Don’t snooze on YouTube! There are some amazing channels out there that we can utilize as music teachers. In the past my go to places to search for ideas have been blogs and Pinterest, and don’t get me wrong they are still GREAT places, but I find myself more and more turning to YouTube.
I sat down to write this post, searched all my subscriptions, and I actually had a list of 22 channels that are great! But to not overwhelm anyone I am going to start with 5. Let me know in the comments below if you would like me to continue this blog post series. I am more than happy to share more!
Lesson Ideas
Bow Tie Music
Will Doublestein shares all kinds of lesson ideas! From instruments, folk dances, recorder, movement, and performances. What I really love about his channel is he went the extra mile and got his students involved! Seeing these lessons in action, instead of just talking about them is so valuable to any music teacher!
Body Percussion
Nerea Seijoso
Nerea has some of the best body percussion videos out there! The song selections are so fun and she has a wide variety of repertoire. Also, I really appreciate her generous, humble nature! With a quick google translate (She speaks Portuguese) you can read on her blog how much she believes in sharing with other music educators!
Philosophy
Chronicles of Teacher Tay
Taylor and I started our YouTube channels around the same time and it has been so fun to follow along on his journey! He shares his life in and out of the classroom, which I think is so important to normalize that teachers have lives outside of the profession! There are many times Taylor reflects about teaching and it is genius! He is a teacher that truly cares about the whole child! If you are looking for fun, upbeat videos with a slice of vulnerable real life teaching reflections Taylor is your guy!
Just Cool
Music EDUcoology
The creator of this channel is from the Czech Republic and just recently started making videos in English! I am so glad Jakub Kacar did, because his videos are innovative! I have never seen lesson ideas like this before! He does a great job of using pop culture and current music to teach theory. These videos are definitely for your older kids but could be modified and a great starting point for even more ideas that you could bring to your classroom.
Theory
Music Mindsets – Sing Step Grow
I have had the hardest time explaining over the years the difference between steady beat and rhythm to my younger students. This year I discovered Music Mindsets and after watching a 3 minute video by her my students were crystal clear on the difference! Louise is based out of Queensland, Australia and has a passion for helping teachers deliver music content easily to their students. Many of her videos break down big vocabulary words in music like tempo, dynamics, rhythm, and beat!
As always thanks for reading! Please let me know who your favorite music teaching YouTubers are in the comments below. I am always on the look out for more creators to follow! It is so cool that we are seeing more and more Music Educators on the platform!
Thank you for this! I really want to incorporate more body percussion in my lessons so thank you for discovering the Nerea Seijoso channel and sharing! I wanted to know – I can see my students successfully participating while sitting for the videos but when it comes to stomping with one foot – What do you do? Do the students get up a measure before in preparation for that? And then do they stomp while standing and stay standing and pat their lap while standing? Thank you!
Hi Maribel,
Of course! She has an amazing channel! Most of the time when there is stomping involved I have the students stand the whole time so they are ready at any moment.
Thanks for checking out the blog 🙂
Jessie