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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Content Management Systems For Non-Profit Organizations

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joomla_screenshotsThis article gives details on several different content management systems that schools and non-profit groups can use to create easily edited and very nice looking web sites. Detailed are the Joomla Content Management System as well as Moodle, Php-Nuke, and phpWebSite.

 

Content Management Systems For Non-Profit Organizations

Content Management Systems take the hard work out of writing and updating a web site. Once the initial setup is completed the CMS makes updating your site as easy as a couple of mouse clicks. Plus, regardless of where you are in the world you can change and update your site instantly WITHOUT HAVING TO USE FTP!

Other benefits of the CMS include being able to pull in new, dynamic content from other music education related web sites. Take a look at the Western Dubuque High School Band's web site for an example of how to use RSS feeds from other web sites to spruce up your own and give your students and visitors something fresh to look at every day!

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Content Management Systems

joomla_screenshots Joomla
Joomla is one of the most widely used and most expandable CMS systems available in the public domain. Joomla has a large user base to assist with problems that you have via a massive online forum system located at forum.joomla.org. The following links direct you to the Joomla files as well as to several recommended components to use along with the Joomla system.

TRY OUT JOOMLA ON YOUR HOME PC BEFORE DECIDING WHETHER TO TRY IT ON YOUR WEB SITE!

Download the Joomla Stand Alone Server (JSAS) from this web site link.

 

USE THESE TUTORIALS TO HELP YOU INSTALL JOOMLA IF YOU DECIDE YOU LIKE IT!

Video based tutorial on Joomla Installation

How To Install Joomla (Text Tutorial Including Database Creation)

 

DOWNLOAD THE JOOMLA FILES FROM WWW.JOOMLA.ORG OR FOLLOW THE LINKS SHOWN BELOW:

There are currently two versions of the Joomla CMS. the 1.0.12 version is the most stable, however the 1.5 version is the newest development version. If you are going to start a new site consider using the 1.5beta version and/or waiting for the BETA designation to be dropped. Follow the directions in the zip file to upload the files to your web server and set up a database for the Joomla software to connect to to store your web site's information. Video tutorials on how to install and operate Joomla are available through various web sites.
The Events Component allows you to create several different "groups" such as your jazz band, marching band, or concert band. These groups can then have events added to their calendars and each will show up as a color coded event on the master calendar that you can add to the front page of your web site. If you use this component be sure to also download the module that displays the calendar on your web page.
Acajoom is a fairly robust email newsletter system to allow you to send HTML formatted emails to your band parents, students, or media outlets. Users may subscribe via a menu link or through a special form module that you can add to the home page of your web site.
This component will pull in the RSS news feeds from web sites that you specify and display their current headlines on your home page. When the news site changes their headlines you site copies these changes in real time. When a user clicks a news story headline they are redirected to the news story on the other site. You can find news feeds all over the Internet on a variety of topics, but why not consider adding our own music education news feed from here at MusicEdMagic?

Other Content Management Systems

  • Moodle



    Moodle is an online learning environment for schools or anyone that wants to provide an online classroom environment for their students. You can create courses, assignments, quizzes, and other methods of instruction quickly and easily.

  • PHP-NUKE


    PHP-Nuke is used most often for web sites that require a lot of collaboration or feedback by users. You will most commonly see Nuke used for gaming and club web sites, but it is a very robust system with many module choices for expanding its capabilities.

  • phpWebSite


    phpWebSite began as a fork to Php-Nuke in 2001 but today is completely separate from its predecessor. While it does not have as many modules or as much community support as Nuke or Joomla, it is still a very useful and free content management system.

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