Digital @ The Arts Unit Creative Teachers
Music choice and editing
Teacher dance resource developed by The Arts Unit
Appropriate song choice
It is vital that you choose appropriate music for your dance group to both warm-up to and perform to.
Devise a playlist of music that you can use for each lesson.
The same music for each warm-up exercise works well as the students become familiar with the routine of the lesson. This also saves you time in developing new warm-ups each week. The repetition is good for building students' muscle memory.
Soundtracks from children’s television programs or movies are excellent. Try and steer clear of any top 40 songs.
Relevant to theme/stimulus
When selecting music for your dance make sure that it is age appropriate, but also relevant to the theme of your performance. Soundtracks from children’s movies often have orchestral music that may be relevant. It takes time to find the perfect track for your dance. You may need to edit several tracks together to get the perfect one.
How to edit music
Audacity is a free, open-source, multi-track, audio editing and recording software.
The department has set up a digital learning tools for using Audacity.
Teachers can use Audacity for educational use to:
record and edit live audio, sounds and music
support students to create commentary tracks and podcasts on topics being studied in class.
develop students' understanding of the difference between open-source and licensed software products.
Third-party content attributions
Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus, © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2006, copied under s113P, accessed 9 October 2021.