Back To School: Music Tech Lessons To Excite and Engage
Quick music tech lesson ideas
If you’re about to get stuck into a new school year, it can be great to get started with some quick, engaging lessons. Music tech-based activities can be effective and lots of fun!
Below are some music technology lesson plans and ideas you might like to try with your students. They can work as standalone activities, or as part of a longer unit of work.
1. Rap My Name [free lesson plan & walkthrough video]
The Rap My Name lesson has been super-popular with teachers all around the world! Students write a simple 4-measure rap within a given structure (longer if you like) and then create a rhythmic backing to go with it.
If you or your students would like to create a fun, rhythmic backing to accompany your scales, drills, warm-ups or songs, you can do it quickly with one of the options in the blog post below.
Use the opportunity to show students how a rhythmic pattern can be structured with contrasting parts to create interest. You could also have students perform the different parts of the pattern you create.
Incredibox has been a long-time favourite of music teachers around the world. I put together the information in this blog post a number of years ago but it’s still very relevant today. By framing your use of Incredibox in class it can become more than a simple novelty website.
4.Teaching Beatboxing Basics with Incredibox [free lesson plan]
Another Incredibox lesson – this time focussed on teaching the basics of beatboxing. In this lesson, students will learn about a cappella singing and beatboxing as an art form and to identify the difference between melodic and percussive sounds.
5. What In The World?? Unusual Musical Instruments [free lesson plan]
Youtube is a gold mine of fantastic videos. This free music tech lesson plan is an adaptable one – simply find any video that shows an “unusual” musical instrument and have the students answer some questions about the instrument: the materials it’s made from, how it produces sound, the tone, the player and so on. There are a few video suggestions in the blog post linked below and others in the downloadable lesson plan itself.
In this post you will find sample materials from the collection of Super-Simple Music Tech Lessons Using Free Websites which are a part of the Midnight Music Community. There is a full lesson plan, plus two printable worksheets you can use with your students – one for K-4 students and the other for 5-8 students.
6. Explore Rhythm and Meter with the Chrome Music Lab [free lesson plan]
In March of 2016, Google launched the free Chrome Music Lab Experiments site to celebrate Music In Our Schools month and to allow users to explore the way in which music works. I’m currently working on writing music tech lesson plans for all 13 of the Chrome Music Lab experiments which will be available to members of the Midnight Music Community.
7. Transforming The Blues with the GarageBand iPad app [free lesson plan]
If you’re looking for a blues activity that’s a little different – and you have some iPads you can use during class – you might like to ask students to “transform the blues” using the GarageBand app.
8. 9 Interactive Google Doodles You Can Use In Your Music Classes
Over the last few years, more than 2000 Google Doodles have been created to celebrate notable events or historical figures. My favourite Google Doodles though are the music-related ones – especially those that allow you and your students to learn more about an artist or event and also to create your own music.
Would you like to take a copy of this with you? Click on the download button below and we’ll send a copy straight to your email inbox.You’ll also receive weekly music tech tips and news (if you don’t already).You can unsubscribe at any time.
Want More?
Hello! I’m Katie Argyle – an Australian music technology trainer and consultant with a passion for helping music teachers through my business Midnight Music.
I’m a qualified teacher but no, I don’t currently teach in a school. I help teachers through my online professional development space – the Midnight Music Community – where there are tutorial videos, courses, links and downloadable resources.
I like to focus on easy ways to incorporate technology into what you are already doing in your music curriculum through a range of creative projects. I also run live workshops and have presented at countless conferences and other music education events.
If you want simple, effective ideas for using technology in music education, I would LOVE to help you inside the Midnight Music Community.
I’m Katie Argyle, founder of Midnight Music. I provide practical professional development that simplifies technology for music teachers, helping you teach with confidence and creativity using modern tools. I hold a Bachelor of Music (Education, Honours) from the University of Melbourne. With more than 15 years of experience, I’ve spoken at over 100 conferences and helped thousands of educators worldwide integrate technology into their teaching through my courses, workshops, and the Midnight Music Community.
Your go-to hub for tech-focussed professional development: step-by-step training, online courses & creative lesson ideas especially for music teachers!
THE ULTIMATE FREE MUSIC TECH RESOURCES GUIDE 2025-2026
Download our annual guide to 350+ of the best free tech resources, organized into 30 categories to help you supercharge your classroom. It’s totally free. Get yours today.
Never felt happier in my job!
THANK YOU, MIDNIGHT MUSIC!!! WOW!
We LOVED our introduction to GarageBand… What’s In A Name is so fun and easy to follow. I used your teaching video, pausing it where appropriate for the students to go off and record. I was so proud of MYSELF when I tried it out that I KNEW the kids would love it too!”
This is the Privacy Policy for the Midnight Music website located at www.midnightmusic.com (“Site”).
The Site is operated by Midnight Music Pty Ltd ABN 87 619 652 603 (“Midnight Music” or “Company” or “we” or “us”).
Midnight Music understands the importance of protecting your personal information and undertakes to adhere to this privacy policy at all times to ensure your personal information is effectively safeguarded.
