Are you a new music teacher setting up your classroom for the first time?
Do you want to make sure you’re not missing out on anything in your music room?
I was fortunate in my first job; the teacher and school provided basically everything I needed, so I didn’t have to worry about forgetting everything.
But when I switched schools, I realized all the things I had and started from scratch. I needed a concrete list of what should be in an elementary music classroom.
After asking around and pulling on my own experience, I came up with this list of 18 things every music teacher needs.
Things every music teacher needs may be divided into high, medium, and low priorities, but they’re all good for improving student learning in music. My picks include:
- Clear Expectations/Management Plan
- Curriculum Resources/Lesson Plans
- Space
- Song And Activity Resources
- Speaker
- Rhythm Sticks
- Hand Drums
- Scarves/Bean Bags
- Egg Shakers
- Individual Dry Erase Board w/ materials
- Way To Project
- Larger Drums
- Non-Pitched And Auxiliary Percussion
- Barred Instruments
- Stretchy Band/Parachute
- Ukuleles
- Recorders
- Classroom Decor
Read on for more details on the items and the priority levels for each.
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Table of Contents
High Priority Music Classroom Essentials
This section contains the items I and others feel are the most important items to have set up in your music classroom. I can speak from experience, failing to have one of these in place makes your life a struggle for the rest of the year.
Clear Expectations/Management Plan
A clear management plan isn’t a music-only thing, but it’s just a good teaching element. You MUST have clear expectations and management procedures, or you and your students will be frustrated.
Check out this interesting article on management by the National Association for Music Education.
Communicate rules clearly to students and review them regularly. Let students know how you will get their attention.
Before playing any games or activities, review how they should behave and what you’re looking for.
Clearly post and explain the consequences for breaking the rules. Provide incentives for classes to work their hardest.
Have a procedure for how students enter and exit the room.
All of these things should be thought out and communicated to students. Everything else’s success is partially dependent on this.
Curriculum Resources/Lesson Plans
With a behavior plan set, now you must have a plan for what you’ll actually teach!
First, I recommend starting with a curriculum plan or guide to follow. This doesn’t have to be extremely detailed (although the more detailed you are, the easier planning will be later on).
With a year plan thought out, then it becomes time to have a format for building lesson plans. The lesson plans should be engaging and provide differentiation for your music students.
Either create the format on your own or pull from the experts.
Regardless of your preferred method or combination, I find these resources to be helpful to a lot of people:
Space
Space. The final frontier.
Star Trek jokes aside, space is key in teaching music for me. The more, the better (as long as they can still sing with good sound).
I’ve taught in all kinds of rooms:
- Big rooms
- Medium rooms
- Small rooms
- Classrooms
- Cafeterias
- Gyms
- Portables
- Libraries
The number one thing I felt limited my teaching is when the students didn’t have room to move and play.
Wherever you end up teaching, find ways to get as much space in the room as possible. If you’re in a classroom, ask students to rearrange desks and tables to give you all a space to move and play as needed.
Song And Activity Resources
Knowing what to teach and having the space to teach it in is great, but you also need good, authentic songs and activities to play.
It’s imperative to have these on hand to dig into when planning lessons. There are a ton of song collections out there.
But it’s important to note many of these aren’t real curricula, which is why this one gets its own category.
Check out the 17 folk songs every kid should know for some examples of songs I think are essential to teach.
Speaker
Making music should be our priority in an elementary music room, but it’s also our responsibility to expose the kids to the joys of musical genres they’re not familiar with.
But it feels cheap and ineffective to listen to Beethoven’s Fifth on a set of cheap computer speakers. This is why I think it’s a high priority to get a good set of speakers for music listening.
If you play your cards right, this speaker will work for concerts as well.
You may find it helpful to check out these articles:
Medium Priority Must Haves For Elementary Music Classroom
This section covers what I consider to be medium-priority things every music teacher needs. These items are ones I need to give the kids a well-rounded music education.
While the above are the bare essentials, this section is the first thing I buy before moving on to bigger ticket items.
On the plus side, many of these things are easy to transport if you have to teach music on a cart.
Rhythm Sticks
The first instrument you should get is a class set of rhythm sticks. These Lummi Rhythm Sticks are solid options at an affordable price.
Rhythm sticks have great uses including the following:
- Play rhythms in different ways
- Play on other instruments
- Use as props for movement
Hand Drums
The next one most music teachers get are hand drums. Hand drums are just like rhythm sticks in their use, but they cost a little more and take up a little more room.
On the other hand, kids love drums, so this is a great incentive for good behavior.
This Remo 5 hand drum set is durable and sounds great.
Scarves/Bean Bags
I believe movement is essential for developing musical knowledge. It’s all a part of reaching what makes music expressive and accessing different learning styles.
While it’s certainly possible to do movement without props, your students will get a lot from using movement helpers such as scarves and bean bags.
