Our Best Resources for the Back to School season
Back to School season is here and today we’re sharing some of our BEST resources for getting the school year off to a great start!
1. General Music Level 1 & 2
If you’re looking to hop into the FULL step-by-step approach to Prodigies, you’re going to want to start in…
General Music Level 1A (Chapter 1 of Level 1) – great for preschoolers or beginners
General Music Level 1B (Chapter 5 of Level 1) – great for kindergarten or 1st grade beginners
General Music Level 2A (Chapter 1 of Level 2) – great for 2nd-3rd graders or slightly older beginners.
Also, within Chapter 1 of Level 1, there are eight 1 note studies with Ms. Sam that are a really great way to start the school year, especially if you’re finding the stuff in Chapter 1 a little too easy, but you still want to tackle the basics.
2. Recorder Page & Squire
If you’re teaching Recorder, we have some new and super easy Recorder Squire lessons available inside Recorder Prodigies that just focus on 1-3 notes at a time. This makes learning the recorder easier than ever, and is perfect for anyone in Grades 2-5 learning the recorder!
3. Prodigies Melodies
One of our original YouTube series, Prodigies Melodies contains 25 short and sweet melodic warm-ups featuring the Solfege hand-signs. These are great activators or great exit-tickets, even if you’re not using the step-by-step Prodigies program, and many of our monthly subscribers have signed up simply to use these short and sweet videos with their class.
4. Steady Beet & Sweet Beets
If you want Sweet Beets, we’ve got ’em! From practicing a steady beat, to all kinds of subdivisions and rhythmic patterns, there are almost 2 dozen episodes of Sweet Beets to get your rhythmic minds growing!
Lots of folks like to kick off the year with the Steady Beet episode or the Beet & Shh episode to put some fun in the fundamentals!
5. Songs Chapter
The end of Prodigies Music Level 1 is a chapter all about popular melodies and songs, and this is a great place to start with older beginners who are finding the material in the beginning of Level 1 too easy, but who maybe aren’t ready for the difficulty of Level 2.
6. Mi Sol La + Do Re Mi Chapters
Similar to the Songs chapter mentioned above, Chapter 4 (Do Re Mi) and Chapter 5 (Mi Sol La), are especially appealing because they contain so many familiar and fun melodies (like Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb, It’s Raining It’s Pouring, and more).
So if you’re finding the 1 note studies in Chapter 1 too easy, and the melodies in Chapter 8 too difficult, scoping out Chapter 4 and 5 in the meantime is a great fan favorite move for maximum melodic fun.
7. Rhythm Playlist & Rhythm of the Week
Over the last year, we’ve developed more than 100 Rhythm of the Week videos, which are perfect for activating your music class by learning and playing some simple rhythms.
8. New Surf Chords
If you’re kicking off the year with Ukuleles, our new Surf Chord episodes are great for easy strumming lessons and exercises that anyone can jump into right away!
9. Falling Bells Playlist
If your kids are fans of the falling bells format for learning simple songs, this playlist is full of colorful and easy playalongs for 1-8 notes.
10. Sheet Music Area
Last summer, we launched a new sheet music experience that makes it easier to search, find, play and print out all of the colorful sheet music inside Prodigies.
Plus, the sheet music includes a playable web instrument so you can do lots of practice with each page right on the website!
Bonus: Holiday Prodigies
If you’re already thinking ahead to a winter concert, it’s worth dropping into Holiday Prodigies and picking 1-3 songs you want to start rehearsing for later this year!
Bonus: FREE Prodigies Bells App + What Note Is It? Game
If you haven’t downloaded our FREE instrument app, Prodigies Bells, you definitely should do that in iOS or Android!
This past school year, we added a new listening game, What Note Is It?, right to the app, so you can quiz your perfect pitch skills on the go!
Bonus: 60 Minute FREE Compilation
Finally, if you’re not a Prodigies Member, you should DEFINITELY check out our 7 Day Free trial and our $14.99/mo plan at Prodigies.com/monthly.
That said, there’s a really great 60 minute free compilation of Prodigies on YouTube here as well, which is our last little bonus ICYMI resource today!
We hope these tips and resources help you have a wonderful Back to School season, and as always, #HappyMusicing!
– Mr. Rob & the Prodigies Team