Music
General
All
A selection of resources and activities to help children of all ages to develop their musical skills and knowledge
KS1, KS2, KS3
Find out about a wide range of classical music from throughout history. Enjoy watching the performances and get involved in activities.
Primary
Website with lots of information and activities about classical composers.
KS2
In the House of Sound where the science of music and musical instruments is always being investigated, Greg Foot and Fran Scott investigate brass instruments and how they make their loud, bright sounds.
Age 4 to 16
A website with a wide range of interactive musical games to practise aural training and theory.
Primary
Children’s section of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra website. A chance to find out about orchestral instruments and what it is like to perform in an orchestra.
All ages
The Philharmonia Orchestra have created videos for every instrument of the orchestra. Each player informs you a bit about the instrument and demonstrates how it sounds. Very educational and interesting!
Primary
Children’s section of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra website. Find out what it is like to play and conduct in the orchestra. Listen to different instruments and watch performances.
Apps
KS2 and beyond
This app will change the tempo or pitch of your backing tracks to help you practise at home. You need to upload your backing tracks onto your phone.
Beginner to Advanced
Import a track or create your song from scratch, collaborate with creators and producers, and publish your epic hits for the global BandLab community! Our easy-to-use multi-track editor is a launchpad that lets you record, edit and remix any tune to perfection. Throw in creative effects, beats, loops, and vocals from hundreds of free sound packs available, and be inspired by samples from musical genres like EDM, dubstep, garage, hip-hop, house, rock, rap and more.
Beginner to Advanced
It is so important for a musician to know what you are hearing. A good musical ear helps when you are composing, improvising, transcribing melodies, or playing with others.
KS2 and beyond
This is a great app for composing your own music, using your ipad. How creative can you be? Why not put on a garageband concert for your friends?
KS2 and beyond
A really useful app to help you play in time when you are practising at home, or even virtually with friends. Available on App Store and Play Store.
Brass
All ages
Videos of warm up exercises targeting parts of the body needed for playing.
Beginner to grade 2
This website provides music and backing tracks for trumpet, cornet, tenor horn, french horn, baritone and trombone. There are different levels to choose from, depending on how many notes the pupil has learnt.
Cello, Strings
Guitar, Ukulele
Grade 1 to 8
Useful resources for both exam pieces and supporting tests.
All pupils
This online tool can be used to show you the fretboard fingering of any chord on the guitar. Ideal for if you are trying to learn a new song that uses chords that you haven’t learnt yet.
All pupils
A quick and fun online game that helps you memorise the notes of the fretboard.
All pupils
Free app to download to a smart phone to enable you to tune your guitar
KS2, KS3, KS4
Use this website to practice your sight reading, melodic recall and harmonic recall tests for your Rock School Grade. Simply use the Library drop down menu and go to Practice Exams and select the grade and test you wish to practice.
All pupils
Strum Professor is an arcade-style guitar game that uses sound recognition to test your guitar chord switching skills. Chord symbols fall down the screen and your mission is to strum them on your real guitar to make them disappear before they get to the bottom. Try strumming along to the drumbeat too to work on your strumming rhythm. Each level brings new chords, faster tempo. Make sure your guitar is in tune before playing
All pupils
Free app to download to a smart phone to enable you to tune your ukulele
Instrumental
All pupils
This website provides sample aural tests for children preparing for their music exams.
Beginner, Intermediate pupils
On this free smartphone app you can challenge yourself to identify as many notes on the stave as you can in a given time. You can make the time longer or shorter depending on how much you want to challenge yourself.
All pupils
Create your own family band. This website is full of sheet music for a wide variety of instruments so families where siblings and parents play different instruments can create their own bands. Simply print off the music and enjoy!
Beginner, Intermediate pupils
This free smart phone app helps you practise sight-reading rhythms in time with a steady beat.
Singing
All ages
Explore the different elements that make up a song. Play or clap along then listen back to the version you have created.
All ages
These are warming-up and technical exercises for singers – and people who need to sing (eg, instrumentalists doing aural tests). The site has the books in pdf form, and backing tracks for the exercises
Violin
Beginner to Grade 2
Step by step lessons in reading notation for violin. Follow different links to find out about tempo and dynamics too
All pupils
Lessons in technique and how to stay motivated
All pupils
Free app to download to a smart phone to enable you to tune your violin
Pre grade 1
An app containing all the pieces from Vamoosh Violin book 1, with backing tracks and example videos. Only available on iOS
All pupils
A simple video repeatedly sounding the plucked open strings of a violin, so that students (or parents) can alter their pegs/fine tuners to match the correct pitch, thereby tuning their violin. A useful alternative to a tuning app.