Additional Resources

The Phoenix Symphony provides resources to assist both music specialists and classroom teachers with music instruction and integration. These include:

• Online lesson plan databases
• Music education web sites
• Music integration web sites and lesson plans 
• Composer Facts

Online Lesson Plan Databases 

For teaching music fundamentals & to support music integration.

• ArtsEdge – Searchable lesson plan database from the Kennedy Center. Includes ideas for music integration. 
• Pathways to Integration – From the San Francisco Symphony. Features arts integrated lesson plan library and ideas for authentic arts integration. 
• DSO Kids Teacher Resources – From the Dallas Symphony. Features searchable lesson plan database by grade level. 
• Smithsonian Folkways  – From the Smithsonian Institution. Features lesson plans and links to free iTunes U downloads promoting cultural understanding through world music.  
• Study Ladder: Music – Created by teachers for teachers, this site includes a large variety of interactive exercises and games related to music fundamentals and skills.
• Orchestra Lesson Plans – Teacher-created database of lesson plans on various aspects of the orchestra.

Music Education Websites

Interactive resources to enhance instruction.

• Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music – The most comprehensive online interactive music education site available. Features videos, interactive games and an area for students to compose and share original music.
• Instruments of the Orchestra – Interactive website demonstrating each instrument family with listening samples from Classicsforkids.com  
• Musical Instruments – Features videos and fun-to-read facts about numerous orchestral instruments from WannaPlayMusic.com.  
• Listening Samples – Listen to different instruments. From the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Kids site.
• Teoria Music Theory Web – Learn how to read music, understand intervals, and explore musical forms with interactive games and resources.

Music Integration Websites and Lesson Plans

Websites with suggestions and tips for integrating music into STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) teaching.

• Exploratorium: Science of Music – Fun online exhibits, interactives, apps and games that demonstrate connections between music and science in unique ways
• Science Kids – Videos, experiments, lesson plans and assessment tools on the science of how sound is produced through music
• How Music Works: Sound and Music – Great information on sound waves, amplitude, frequency and pitch.
• Music Through the Curriculum – From internationally known teaching artist Phil Tulga, this site includes music integration interactives for math, science and language arts.
• Magical Mathmatics of Music – Explores connections between sound waves, chords, pitch and other concepts in relation to math.

Music History Lesson Plans

Overview of each historical time period with lesson plans and assessment tools for the music and general classroom.

• Renaissance – Includes Music/Math integrated lesson on the Fibonacci sequence and Music/Visual Art lesson using Tant que vivray and the advent of the Printing Press.
• Baroque – Features Music/Movement lesson on Vivaldi & integrated Music/Science lesson on sound waves.
• Classical – Includes Music/Visual art integrated lesson on ABAB patterns in nature and Music/Astronomy lesson integrating Haydn, Galileo, and song composition.
• Romantic – Features Music/Science integrated lesson on Schubert and seasons and Music/Visual Art/History lesson on the legend of King Arthur.
• Modern – Includes Music/Visual Art/Writing lesson on Impressionism & Music/Science integrated lesson on investigating musical instruments

Composer Facts

Web sites and fact sheets on composers.

• Keeping Score – From the San Francisco Symphony, this site provides a comprehensive overview of significant composers, their technique and major works.
• Geography of Music – Interactive maps connecting composers with time periods and significant historical events.
• PBS Great Composers Series – Links to videos on major composers. 
• New York Philharmonic Kidzone: Composers Gallery – Great online resource for introducing students to major composers.
• Great Composers – From Arts Alive, the National Arts Centre of Canada. Features comprehensive overviews of composers, audio samples and teacher resource kits.

Composer Fact Sheets

One-page handouts for students on major composers.

• Beethoven
• Brahms
• Copland
• Debussy
• Dvorak
• Gershwin
• Grofé 
• Handel
• Haydn
• Mahler
• Mendelssohn
• Mozart
• Mussorgsky
• Rachmaninoff
• Rimsky-Korsakov
• Shostakovich
• Sousa 
• Vivaldi
• Ward

Additional Resources