Information you provide to us
The Site provides various places for users to provide information. We collect information that users provide by filling out forms on the Site, communicating with us via contact forms, responding to surveys, search queries on our search feature, providing comments or other feedback, providing information when ordering a product or service via the Site, and other circumstances where collecting personal information is reasonable and permitted by the Laws of the State of Victoria, Australia.
We use information you provide to us to deliver the requested product and/or service, to improve our overall performance, and to provide you with offers, promotions, and information.
Information we collect through automatic data collection technology
As you navigate through the Site, we may use automatic data collection technologies including Google Analytics to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns. This will generally include information about your location, your traffic pattern through our Site, and any communications between your computer and our Site. Among other things, we will collect data about the type of computer you use, your Internet connection, your IP address, your operating system, and your browser type.
The information we collect automatically is used for statistical data and will not include personal information. We use this data to improve our Site and our service offerings. To the extent that you voluntarily provide personal information to us, our systems will associate the automatically collected information with your personal information.
Use of cookies and pixels
Similar to other commercial websites, our Site utilises a standard technology called “cookies” and server logs to collect information about how our site is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our site, and the websites visited just before and just after our own, as well as your IP address.
A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a website, that site’s computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.
The Company reserves the right to use technological equivalents of cookies, including social media pixels. These pixels allow social media sites to track visitors to outside websites so as to tailor advertising messages users see while visiting that social media website. The Company reserves the right to use these pixels in compliance with the policies of the various social media sites.
Use of SMS
We collect mobile phone numbers to send SMS messages. By providing your mobile number, you consent to receive SMS communications from us regarding our products, services, and promotions. We will not share your mobile number with third parties. Message frequency may vary based on your interaction with us. Message and data rates may apply. You can opt-out of receiving SMS messages at any time by following the instructions provided in the message or by contacting us directly.
How we manage personal information
Midnight Music undertakes to take all commercially reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information collected by us is accurate, up-to-date, complete and stored securely. When your personal information is no longer required for the purposes which Midnight Music uses personal information, all commercially reasonable steps will be undertaken to securely destroy that information.
How your personal information will be used
We use personal information for purposes of presenting our Site and its contents to you, providing you with information, providing you with offers for products and services, providing you with information about your subscriptions and products, carrying out any contract between you and the Company, administering our business activities, providing customer service, and making available other items and services to our customers and prospective customers. From time-to-time, we may use the information you provide to us to make you offers to purchase products and services provided by third parties in exchange for a commission to be paid to us by such third parties. Should you opt to take part in such promotions, the third parties will receive your information.
Disclosure of your information
Midnight Music considers personal information we collect about you to be confidential and will not disclose such information to third parties except in the following circumstances:
Where you have consented to your personal information being provided to a third party;
Where Midnight Music is required by law to disclose your information; and
Gaining access to your personal information held by Midnight Music
Except in circumstances where access to your personal information may be denied by the Privacy Act or other Law of the State of Victoria, Australia, your personal information will be provided to you upon request.
Visitors’ General Data Protection Regulation rights
If you are within the European Union, you are entitled to certain information and have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These include the following:
We will retain the any information you choose to provide to us until: (a) you ask us to delete the information; (b) we decide to cease using our existing data providers; or (c) the Company decides that the value in retaining the data is outweighed by the costs of retaining it.
You have the right to request access to your data that the Company stores and the rights to either rectify or erase your personal data.
You have the right to seek restrictions on the processing of your data.
You have the right to object to the processing of your data and the right to the portability of your data.
To the extent that you provided consent to the Company’s processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based upon consent that occurred prior to your withdrawal of consent.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority that has jurisdiction over issues related to the General Data Protection Regulation.
We require only the information that is reasonably required to enter into a contract with you. We will not require you to provide consent for any unnecessary processing as a condition of entering into a contract with us.
Contact us
Should you have any queries in relation to the above or require further information regarding the Privacy Policy please contact us:
Midnight Music Pty Ltd PO Box 219 Glen Waverley Victoria 3150 AUSTRALIA
![Teaching Beatboxing Basics with Incredibox [free lesson plan]](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20width='150'%20height='150'%20viewBox='0%200%20150%20150'%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![Teaching Beatboxing Basics with Incredibox [free lesson plan]](https://midnightmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/teaching-incredibox.png)
![What In The World?? Unusual Musical Instruments [free lesson plan]](https://midnightmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/unusual-instruments.png)
![Explore Rhythm and Meter with the Chrome Music Lab [free lesson plan]](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20width='150'%20height='172'%20viewBox='0%200%20150%20172'%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![Explore Rhythm and Meter with the Chrome Music Lab [free lesson plan]](https://midnightmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/explore-rhythm.png)
![Transforming The Blues with the GarageBand iPad app [free lesson plan]](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20width='150'%20height='160'%20viewBox='0%200%20150%20160'%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![Transforming The Blues with the GarageBand iPad app [free lesson plan]](https://midnightmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/transforming-the-blues.png)
