Links
This ever-growing collection of links represents my favorite online music resources in a wide variety of categories. Please let me know if any of the links don’t work!
Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA)
The SAA is the not-for-profit organization that supports, guides and promotes Suzuki education in North, Central and South America. They provide information and services for teachers, parents, educators, and others who are interested in making music education available to all children
This website is an extensive compliation of free online recordings of classical music. Over 6,000 recordings are currently indexed by composer or by instrument. It usually takes a few clicks to get to the actual recording, but the list is very extensive and is a good way to hear a wide variety of songs without needing to purchase lots of recordings.
Classics for Kids is a website that offers musical games, composer information in a variety of formats, a musical dictionary, online radio programs about composers and other musical topics, and listening samples from various time periods. A new composer is featured each month, with a new radio broadcast (5-10 minutes long) each week about the composer and a corresponding activity sheet.
This is the place to come for a posture check up. Compare the online photos with your home practice set-up to determine if your student needs a change in seating to result in a change in sound. The before-and-after photos of common positioning problems are especially helpful.
San Francisco Symphony for Kids
This website has lots of quick-loading animated demonstrations of basic musical concepts. There is a section that shows the different instruments of the orchestra, complete with pictures, sound samples, and even the ability to turn the instruments around or zoom in for a closer look. You can practice being a conductor, listen to a variety of types of music, and even compose your own works of art!
For a basic overview of music theory and history with simple graphic illustrations, this is the place to go. There is also information about how various kinds of instruments work and a demonstration of how to conduct music in different time signatures. The most fun part of the site is the Flash piano, which can be played with the mouse or the keyboard. The piano can be left up in its own window and used to practice other things on the site (or on other sites, for that matter!)
KIDiddles is a fun place for more information about classic kids songs. There are activity sheets, lyric sheets, audio files, and even some music scores to download and print. The songs are indexed either alphabetically or by category.