Educational websites

Educational Websites > Performing And Creative > Music

Abernet
Designed for Aberdeen schools and centres, Abernet has plenty of resources, web links, information, news, forums, and online courses freely available to all. In the 'downloads' section, the subject area has teaching resources to support many areas of the curriculum.

Articulate Music
This Scottish company provides music education software and CD-ROMs for teachers and students, from classical to blues, with some free resources.

BBC - Blast
Blast aims to inspire 13-19-year-olds to bring creative ideas to life by offering new and stimulating experiences and building their confidence and know-how through professional support. Blast focuses on music, dance, art, film, writing and digital creativity, and includes practical tips plus profiles of successful artists and performers.

BBC Learning
Wide range of subject areas and resources for schools, colleges and adults, with online learning courses in many areas and plenty of useful web links.

BBC Radio 3 - Making Tracks
Try the musical games and play some unusual instruments. You can also test your keyboard skills, or compose and play your own tunes, with the ability to send your track to a friend or submit it to the 'top tunes' gallery. The latest game is 'Tonetag', a composing game that allows you to create your own ringtone for your mobile phone.

Blast film showcase
BBC Blast showcases films made by young people, these include dramas, documentaries, music videos and animations. As well as watching the films you can comment on what you've seen, and upload your own films to the site.

Creative Thinking and Goal Setting
A new resource for teachers, lecturers and Scottish educationalists on creative thinking and goal setting. Find out about reversal thinking, the six thinking hats, lateral thinking, brainstorming, and dreams and goals. To access this site you need a password available from customer services at enquiries@LTScotland.org.uk.

dbass
dbass provides motivation for young musicians by providing them with a platform to promote their music and compete in national and local music charts. Each musician has their own web page where they can easily publish their music, biographies and digital artwork, and get feedback from other members of dbass. Teachers act as publishers and approve students' work before it is released on dbass.

EnrichUK
An online gateway with culture, history and community resources from museums, libraries and galleries from around the UK. Thousands of digital images are brought together from over 150 websites. Try EnrichScotland (currently under development) for resources for Gaelic, archaeology, music, science, environment, nature, social and oral history.

Kevin's Playroom
An education portal produced and maintained by children! It is arranged by subject and has links to hundreds of useful websites. There is a special 'WB' symbol on resources that work well on interactive whiteboards.

Learn Listening Online
An interactive resource for students of NQ music to improve their knowledge and listening skills.

Liberton High School
Details of the departments of the school and events that are arranged within Liberton High School. Includes staff and parent zones that are password protected.

Mr Goldings Brass Place
Find out how to read music, take interactive theory quizzes and play-along with backing tracks. Includes sections for trumpet, cornet, tenor horn, french horn, trombone, euphonium, baritone and tuba.

Music Teacher's Resource Site
Free arrangements for well-known classical and popular pieces, including lyrics and some sound files. The subscription section of the site has resources for purchasing online, with some free samples.

My Study Guide
This website provides key resources, revision aids, textbooks, study guides and many web links to support learning, revision, coursework and exam performance. Suitable for Standard Grade, Intermediate 1 and 2, and Higher levels.

Naxos - Educational
A useful educational resource for Higher and Advanced Higher students with plenty of information and musical examples. By selecting ‘artist’ or ‘composer’ from the menu at the top of the page, you will find hundreds of discographies and biographies, plus a gallery of portraits. There is also a section on classical music in films. You have to pay a subscription to listen to the mp3 files.

Parents' Music Room
This BBC website provides information for parents and carers on encouraging children to develop their musical abilities. It provides practical guides on learning an instrument and guidance on careers in music.

Pay the Piper
This is a music website designed to help you choose an instrument - it gives advice on how much the instrument and lessons cost, and how difficult it is to get started with playing it. There is an excellent listing of music websites.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO)
Includes programme information on concerts for children and contact details for the Education Development Manager, who organises an extensive programme of education events across Scotland.

Scotland's Culture
A collection of resources and information about Scottish culture, including literature, music, visual arts and heritage, to help schools explore and celebrate Scotland and its people.

Scottish Music Centre
This site has information on artists, composers, venues, festivals; an online events diary; historical information on Scottish music; a sound archive with over 30 years of recordings; a reference library with over 10,000 scores, song and tune collections, plus books about music. The materials can be tailored for activities for Standard Grade, national courses and units, and Scottish Group Awards.

SFEU Information Gateway
The Scottish Further Education Unit offers a good range of subject-related web links that are useful for both staff and students in colleges and schools. All resources are practitioner-reviewed and have star ratings.

Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM)
This organisation runs 'Sound Inventors', which is an award-winning programme of composition projects for young people aged 12-18. Led and inspired by leading UK composers and musicians, it has been introduced into Scotland in 2004 and enables participants to get to grips with writing and devising their own music. Compositions can form part of exam folios. See the link to 'Sound Inventors'in the diary of events.

Sound Junction
Soundjunction is an interactive musical composition website for use in the classroom, particularly on interactive whiteboards, or at home. The site explores the routes and ideas behind the development of three different styles of compositions, with video clips and sound files. These files can then be used to remix the student's own compositions from a collection of sound files in the integrated software on the site. You need to download the latest version of Shockwave player to your computer to view this site.

SVTC Music
Sample audio files to download with concept maps, teachers' notes, tuition notes and web links. Suitable for Int 1 upwards.

The Stage Newspaper
Online version of weekly newspaper covering every aspect of theatre, dance, opera and light entertainment in the UK. Includes a guide to organisations promoting young people's theatre, training and funding links and a 'how to' guide on careers in theatre.

Web Reviews 4 Teachers
This new resource has links to over 1000 educational websites for many subjects, selected and reviewed by teachers working in Scotland. Each website has a full description plus a teacher's review and usage comments. In addition, websites are mapped to subject, course and unit for NQs, and subjects and elements for Standard Grade.

It must be emphasised that inclusion of these web links does not in any way represent endorsement by Learning and Teaching Scotland, nor are we responsible for the content of external websites.