Either are usable with any number of movement activities. For ideas, check out these movements with scarves lesson plans.
I like these AIVAI Scarves. They last through some serious use!
Egg Shakers
Another non-pitched percussion instrument I feel is one of the music classroom essentials is the egg shaker.
With little instruments, you get a whole other timbre of instrument usable with a number of different games and lesson ideas.
Make sure you get a durable set like the Sumind egg shakers, or they’ll explode a million tiny beads everywhere.
Individual Dry Erase Board w/ Materials
Students need something to write and create on. If you don’t want to kill a bunch of trees, a good class set of dry erase boards with markers and erasers is necessary.
It’s possible to get away with creating in smaller groups of 2 or 3 and save money on the number of boards, but if you want to reach every kid, you need to offer them the chance to work on their own on occasion.
Way To Project
I think it’s important to project some things for kids to see. We can’t often bring in groups to demonstrate different types of music, but videos may help our students experience things they can’t in their schools.
A projector is often standard in almost every classroom, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry!
There is a market out there for mini-projectors to help get this done for you.
I haven’t used this one personally, but I have a teacher friend who swears by the Kodak Mini Portable Projector. She says it’s easy to use and has a good picture.
Low Priority Things Every Music Teacher Needs
This section of the list may be a little more controversial. No doubt some of you music teachers out there will think some of these should be up in the previous section, but it truly depends on your teaching style.
For me, these items will take my students learning above and beyond, but I feel like I can provide a well-rounded and full music education without them.
Still, I’d love to have all of these (and I don’t yet, but someday!).
Larger Drums
A few larger drums (or enough for the whole class) would be a great way to get different tones and work on building more part work and complicated songs.
They essentially serve the same purpose as hand drums in a more expensive and spacious form, though many kids find them more fun to play.
There are different larger drums to get like djembes, bongos, and congas. But the one you should get first is a gathering drum.
Non-Pitched And Auxiliary Percussion
Other non-pitched or auxiliary style percussion instruments are used for teaching rhythm and adding color to songs. These are a blast to play and an important part of any music room.
But I wouldn’t say they’re more important than the items in the medium section.
These include:
- Tambourines
- Wrist bells
- Jingle bells
- Thunder drum
- Wave drum
- Finger cymbals
- Guiro
- Maracas
- Boomwhackers
Barred Instruments
Ah barred instruments…also known as Orff instruments for kid’s xylophone.
I love these instruments and have used them in many an Orff-style project or song over the years. They create awesome sounds and help kids easily make beautiful music.
But are they essential?
I used to think they were a higher priority until I taught outside of a traditional music room. I would still bring these in on occasion, but most of the time, they were just too difficult to transport.
Over time, I learned, for all their benefits, most of what they did could (and should) be taught first with singing. Boomwhackers and hand bells are also a much smaller and more affordable substitute.
For those wanting barred instruments (including me!) These are expensive, but you don’t want to skimp on price.
Studio 49 xylophones are a good mix of durable yet affordable used by many music teachers.
Stretchy Band/Parachute
As another movement prop, stretchy bands and parachutes are a blast! I love playing with these and the kids do too!
A good parachute can take any “boring” song and make it more fun for students to engage with.
The Bear Paw stretchy band comes in at a good price which is good because you’ll have to replace it every couple of years.
For parachutes, I’d ask your gym teacher if they have an old one first. They usually do.
If you need to buy one, I use this GSI 12 foot parachute.
Ukuleles
If someone handed me a $1000 or more to buy anything I didn’t have but wanted, it would be ukes. I love playing the instrument as a musician and teacher.
One of my goals (now that I have my other stuff in order) is to set my kids up with ukuleles.
I swear by all things Kala, and this Kala 15S bundle is great. It comes with:
- KA-15S Uke
- Necks trap
- Soft case
- Clip-on tuner
- Extra strings
- Instructional DVD
There are other great options as well at a little lower price. But I know these will sound good and hold pitch well.
Recorders
Those who know me may be shocked I put this on the lower priority list. I love recorders and believe teaching them imparts many life and music skills.
Read my teaching recorder guide.
But I recognize they aren’t absolutely needed to teach kids what they need to learn. For more recommendations on recorders, check out the best soprano recorder brands.
Classroom Decor
It is important to provide good classroom decor. In all honesty, it may even be a medium priority to some people.
But for me, I’m not so good at this stuff. In fact, I usually just buy some posters and word wall ideas from other people (or rely on my wife for help).
My good friend, Melissa Stouffer, over at Mrs. Stouffer’s Music Room has some great products you should check out.
Conclusion
I hope you find this list of 18 things every music teacher needs helpful to you whether this is your first or fifteenth year. Getting all of these things would have you set up pretty for a long time, and it may take a long time to get there (I’m still not there!).
Did I miss something on your list? Disagree with the placement of an item?
Drop a comment and let us know!
