Sibelius Projects for Students Online Course

Ideas for using Sibelius in the classroom

About this Course

During this 4-week online course we’ll look at a range of progressive notation-based activities (more than 35!) you can use with your students to listen to music, identify patterns, reconstruct songs, harmonise melodies, identify song form, compose original melodies, create rhythmic, melodic and harmonic variations on a melody and compose music to film.

The course will demonstrate adaptable activities that suit a wide range of student ages and levels of experience. Through these activities students will learn the elements of music, compose melodies, create accompaniments and arrange songs and gain an understanding of the way notation software works along the way.

You’ll also learn a series of insider teacher tricks: behind-the-scenes tips that will help you use Sibelius effectively (and successfully) with your students.

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Course Format

This course is available when you join the Midnight Music Community.  Membership to the Midnight Music Community gives you access to this course, and 11 other online courses, plus lesson plans, help and advice.

Course Outline

Start simply by providing students with partially-made scores and discover ways to “accidentally” teach software skills.

We’ll run through a series of adaptable activities that will suit Sibelius beginners of almost any age from Year 3 – Year 12 including:

  • basic transcription and ear-training tasks
  • easy ways to introduce compositional techniques like retrograde, augmentation, diminution, and inversion
  • composing simple rhythmic accompaniments
  • re-writing lyrics to a well-known piece
  • adding or changing dynamics
  • varying tempo and musical style
  • experimenting with instrumentation
  • using Sibelius playback for instant feedback

Behind-the-scenes teacher tips include: setting up Sibelius scores effectively for student use, ways to approach note input skills, quick copy and paste methods, entering text objects correctly in Sibelius to affect playback.

Learn effective ways to use the Ideas window – one of Sibelius’s most under-utilised features – with your students.

Use Ideas to:

  • rebuild a song from a series of short “building blocks”
  • create an accompaniment to a 3- or 4-chord pop song
  • make your own minuet
  • create a compositional scrapbook

Behind-the-scenes teacher tips include: learning all about the Ideas window; creating and capturing Ideas; editing Idea info; limiting access to Ideas.

Learn how to get started with film scoring. This session will cover film scoring background material, places to find resources and the technical Sibelius skills needed to do film scoring projects with your students:

We’ll cover:

  • the role of music in films
  • comparison different styles of music with the same movie scene
  • how to import a movie into a Sibelius score
  • how to create hit points in a score
  • ways to use untuned percussion to mimic sound effects
  • how match sounds to hit points
  • playback and navigation shortcuts
  • simple techniques for creating suspenseful music
  • how to export and share student work

Behind-the-scenes teacher tips include: where to find copyright-free films for use in school projects, appropriate movie file types and editing videos for student projects.

Tips for using Sibelius effectively with senior or advanced students. Example projects for students include:

  • compose your own 12 bar blues, export from Sibelius and import into Acid, GB or Mixcraft to add own performance, or other drum parts
  • step-by-step approach to teaching and writing drum notation: listen, transcribe, play, notate
  • improvisation projects – create a backing for a jazz standard, then play and/or notate an improvised section over the top
  • reharmonising a melody
  • presentation of notated student compositions: common mistakes, formatting and layout tips, adding student commentary/narration, tracking compositional progress over time using Versions
  • tips for teaching transcription: workflow, using audio software to slow down or transpose audio, shortcuts

Behind-the-scenes teacher tips include: exporting audio files, utilising the mixer, Versions, working with voices

*Midnight Music reserves the right to alter course content when necessary.

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What’s Included

  • 5+ hours of video
  • Extensive step-by-step session notes
  • Links to extra resources
  • Professional development certificate
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Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

Teachers who would like to introduce notation software to their students, enhance music literacy skills, explore film scoring and help senior students submit polished scores for assessment purposes.

Is this course for beginners?

No prior experience is required.

What do I need?

A PC or Mac computer, internet access and a copy of Sibelius.

Which version of Sibelius is the course based on?

This course is based mostly on Sibelius 7, but explanations are also given for previous versions of Sibelius (which looks substantially different to version 7).

How do I access the course materials?

Once payment has been made, you will receive a login name and password to the online course materials area. All course videos and session notes are accessed online, via your internet connection.

How long do I have access to the course?

Access to this course is ongoing for as long as you have an active membership subscription to the Midnight Music Community.