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Animusic For Music Teachers

By Jeff Garard of Animusic

Animusic's DVDs provide a fresh and exciting way to illustrate musical concepts and to inspire students about artistic creativity. The first DVD has 7 unique music animations and the second one has 8. Each animation lasts about 4 or 5 minutes, so you can show one then discuss, or fill a whole class by showing several.

Words don't really do justice, you simply have to watch Animusic:

(Note: video and sound quality are far better on the actual DVDs)

The visuals and the music are precisely matched, revealing many details about pitch, rhythm, melody, instrumentation and more. Music teachers at all grade levels have shown these unique videos. To help guide class discussion and activities there are "Teacher Tips" in PDF format that are free to print, see http://www.animusic.com/education/. These guides were prepared by music teachers and correlate with items 6, 7, and 8 of the National Standards for Music Education. And perhaps best of all, students really enjoy seeing and hearing novel instruments.

Elizabeth Petty, an elementary Music Specialist at Pittsfield, MA public schools says, "I am finding multiple applications of this wonderful collection in my lessons and curriculum. 'Pipe Dream' is my absolute favorite." Her students really responded...their first reactions were:

  • "That was AWESOME!"
  • "There are so many sounds and stuff to watch"
  • "How did they do that?"
  • "Can we watch it again?"

Private piano teacher Gregory Brown from Five Smooth Stones Music has also found the DVDs helpful: "I actually use Animusic to assist in teaching rhythm to my beginning piano students. There is some type of motion or movement to correspond to EVERY sound that you here. I cannot emphasize to you how helpful that is to a 7 year old."

The videos on the Animusic DVDs have original instrumental music, which spans a variety of musical (and visual) styles. There is also one version of a classical piece, "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky.

The DVDs are currently on sale here at West Music. Click to view:


Animusic 1

Animusic 2

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Teaching Artist
written by Howard Moss, September 02, 2009
I have used the Animusic disks quite successfully in classrooms with students in grades 1-5. They love the graphics and the sounds which help to open the doors to discussions about even non music subject matter.

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