The traditional school year is nearly over and everyone is dreaming of the fun change of routine that summer brings. Often in the summer months, students feel unsure about what to practice next and can become easily overwhelmed by too many options—our Music Catalog has LOTS of choices!
To help narrow the focus, we’ve teamed up with some composers and other friends to curate a selection of fun playlists for musicians of all levels to engage with over the summer months. We’ll be adding more playlists throughout the summer, so be sure to bookmark this page to revisit. Teachers: share this page (or specific playlists) with your students so that you can take a break knowing that your musicians have access to some fantastic music!
Let’s make this summer even more fun…
We’re excited to MakeMusic with you this summer and want to offer a reward to a couple of communities of musicians who improve their skills and make music over the next few months. Here’s how to participate:
Teachers:
- You’ll need a MakeMusic Cloud platform. If you don’t have one yet, you can request a free 30 day platform trial here.
- Fill out the Official Entry Form for your school music group (one entry per school music program)
- Share this link with your students so they can access the featured playlists. Encourage your students to practice from these lists over the summer!
- If you are in the habit of archiving your classes at the end of the school year, we recommend that you either wait to do that OR invite returning students to a summer class so they can have full access to participate.
We’ll do the heavy lifting
From June 1 – July 31, 2023, we’ll be keeping an eye on the engagement of your MakeMusic Cloud platform based on the information that you share in the Official Entry Form, and at the beginning of August, we’ll announce two (2) winning groups:
- One award will go to the group that has the highest overall engagement with the featured playlists between June 1 – July 31, 2023. We’re calculating this award by determining the group with the highest level of engagement.
- The second award will go to the group that has the highest average of engagement with the featured playlists between June 1 – July 31, 2023. We’re calculating this award by looking at the number of active users in your platform and then calculating the average engagement level. This category is ideal for smaller programs—programs of any size with high engagement will have a high score here!
You can read all of the Official Rules here.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal U.S. residents (excluding residents of AZ) and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec), who are 18 or older and the age of majority in their state, excluding MakeMusic’s employees, family and household members. Enter by submitting your online entry form between May 17, 2023 and July 31, 2023. See Official Rules for judging criteria. ARV of prize: $250.00. For a copy of the Official Rules, visit www.makemusic.com/summer23 or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope with your request to Sponsor: MakeMusic, Inc., 285 Century Place, Louisville, CO 80027.
What’s the prize?!
The winning programs will receive a virtual clinic with composer Brian Balmages!
Access to technology and instruments over the summer isn’t universal
We know that instrument cleaning schedules, internet access, vacations, instrument size, and a million other things create unique situations for students over the summer months. We are glad to provide some resources and guidance for students who want to practice over the summer but may not have access to an instrument, device, or reliable internet.
No instrument? No problem—encourage students without instrument access to explore our Rhythm-Only playlists so they can come back in the fall ready to impress you with superpowered rhythm reading skills!
No technology access? We’ve got some ideas for that, too! Students who are motivated to practice but cannot access MakeMusic Cloud will thrive when you send them home with music from your program’s music library. You can also consider loaning them a higher level method book or book of solos to explore based on the situation. If you have the Print Add-on, you can easily print off a few things for these students that way! We’ll even count the hard work of these students without technology access over the summer toward your platform’s overall engagement.
If you’d like to submit your offline-student’s practice time to the overall engagement total you can do so via this form. This must be completed by 11:59:59PM August 10, 2023.
Encourage students to track their progress
Grab this free, printable practice habit tracker to keep all students engaged (and help those offline-students keep track of practice minutes).
Let’s get to the music
Band Playlists
These special band playlists are ready for every level of band musician and were created just for you by your favorite composers! Open each playlist to read a message from each composer about their selections.
String Playlists
These special orchestra playlists are ready for every level of string musician and were created just for you by your favorite composers! Open each playlist to read a message from each composer about their selections.
Time Warp Playlists
These special Time Warp playlists will take you through an ENTIRE method book in just ONE playlist! Great for review or for forging ahead, these are perfect for any young musician no matter the method book they started learning from!
Rhythm-Only Playlists
Explore these rhythm-only playlists that will take you progressively through Count Me In and you’ll be a rhythm champion by the end of the summer!
- Rhythm-Only Workouts 1 – Practice quarter notes, half notes, whole notes, and their corresponding rests in this playlist.
- Rhythm-Only Workouts 2 – This playlist will take you through dotted half notes, changing time signatures, and eighth notes in various patterns.
- Rhythm-Only Workouts 3 – Use this playlist to practice eighth notes in various time signatures, eighth rests, and ties.
- Rhythm-Only Workouts 4 – This playlist will guide you through practicing dotted quarter notes, syncopation, sixteenth notes, and eighth-sixteenth note patterns.
- Rhythm-Only Workouts 5 – Practice sixteenth note patterns, dotted eighth notes, and cut time in this playlist.
- Rhythm-Only Workouts 6 – Challenge yourself with 6/8 time, triplets, mixed meter, and irregular meter in this playlist.
- Rhythm-Only Workouts 7 – This rhythm playlist will combine advanced rhythmic skills in a compilation of rhythm ensemble exercises.