MusicplayOnline

MusicplayOnline is an online music curriculum and lesson-planning resource for classroom music teachers, covering PreK through middle school. It is published by Themes & Variations, based in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, and its pitch is short: "Less Planning. More Music." A teacher subscribes, then teaches from ready-made weekly lessons, builds their own lesson plans from the site's songs, games and activities, and gives students access to practice in class or at home. It sits in this directory's kids' and music categories because the children learn through it, but the person who chooses and runs it is the music teacher, or a classroom teacher covering music without a specialist background.

Learning Modules: a year of lessons

The core of the product is its Learning Modules, sequenced lessons organized by grade. The homepage speaks of "over 500 pre-built Learning Modules," and the Learning Modules page counts 500+ individual modules, 45+ lessons per grade level and 11 months of lessons. The lessons run from "August Week 1 through June Week 4" and, the site says, "are designed to fill approximately 45 minutes of class time," so a teacher with a standard music period can follow the year week by week.

Each grade's collection includes back-to-school lessons, core general music lessons in a sequential framework, extra review lessons for reinforcement and end-of-year celebration lessons. Every lesson has optional activities and extensions so it can be cut or stretched to fit the class and the timetable. The company describes Musicplay as a spiral curriculum, meaning material is reinforced, practiced and presented again in every lesson, which is why it says teachers can jump in at any point in the year rather than starting in August.

Each module is "set up with a table of contents, suggested extensions, related PDFs, and a numbered list of procedures to follow." Lessons can be printed, whether from a pre-built module or from a teacher's own list, and a search engine with keyword filters helps find modules that match a teaching goal. Besides the grade-level modules, there are specialized units on Peter and the Wolf, Carnival of the Animals, Bucket Drumming and Folk to Pop, among others. The site recommends that new users start in the Learning Modules, which link out to the rest of the content.

Musicplay is a Menu and the activity library

Beyond the sequenced lessons, MusicplayOnline is built as a library teachers pick from. The site describes "Musicplay is a Menu" as "built by teachers, for teachers," and says the platform holds "Over 10,000 Interactive Activities, Tools, and Games," with a separate Games & Interactives section. The homepage reports 130+ pieces of content released in the last 30 days and 20 unique content creators, and the Learning Modules page says the company reviews its content continuously so that each module meets its standards. Teachers' comments on the site mention solfa and rhythm practice exercises, a Trivia Wheel and videos, and one instrumentalist writes that the resource "helps my students hear better vocal models than I can provide myself."

My Lists: building your own lesson plans

My Lists is the planning tool. A teacher can "Create a list from scratch or clone and edit an existing lesson," then add, edit, delete and reorder every procedure. Procedures can come from anywhere on MusicplayOnline, and external links can be added too. Lists are organized into folders, made searchable through keywords and objectives, and hidden with an Archive feature when a teacher is not ready to delete them. Each list can be shared with students, shared with other teachers or kept private.

The site lists four everyday uses: organizing a year's lesson plans, preparing a sub plan, creating a list for students to study at home, and sharing a list with colleagues to prepare for an upcoming musical. The substitute use gets the most attention. The page says a teacher can "Create a lesson in under 10 minutes and send a link to your sub," and that everything is embedded so the substitute does not have to leave the page. One teacher's comment backs this up: "It is appreciated to have in your back pocket if you need to leave lessons for a sub. The students also enjoy the activities that can be linked for them online to do at home."

Pricing and licenses

The homepage publishes its prices. The Individual teacher plan is listed at $200 a year, next to a Monthly and Annually toggle that advertises "Save 16%." The plan includes unlimited customized lesson plans, free student access, the pre-built learning modules and "An ever expanding library of content." There is a 14 day free trial, and the site notes that no credit card is required to start it.

Every license, the site says, comes with monthly lesson plans for every grade, thousands of songs, learning modules and games, "Complimentary student access for classroom use," and My Lists. For schools, Group Purchasing has two routes: up to 4 teachers can buy through a Purchase Now option, for themselves or on behalf of another teacher, while schools and districts needing 5+ licenses are asked to get in touch. The site offers quote and order forms for the USA and for Canada, plus a W8BEN-E tax form, which helps a school purchasing office. Students sign in through a separate Student Login.

Standards and support

The homepage says the platform is "Aligned to Standards with Teacher Support and Professional Development," and a Curriculum Correlations section maps the content to curricula. Support is by email at support@musicplay.ca and by phone on 888-562-4647. Themes & Variations also runs the Musicplay Store, Musicplay Workshops, Musicplay Downloads and the Musicplay Blog, along with the Denise Gagne Memorial Society. On privacy, the cookie notice says analytics data "is never sold or shared for advertising or behavioral tracking."

What teachers say

The testimonials come from a wide range of teachers. A K-5 music teacher writes, "I use Musicplay every day in my K-5 music classes and have even found some of the materials and activities useful with my 6-8 band students." A non-specialist says it "was a fantastic resource that I learned a lot from," adding that she likes the lessons being arranged by month and week with the choice of revisiting other lessons and modules. A new Arts Ed teacher says, "It is easy to use and tied to the curriculum," and another writes that Musicplay "guided me basically as a mentor teacher for my first few years!" A long-time user congratulates the team "on 10 years of greatness and growth" and asks for more Kodaly content, while a teacher of kindergarten simply says, "I use it everyday for my K's."

Who it suits

MusicplayOnline suits elementary music specialists who want a full year of ready-to-teach general music lessons and the freedom to rework them, and classroom teachers who have to teach music without a music background. The sub-plan feature makes it useful for any music teacher who is regularly out of the building, and the home-study lists give students a way to keep practicing. Schools can start with one teacher on the $200 plan and move to a group or district license later.

It suits less well a secondary instrumental program looking for band or orchestra method material, since the sequenced lessons stop at middle school and center on general music. Teachers who want a printed textbook series rather than an online library will find the format a poor match, though every lesson can be printed.