Websites to explore and learn about rock and folk music, and websites to create and arrange music~

Fourth and Fifth Grade SPARK students have been learning a bit about some very exciting websites that you should check out!

1) TeachRock.org  This website ROCKS! Students and parents will find tons of fascinating information that includes actual rockstars and clips of musicians, producers, and legends who have shaped the music industry. Beware! You will want to watch and learn for hours. Search for lessons, musicians, or topics you'd like to know more about! 

Stevie Van Zandt’s TeachRock project brings rich educational materials to teachers and students everywhere – at no cost. The lesson plans and resources at teachrock.org allow a one-of-a-kind, multimedia experience that helps young people connect the history of popular music to classroom work across the disciplines. From social studies and language arts to geography, media studies, science, general music, and more: TeachRock has engaging and meaningful material for every classroom.

2) Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and videos of folk music and roots music from America in history and modern times. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. We are dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound.

You can create free accounts on the sites below to play around with. Please do not create a for-pay account, unless you want it solely for home use.

SPARK SONG created with Flat and Soundtrap

3) Flat.io  Whether you're a beginner or a professional composer, our user-friendly music composition software gives you all the tools that you need to make your own sheet music. You can write, listen, share and discover music scores right in your web browser on any device.You can also plug MIDI enabled keyboards into your computer to compose direct to score!

Flat has free accounts, and paid subscriptions. We will use team accounts in Music class for 4th and 5th graders. Flat has a very cool function that will allow you to export compositions from Flat into creations on Soundtrap.

4) Soundtrap is like a multi-platform, multi-device web version of GarageBand. 

Music Making Your very own online music studio where you can record your creations with your device microphone. 

Multi Device Soundtrap works on Mac, Windows, iPad, iPhone, Android phones and tablets, Linux and ChromeBooks. All your projects are stored online so you can access them wherever you are. The cloud is the limit.