Low Cost MusicTechnology Options For The Music Education Classroom
Low Cost MusicTechnology Options For The Music Education Classroom

Finding ways to stretch your budget in a music classroom is always important and even more so when trying to purchase high tech electronics, software, and other materials.  This article provides an updated list of dozens of different low cost or free alternatives to expensive music education products.  It includes such categories as music notation software, drill design software, special needs hardware, and many more.

 

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The Star Spangled Banner- Free Sheet Music For Band Inst.
The Star Spangled Banner- Free Sheet Music For Band Inst.

This document contains sheet music for all common instruments to play The Star Spangled Banner, also known as the sheet music to the National Anthem of the United States of America. You can view the sheet music online or download the individual parts arranged for all common concert band instruments.  If you do not see your instrument listed please scroll to the bottom of the page and try one of the the other instruments.  Most musicians will be able to find at least one instrumental part that matches their range and preferred key signature.  If you are seeking a simple piano version of the song please select from the voice, trumpet, or alto saxophone versions.

 

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Using Plickers as an Assessment Tool in the Music Education Classroom
Using Plickers as an Assessment Tool in the Music Education Classroom

Music, band, choir, and orchestra classrooms can be huge and assessing the knowledge and retention of individual students in such a large class can be daunting.  Plickers are one of several solutions that can be adapted to work in large groups, making the act of assessing a student’s understanding a little easier and a whole lot faster.  

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Is Marching Band A Sport? Pros, Cons, and a Reality Check
Is Marching Band A Sport? Pros, Cons, and a Reality Check

In recent years the question of whether or not marching band is a sport has been brought up time and time again for various reasons and by various groups.  On one side you have the YES crowd who says that marching band is competitive, physically demanding, and every bit as much a team event as any traditional sporting event.  On the other side of the coin are those who say no, that marching band is NOT a sport and it is a musical pursuit that happens to involve coordinated movements.  Both sides are right, but to make a final decision we need to look deeper into the facts.  Read on to find out what they are!

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Portable Digital Audio Recorder Buying Guide With Reviews
Portable Digital Audio Recorder Buying Guide With Reviews

Scroll down to view the comparison chart of over a dozen different portable digital audio recorders.

Buying a portable digital audio recorder is a major decision.  The balance between price, features, and quality is a fine line that has many different options to choose from.  There are dozens of different models of portable digital audio recorders, some of which have drastically different sets of features yet sell for roughly the same price.  This easy to read head to head comparison chart and guide to many of the more popular portable digital audio recorders is intended to help potential buyers more easily see these differences and make an educated buying decision.

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Apps and More for the Choral Classroom
Apps and More for the Choral Classroom

The number of apps, software, and gadgets available for use in the music classroom continues to grow each year but finding things that can actually be beneficial to your classes grows more and more difficult as well.  We spoke with Dr. Christopher Russell, Director of Choirs at Oltman Middle School in St. Paul Park, Minnesota to get his must-have list of apps.

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Music Searches By Lyrics: Finding a song title when all you have are a few words

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Have you ever wanted to do a music search for a song when all you have is a small piece of the song's lyrics to go by?  Luckily this age old problem can be solved by one of the most powerful search engines on the planet, and this article shows you how to do it.

Most people think that doing a karaoke music search by lyrics involves going to Google or another search engine, typing in the scrap of lyrics that you remember, and then hoping that what you are looking for comes up on the first screen.  If you are lucky, then maybe it will, but some popular songs have lyrics that are quite common in everyday language, and so an ordinary web search may not pull up the song title that you are hoping for.  For example, if you ran a search for Bugle Boy you would see many pages of results for Bugle Boy jeans and such before you ever found an entry for "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" by the Andrew Sisters.  Luckily for you though, Yahoo's new Music Search lets you quickly and easily find the music you are looking for without the hassle of digging through pages of mixed results.

A Quick Primer on the Legalities of Free Music Lyrics

First of all, the vast majority of music lyric web sites that are out there are not operating within the bounds of copyright law in the United States. Several music publishers have begun to file lawsuits against major free music lyric web site owners on the basis that they are not paying for the use of the lyrics portion of a copyrighted work.  The lyrics are every bit as unique and copyrighted as the chords and melodies you hear when the song is performed, but due to the overwhelming desire of users to find such lyrics the Internet has become awash with hundreds of free music lyric web sites , very few of which pay any royalties to the owner of the copyrighted music.

While you could just go over to Amazon and search for a book of music lyrics good luck on finding the song you are looking for.  Instead, why not try searching with Yahoo Music?  Yahoo Music is one of the few that has signed an agreement with music publishers to archive their lyrics and still provide them for free to the end user.  Other sites such as the Gracenote CD Database have also done so, but in many cases these results are available only to paid subscribers.

Doing a Music Search By Lyrics At Yahoo Music:

Surf over to http://music.yahoo.com/search and type in a few words of the lyrics to the song you have forgotten the name of.  A few seconds later you will get a listing of all of the songs in Yahoo's lyric database that match your request.  Doing the same search for Bugle Boy that was mentioned previously pulls up the Andrew Sister's version right off the bat, along with several other arrangements and other songs that simple have "bugle," and "boy," in them somewhere.  Click through to the page of the song you wanted and get a full printout of all of the lyrics to the song as well as an audio sample and the ability to purchase the music for immediate download.

Yahoo's Music Lyric Search doesn't stop there, however. You can search for music in many other ways as well, such as by title, artist, album title, or even search for videos. All in all Yahoo has developed a very powerful and effective method for doing music searches by lyrics as well as by other means as well.  Try them out the next time you get a song stuck in your head and can't remember the title!

Note:  The articles on this site may contain referral links to sites such as Amazon and other online retailers.  The small amount of income received from these links has helped keep MusicEdMagic.com up and running for over ten years now.  Thank you for your support!