Chrome Music Lab – How to use this FREE site in your music classroom

 

I always find it tough to find more ways to bring technology into the music room. It can often serve as more of a distraction than a helper! But Chrome Music Lab has been one of my favourite tech tools I’ve ever used in elementary music class – here’s a quick guide to what it is, along with a few tips to use it in your classroom! 

Chrome Music Lab (CML) is a website with 14 different “experiments” that allow students to experience music in different ways with different visualizations. It can be a great tool to put sight to sound in music, or to get students who are hesitant about composing to get their ideas out there! Some experiments are simpler visualizers, while some allow students to compose and even save and share their compositions. The most well-known experiment from CML is “Song Maker”, where students can make their own compositions using simple block notation, and even add colour and experiment with different instrumentation! (Check out my bundle of Song Maker activities if that sounds interesting to you!)

Tip #1: Let Students Explore!

When I’m introducing students to CML for the first time, the first activity we always do is some unguided exploration time. I usually let the students go wild looking at all the different experiments for the first 5 – 10 minutes, and then have them pair and share one cool thing they found with a partner. Moving from something like this into a more structured activity (like my Getting To Know Chrome Music Lab Scavenger Hunts) lets students have “aha” moments when they realized they already found the thing they’re looking for back when they were exploring on their own!

Tip #2: Differentiate Instruction

You can use CML to differentiate for many different kinds of composing tasks. Kandinsky is an experiment that lets students compose through drawing pictures – use this with students who may struggle with traditional notation (or check out my KandinskyDrawing Challenge to use it with everyone!) If you are doing a composition activity with Song Maker and there are students who are overwhelmed by the number of options, point them to the even simpler Melody Maker experiment so they can compose without distractions.

Tip #3: Bring the experiments into real life!

CML has great opportunities for cross-curricular connections with Science class. For example: after looking at the Strings experiment, have students look at the strings on stringed instrument and guess what shortening or lengthening the string will do. You can also have students use rubber bands to make their own stringed instruments using the same scientific principles!

 

 

If you haven’t got enough Chrome Music Lab knowledge after this, check out my FREE Teacher’s Guide to Chrome Music Lab with all these tips and more!