Music Home Learning
For those families hoping to offer some music provision as part of their home learning, please find some recommended resources below, roughly ordered by difficulty.
1. Learn about classical music
- Radio: Classic FM (https://www.classicfm.com/) and Scala Radio (https://planetradio.co.uk/scala-radio/) are the most accessible classical music stations for children.
- Classics for Kids (https://www.classicsforkids.com): A great website for learning about the classical composers and their music.
2. Learn an instrument
- Instrumental Practice: Why not build 30 minutes of practice into your daily timetable? Little and often is always the best way to learn a new skill! Most of our peripatetic music teachers are continuing to offer online lessons, which might help to break up your child's daily routine.
- Music Theory (https://www.musictheory.net/lessons): This is a good opportunity for children to start learning music theory, something which develops musicianship and will come in useful for secondary school music. This website is free and offers accompanying exercises but will not suit children who struggle to read independently.
3. Join an online choir
- Ben England's Quarantine Choirs: Online singing workshops with a brilliant conductor from Bristol.
- QC Kids is aimed at children: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIngS9V1Y4Li7uYF6mU0N28pM_55ElNbR
- Quarantine Choir is singing for all: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIngS9V1Y4Lg0nJbuAbATHLVisp1ds_y2
- Quarantine Chorus is traditional choral music (starting with a recent choir song, Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus): https://YouTu.be/j_W_6XhooJM
- Gareth Malone's 'Home Malone' Choir (https://decca.com/greatbritishhomechorus/): The largest of the various online choirs which have been set up.
- Stay At Home Choir (https://stayathomechoir.com): Run by prominent conductors, the latest free project involves singing along with The King's Singers.
4. Other
- Ollie Tunmer's 'Body Beats' (https://www.youtube.com/user/OllieTunmer/videos): Daily body percussion workshops led by a former West End performer, highly recommended.
- Amherst Choir (https://www.amherst.kent.sch.uk/page/?title=Amherst+Choir&pid=102): Initially set up for the Amherst Choir, all children in school are welcome to access this password-protected part of our website, on which I have put some choir songs. Login details are amherstchoir (username) and Folder47 (password)
- Singing Lessons: My singer teacher, operatic soprano Helena Dix (http://helenadix.com/), has offered to take any children for online singing lessons. She is a fantastic singer, has a great sense of humour and can be contacted at helena@helenadix.com.