Collection: Music Learning Resources


 

We have a variety of videos on our YouTube playlist above that will grow your knowledge and love of music.

Browse the free downloads below to see some of the unique charts we've made to teach different musical concepts.

Blow the doors off of your musical world and find your new favourite style with our Cornucopia playlist on Spotify.

Similarly, you can watch a wonderful cornucopia of mini-concerts on Benny's Tiny Desk Gems.

Or take that on-ramp to classical music that you've been meaning to take with Benny's Classical Gems.

Explore music in some really unique ways with these web apps:

Chrome Music Lab

Blob Opera

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Follow along with our students on their Musical Discovery of the Week:

1. The Twist - Chubby Checker's dance craze from 1960 is still fun. And Mr. Checker didn't just have one twist song - he also had such hits as Let's Twist Again, Slow Twistin', The Mexican Hat Twist, Twist Train and more! If you saw us play live this spring, you know that Liam, one of our students, wrote a terrific new twist song - our students will be working on a music video and recording for that!

2. Bobby McFerrin - You know that song Don't Worry Be Happy? Did you know the only instrument in the recording is Bobby? He has developed a unique style of performing where he goes back and forth from bass to falsetto and everywhere between to create the whole spectrum of notes from a band, and keeps the rhythm going by tapping his chest. In this impressive performance of his song Drive, he does all of that, plus harmonizes with himself using a technique called throat singing, and fills it all in with some road sound effects.

3. Theme & Variations (The Laundry Song) - If you have Samsung laundry machines of a certain age, there is a hilariously long song that plays when the cycle finishes. That song? Trout Quintet: Theme & Variations by Austrian composer Franz Schubert. Written in the early 1800s, this piece follows a classical music format called theme and variations, where you play a "theme" (a memorable musical snippet), then play it a few more times in different ways. Faster/slower, louder/softer, swap some major chords for minor, play it like a T-Rex stomping through the jungle, a butterfly fluttering around a soccer field, or a giant tiptoeing through the tulips. And this doesn't just need to be a classical thing! What different ways could we play our Dino Song?

4. Shave & a Haircut Everyone has heard the singsongy door knock / song ending with the call and response. Doot dooda loot doot... doot doo. Did you know there are words to it? Shave and a haircut... two bits! This video will explain it. [PG: If you want to avoid some colourful language, end the video after the Roger Rabbit thing, by 2:40.]

5. Talking Drums (Playing with Feel) - We try to emphasize to our students the concept of playing with "feel." Like when they play a scale, it's not just about playing the notes in order, it's about making it sound like a song, with some musicality and emotion. /// Most instruments have a wide range of possible feel. Volume, force, texture and many intricate subtleties that it would be hard to put words to. Another way to say that would be personality. If you put the exact same instrument in two different people's hands and ask them to play the same song, you would be surprised how much the song will change! /// A fun way to practice feel is to use your instrument to play along to dialogue - a conversation, a Bible verse, movie quotes, etc. This video does that with a scene from Willy Wonka. Give it a try! /// BONUS: There is actually an instrument from West Africa that is used to mimic human speech - the talking drum. CHECKITOUT!

6. Jacob Collier - Jacob's concert special Live in Lisbon 2022 is appointment viewing. Set aside a couple hours with some good speakers and enjoy. /// A once-in-a-generation musical prodigy, Jacob mixes his musical mastery with joy and colourful creativity. Imagine if you mixed Stevie Wonder with Beethoven and gave him as much energy as a 3-year-old. /// And watching him wordlessly conduct the audience into a breathtaking choir is something to behold. /// Jacob is a great follow online, and has a wonderful, growing catalogue of recorded music to listen to.

7. Cumbia - This week our The Luminescent Often Magnificent Joyful Awe Music Fun Band jammed in the Latin music style called CUMBIA. /// Fito broke it down for us and we split the group into 3 sections to play the various aspects of the groove. We also reviewed our chumpachumpa. You can expect to hear some Latin grooves at our future concerts! /// A couple years ago, we released a cumbia song called Ears, that teaches one of Benny's favourite Bible verses, ¡Checkitout!

17 products
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