There’s a growing list of fantastic online musical “instruments” and games that are a great resource for teachers in the music classroom. They can be effective when used with students on laptops and desktops, but they also work really well in a one-computer classroom with a large screen or better still, an interactive whiteboard.
Get Creative with Pentatonic Improvisation
- Tone Matrix by Andre Michelle
- Add (or remove) sounds by clicking on a box on the grid
- Press the spacebar to clear the whole grid and start again
- Based on the pentatonic scale
- Turn your computer keyboard into a musical keyboard
- Play along with your choice of Youtube videos
- Select your scale type, mode, and root, and have hours of fun!
- The big brother of the Tone Matrix
- Add drum patterns, other sounds and change the tempo
- Produce music online
Online Instruments
The next few online “instruments” are a bit of fun and would work really well with an interactive whiteboard. Many don’t allow you to record or export your songs, so don’t go composing your masterpiece using these apps unless you’re notating it as you go! The better ones allow you to play notes using your computer keyboard in addition to clicking on keys or buttons with your mouse.
- A loop-based rhythm generator
- An online drum sampler
- Play with waveform and different effects
- You can also loop and record
Online Music Games
9. Incredibox
- A cappella fun
- Create your own arrangement using vocal percussion, backing parts and lead vocals
10. Don’t Worry Be Happy game (Bobby McFerrin)
- Another a cappella “game”
- Also good for discussing arranging techniques
- Activate parts in one at a time by dragging the part name across to the white area
- Notation allows you to follow each part
11. Ball droppings
- Physics and music combine
- Draw lines across the screen to make the balls bounce and create different pitches
- Good for interactive whiteboard
12. NY Phil kids
- Excellent collection of educational music games for primary and middle school students
- Create a minuet
- Match composers or instruments
- Beat Polly Rhythmic in the percussion showdown
- Sort instruments into their families
- Experiment with instrument sounds in the Orchestration Station
- and more
Online Drum Sequencers
- Uses a circular ‘pizza’ interface to represent rhythmic patterns
- Create a drum pattern by using the drum grid underneath the ‘pizza’
- Useful for cross-curricular maths-music lessons because it allows you to view rhythmic patterns as shapes and angles
- An online virtual old-school drum machine
- Build beats, adjust the playback sound, the tempo and set up A/B patterns
- Download the pattern as a WAV file and then import it into other software
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14 Comments
[…] Music Sites from Twitter – Cool online instruments and games for the music classroom Katie Argyle – @katiesw1 http://musictechtips.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/cool-online-instruments-and-games-for-the-music-classr… […]
I also use a resource https://chordchord.com/ I find it very useful for musicians. Here you can create and find interesting chord sequences. Also this site can help you improve your music or offer you some good chords to create music.
[…] Recommended posts: “Tutorial: How to Convert Audio Files Using iTunes,” “Cool Online Instruments and Games for the Music Classroom,” ”Musescore in 10 easy steps,” and “11 of the Best Free Sheet Music […]
What about Soundation studio, no other music making web app has, recording, 9 virtual instruments, 400 loops, 11 real time effects all free plus more paid features.
[…] had trouble sleeping especially after my first tour in Iraq. One night I came across this silly website that had some music tools. I spent all of my waking hours (that night) playing with these […]
Thanks. Great list of good websites.
I want to introduce a website that has web apps for playing musical instruments online, sight reading and ear training.
http://rameshgar.com/en/
You can play piano, harp and persian musical instruments in your browser by your keyboard or by touch in mobile and also record what you have played.
[…] Cool Online Instruments and Games for the Music Classroom – There’s a growing list of fantastic online musical "instruments" and games that are a great resource for teachers in the music classroom. They can be effective […]
[…] is one of the most popular free cross-platform audio editing programs. 2. 3. 4. trakAxpc 5. Cool Online Instruments and Games for the Music Classroom | Midnight Music. Cool Online Instruments and Games for the Music Classroom There’s a growing list of fantastic […]
Thank ypu Katie for this list of Online Instruments and Games for the Music Classroom!
If you are thinking about to update this page in the future, take also a look at
SoMiDo Music q https://so.mi.do
Have a nice day!
Thanks for sharing that – nice set of games!
Simple Voice Changer – Apply funny effects to your voice with this easy to use free online
https://myvoicemod.com
One of my favorite apps for music creation is https://chordchord.com/. It helps getting some more skills and improve musical compositions as well as suggest you some sweet chord sequences to make music. Basically that’s how I learned progressions myself. I’m more hands-on learner so this website worked pretty well for me.
damn everybody prefers other music apps, sorry katie…
This post is a bit old now – first published 10 years ago!