Over the next several weeks, come join us as we count down to the release of the 2022-23 Ultimate Free Music Tech Resource Guide (coming July 2022) by taking a peek at several of our very favorite new additions highlighted here on the blog!
First on our list is Doctor Musik!
Enjoy!
This is a guest post written by one of our teacher-authors, Katherine (Katie) Miller.
Introduction
Every once and a while you find a tech resource that makes you wonder how you taught without it. Doctor Musik is one of those sites! Created by music educator, Thierry Simard of Montreal, Canada, Doctor Musik has a variety of games and apps created to help students get familiar with musicianship skills.
In this blog, I’ll highlight some of Doctor Musik’s games and activities as well as several ways to use them in your music classroom.
Staff Practice Activities & Games
Aquarium
Aquarium is a game focused on students identifying absolute pitch names by moving the letter appearing on each fish to the correct line or space of the staff.
Staff Dungeon
Staff Dungeon is an interactive absolute pitch naming game that requires note naming skills and strategy to collect treasure and keys as you maneuver to gain access to the next level.
Click the image below to watch a sample game of Staff Dungeon:
Robot Factory
Robot Factory, available for play with absolute pitch and solfege, has you identify notes to build robots and fill boxes.
Rhythm Practice Activities & Games
Rhythm Decryptor
Rhythm Decryptor is a simple rhythm identification game that asks you to listen to an audio sample and select the correct rhythmic notation.
Sea of Rhythms
Sea of Rhythms is a teacher-led game that allows students to clap rhythms individually or as a class. There is also an opportunity to add instruments during game play.
Together you travel and discover the treasure!
Composition Games & Activities
Boom Writer
Boom Writer is a simple 4-measure music composer that corresponds to Boomwhacker colors.
Robot Sequencer
Robot Sequencer is a robot-themed (and Boomwhacker-color coordinated) way to create a song with pitched and unpitched percussion similar to the very popular Chrome Music Lab Songmaker.
Robot Composer
Robot Composer is a treble clef staff composer using robot parts.
And, this is only the beginning of what is available on the website!
Doctor Musik is worth checking out because all of the games and apps are mobile device friendly (no need for the outdated Flash Player) and targeted toward the early musicians in content, ability, and fun. Many of the activities also have the ability to save student work in order to go back to finish or refine work as well as being able to share it with you. And, as always, my favorite part is that all of them are available to you for free!
Using Doctor Musik in your Music Classroom
There are so many options for incorporating the Doctor Musik website into your music classroom. In my classroom, I find that I tend to use this site in 3 different ways.
- Extension to Learning for Early Finishers
I include the link to the Doctor Musik website on the fantastic virtual music room I created a few years back. Students in my classroom can use the virtual music room as a place to access extension activities if they finish early or have extra time for some other reason. It is a perfect place to send students to explore because everything included on the site is appropriate to continue their learning. You could also pick out a particular activity for students to access by posting a specific link in your own virtual classroom or Google Classroom or by creating a QR code for students to scan on from a device.
- Accommodations for Students to have Similar Experiences
Doctor Musik is also a great option for helping to make accommodations for students because of the variety of virtual instruments available. For instance, the virtual recorder could be used with students who are unable to produce a sound on a physical recorder or the virtual ukulele could be used by students who do not have an instrument at home to practice. This is one of the best websites I have found to try and help all students be successful in my music classroom.
- Classroom Practice of Learned Skills
Games and apps on the Doctor Musik site can also be used as another tool to support the day-to-day learning within your classroom.
For example, I love using the Boom!Writer app. As young students are learning about the basics of rhythm or pitch, providing opportunities for using their learning by composing can be challenging. However, the Boom!Writer app allows students to use standard notation with a click of a button.
The app itself will help students organize their ideas into measures while giving them an aural example of the pitch they choose.
Additional Activity
Here is an example of two activities that I use with my first-grade students to take their compositions from the website to paper to practice identifying quarter and eighth notes or to identify sol-mi-la pitches on the staff.
You can also access the worksheet template to edit in Canva by clicking here.
Final Thoughts
Do you have another idea about how this activity could be edited to fit your classroom?
Have you used the Doctor Musik website in your classroom?
What is your favorite app or game?
Let us know in the comments below!
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About Katherine Miller
Katherine (Katie) Miller holds a Bachelor of Music in Education degree from Otterbein University (Westerville, OH) and a Masters of Educational Leadership from Antioch McGregor Midwest (Yellow Springs, OH). She has 15 years of professional musical experience as a music educator and performer.
She resides in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area where she teaches K-5 General Music and serves as a district model tech classroom. She was recognized in 2018 as a WPT Education Innovator by the Wisconsin Public Television Education team. Twitter: K8TMiller
Want More Resources for Music Teachers?
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.
3 Comments
Hi
I am trying to use the code for the ukulele reouces to get 50% off and it say it is not working. The Xylo code worked but not the uke ne which is the one I really wanted. Can you help. iI only have 2 days to use it as it runs out on the 10th June.
Hi
I am trying to use the code for the ukulele resouces to get 50% off and it say it is not working. The Xylo code worked but not the uke ne which is the one I really wanted. Can you help. I only have 2 days to use it as it runs out on the 10th June.
I have recently come across this wonderful website for Music education, and have used Dr. Music in my classroom. My students enjoy creating songs and then sharing it with their classmates. It is quite useful since they can practice the concepts that I have taught them and be successful.