and activities in creating a better learning environment.

Additionally, such educational web-based games and activities can help students develop critical thinking skills and boost academic performance.

This article lists the music teachers’ favorite web-based games and activities that every music educator can add to their arsenal. More importantly, these tools are suitable for both remote learning and the classroom.
 

YouTube channels

YouTube is not solely for entertainment - music teachers use this powerful tool for many activities when educating their students.

One example is the YouTube channel Musication. It is a private channel from Jan Vink, a music teacher (primary education) in the Netherlands. Musication contains a series of videos that teachers use to play instruments with their students.

The channel also contains visual play-along for boomwhackers, desk bells, and percussion videos. Many music teachers have commented that Musication has helped them instil fun and interactive learning.

Another great YouTube channel is Visual Musical Minds. It is created by Nathan Walby, a music teacher in the United States. The channel contains excellent layered videos for multi-cultural songs and rhythms. Visual Musical Minds is a must-have in a music teachers’ toolbox to help students understand music in a much more visual way.
 

Learningmusic.ableton.com

This is an amazing website that is completely free, and no sign-up required. Using this website is a great way to discuss lots of music concepts. Furthermore, it encourages student creativity as it allows students to make music. Even music teachers had fun trying this website and didn’t notice the time they had spent on trying this website!

ChromeMusicLab

This is another powerful resource suitable for students of all ages. Many music teachers have commented on how much their students love using this website, even remote learning. There are just so many things users can do with ChromeMusicLab.

Besides creating music, students can also download the audio they made. Additionally, music teachers can put the audio into other programs like Bandlab or Soundtrap for future lessons.

Some music teachers frequently use the website’s Shared Piano section as it has a lot of potential for online teaching. Feel free to explore ChromeMusicLab’s many wonderful features.

Here is a YouTube tutorial video to show you ‘How to Use Chrome Music Lab Song Maker’

GroovePizza

Powered by MusEDLab, it allows students to create their own drum beats within different music styles, meters, and tempo. GroovePizza allows teachers to adjust the complexity of the activities depending on the students’ needs. It also allows students to send a link to their composition.

Variation Playgrounds

MusEDLab also powers this web-based activity. Variation Playgrounds is perfect for teaching classical music. It gives themes to well-known classical music pieces and lets students move them around like building blocks to see what they sound like as different combinations.

Some music teachers say that Variation Playgrounds is awesome to do either before (and making some predictions) or after (and comparing the differences) listening to the original piece of music.
 

Conclusion

We are thankful for how technology has brought immeasurable benefits to our lives. Some are concerned about the negative effects of excessive screen time on students.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way. When used with discretion, “edutaining” web-based games and activities make teaching more educational, fun and engaging for students.

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