Teaching in the Virtual World

updated July 21, 2020

With the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, most schools shut down in March of 2020. Overnight and without warning, teachers were expected to step up and create a completely brand new way of delivering their instruction. Most secondary school-based courses, such as band, chorus, and orchestra heavily rely on the ability to perform in groups synchronously and this became an impossibility online.

Online teaching changed the approach in which teachers needed to take to continue to provide a high level of music education. This was much different and not nearly as exciting as face to face teaching and learning. There are many moving parts to teaching online, including a plethora of various technology issues.

As my school district has recently announced a complete virtual start to the 2020-20201 school year, I will continue to be finding new ways and adapting my teaching to fit this new model.

Below are the slides from my first presentation on Teaching Music in the Virtual World. This page will be updated as more and more resources become available.

Links mentioned in the presentation:

How-To or Tutorial Examples:

• D-Major with Rhythmic Variations
• Tutorial on a difficult section of music
• Rhythm help showing a music score

Computer and Accessories:

• Apple MacBook Pro (minimum 16GB RAM, 1 TB SSD)
• External SSD (not just a hard drive). SSD is faster! 1TB, minimum
• iPad Pro

Video Cameras

• Zoom Q8
• Internal Mac Webcam

Audio/Microphones

• Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 Audio Interface (smaller interfaces such as the 2i4 are great too!)
• Highly recommend a quality microphone. USB mics are great and easy to use!

Software

• Google Classroom
• Google Docs, Forms, Sheets, Slides
• PDF Expert
• ForScore (iPad)
• AnyTune Pro (iPad) – lets you speed up and slow down music and export
• Garageband/Logic Pro X (digital audio workstation)
• Final Cut Pro X (video editing)
• Online Video Editing: WeVideo.com
• Amadeus Pro/Audacity – Two Channel Audio Editors
• Finale, Musescore, Noteflight (notation)

More Resources

• Google Classroom
• Google Mee
• zoom.us
• Microsoft Teams
• YouTube – Christian Howe’s Play-along playlist
• Duck Soup – create e-documents (great for theory, etc.)
• MusicTheory.net – tons of lessons and customizable drills
• UpbeatMusicApp.com – play virtual duets (almost) in real time.
• Essential Elements Interactive – web companion to the method book
• Musescore
• Noteflight (online notation)

Virtual Ensemble Examples (from the Alpharetta HS Orchestra)

• The Star Spangled Banner
• Millennium by Richard Meyer