Teaching Resources
Starter Activities
Successfully setting the scene at the start of a lesson can determine its shape and get the children excited, engaged and ready to learn.
Charanga offers a wide range of starter activities for all instruments and combinations. For example, using the Rhythm Grid tool to facilitate fun rhythm games is hugely popular. While different in style, Charanga’s series of Red and the Kingdom of Sound animations based on Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is equally loved.
You’ve plenty of options and can choose what to use according to your teaching style and the interests of the children.
The Language of Music
Helping children understand the building blocks of music is fundamental to their success. Charanga has developed several options to help make this aspect of learning exciting and captivating.
From musical cartoons explaining pulse, rhythm, pitch and other elements to the Music Notepad tool that helps you teach the written language of music, Charanga has a range of options to weave seamlessly into your lessons.
Early-stage Pieces
While you’ll no doubt have your own favourite pieces to use, Charanga offers an extensive library of interactive beginner pieces for every instrument. Its on-screen player includes an animation of the instrument playing the children’s part, plus a backing track, display, and tempo control options to help support the children’s learning.
You can always upload your own resources to create personal lessons combining your materials with Charanga’s starter activities, tools, pieces and songs, which you can display on-screen. And you don’t need to be online to do it.
Songs with Instrument Parts
Charanga are great believers in having children sing in every lesson. The platform has a library of songs. They are arranged so that you have options for the children to play simple parts (sometimes using just a single note) during sections of the song if you wish them to. Some of the songs are famous, others are specially composed, but all are popular with Charanga’s teaching community and great for classroom performances.
Ensembles
The earlier children experience the fun of coming together to play and perform in an ensemble, the more likely they want to continue their musical journey. The sociability and enjoyment of playing with friends provide important context for the hard work they put into learning their instrument.
Charanga offers a range of ensemble options for very early-stage learners. From single-tonality classroom band pieces to large ensembles for all instruments, these materials, alongside Charanga’s large ensemble songs with instrument parts, provide more options for bringing children together to show off their new skills.
YuStudio – Music Technology
An increasing number of instrumental teachers use a digital audio workstation (DAW) to explore and encourage their students to compose and make music. Charanga’s beginner-friendly YuStudio DAW has been purpose-built for education and is available to all instrumental teachers (and their students). If you’re new to using music tech, Charanga has some useful ‘getting started’ video tutorials specially created for the needs of instrumental teachers.