Research Projects bundle: Band, Orchestra, Chorus, American Music, Guitar, Piano

These music research projects ask students to create presentations about well-known composers, performers, and ensembles, lesser known instruments, and more! These no-prep projects add rigor to the music curriculum and can be a welcome change of activity, used for distance learning, easy to use sub plans that keep students learning, or helpful if students are not able to play instruments or sing. This is ideal for middle or high school music classes.

You can utilize a variety of formats for the research projects. Students can use a multimedia format (e.g. PowerPoint, Google Slides, Prezi), video (e.g. FlipGrid, MovieMaker), research paper (e.g. MS Word, Google Doc), or create a poster (for in person). Students who submit a paper-based presentation are asked to play an audio sample related to the topic during class because the tech options can embed an audio file. One helpful website for the instruments project is instrumentsoftheworld.com.

Developing research skills in music classes is a great way to engage students in the academic aspects of the discipline as well as foster students’ ability to conduct, evaluate, and synthesize research. It expands students’ knowledge beyond performance technique and music theory. It meets the Common Core Standards by having students read, write, and use language effectively in a content area, which are required for college and career readiness.

National Core Arts Standard

Connecting Anchor Standard #11

Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.