Barton
Polot
is Assistant Professor of Music Education and Music Technology at the University
of Michigan
|
|
 BARTON
POLOT
 hink
of it: on the hard drives of computers all over the world are resources
waiting for you to use. For you, the teacher of music, the student of
music, or simply a lover of music, dedicated fellow musicians have placed
an unprecedented cache of resources at your immediate disposal —
courtesy of the World Wide Web. Much of this collection of tools has been,
and continues to be, available other places in other formats in other
media. But now, thanks to the Web, you need not "go get" information.
Instead, information "comes" to you.
Professional Resources
 Start
by visiting the American Music Conference,
a clearinghouse of information related to music education. Need to look
up the National Standards for Music Education? You can download
the entire document online. You can link to resources from the National
Coalition for Music Education, find the latest news on music
education research, obtain survey data and other literature in support
of music in the schools, and more -- all from AMC's exceptionally well-organized
site. While you're there, subscribe to
AMC's listserve; you'll regularly receive the latest news about music education
via e-mail.
Most of the major music education organizations now maintain Web sites.
The Music Educators National Conference
Web site is especially comprehensive; it has links to state organizations,
publications, and industry contacts. Connect from the MENC site to the
American String Teachers Association,
the International Association
of Jazz Educators, and other allied organizations.
 The
Technology Institute for Music Education
is a new organization allying the profession with music technology industries.
Their nascent site has a growing number of links to software developers,
manufacturers, and music technology studies.
Perhaps the most comprehensive index of commercial music sites is maintained
by the National Association of Music Merchants.
With extensive links to manufacturers, publishers, and retailers, NAMM
is a prime source of information.
 Some
sources of music education materials are spin-offs from other media. Check
out the "Mr. Holland's
Opus" toolkit, the excellent companion material for Wyntan Marsalis'
acclaimed PBS series, "Marsalis
on Music," or the comprehensive materials accompanying PBS's "Live
at Lincoln Center."
Children's Music
 The
Children's Music
List is a wonderful collection of links to online songbooks, concerts,
instructional material, and musical fun for kids. This site will link you
to Kids' Space, where children publish
original music online, and Pipsqueaks,
an online children's music magazine.
 For
children who compose music with MIDI, the Web can be a link to professional
consultants. Composers
in Electronic Residence is a project of the music education department
at Toronto's York University, allowing students to submit MIDI files via
the Internet for individual evaluation by professional composers.
 Another
fascinating application of MIDI technology and Web-based collaboration
can be found at the World
Band project. See how students at seven secondary schools scattered
around the world use the Internet to perform electronic music interactively.
Resources for Students
CHICO, the Cultural Heritage Initiative for Community Outreach, is a project
of the University of Michigan School of Information. Their Music Heritage
Site offers multimedia
tours of music from around the world and an extensive encyclopedia
of musical instruments from the University's Stearns Collection.
 Students
can download MIDI files of concert repertoire from the Classical
MIDI Files collection, and can download pictures from the extensive
Gallery of Classical
Composers.
Even if your students don't purchase MiBac's popular music theory software,
the entire reference manual
is available online. Too numerous to mention are specific sites for practically
every musical instrument, set up and maintained by industry, or pedagogues,
or mere devotees.
Finally, students of music -- and their parents -- will be vitally interested
in the extensive database maintained at the Online
Music Scholarship Resources.
Resources for Teachers
 Several
music teachers have created their own Web sites with resources and links
for colleagues worldwide. Among the most extensive is Cynthia
Shirk's Minnesota site. Many sites share extensive collections of music
lesson plans, including CHICO's Education
Commons.
A must-see is the Music Teacher's Handbook to Understanding and Using
the Internet, entitled "Setting
Your Sites on Music Class". It provides an extensive background on
the Web as well as dozens of applications for the music classroom.
Looking up articles about music education has never been easier. The
Music Education Resource Base,
maintained by the University of Calgary, may of course have a slight Canadian
bias. No matter. A keyword search
for the word "practice" turned up 77 titles of recent articles from professional
music education journals. You'll have to go to the library to obtain the
articles, but nothing can beat this instant bibliography-maker.
|
No
article about music education resources would be complete without citing
the site maintained by J.W. Pepper. Pepper's
National Music Network grows more comprehensive with every passing year.
Download files of scores that you can print in your notation software, or
listen to with your MIDI sequencer.
