This is great when you are introducing a new rhythm that students are not familiar with and they need practice drawing. It is also fantastic for differentiated learning tasks in the classroom. As a specialist music teacher I often find it difficult to find the extra time to sit with students individually and assist them with writing tasks. I would spend ages hand writing traceable notation to assist them in the class so as not to single them out. 
What's great about this font is that it is really easy to install onto your computer and use in all your word processing programs. Within seconds you will be able to create a worksheet with traceable rhythms ready to go for your students. 
The two new fonts are called:
                1. Trace It - all traceable characters matching characters as Stix 2 but in a traceable version.
                2. Copy&Go - traceable characters contain beat lines underneath.
Please take the time to check out the music fonts here 

Or you can go directly to my Teachers Pay Teachers store ~ an inexpensive way to make your life so much easier!

Thanks again ~ stay tuned for a new blog post this month called: Tuesday Book Club (named after one of my fav TV shows here in Australia.) I will be reviewing some children's literature which I think will be perfect for you to implement in your music lessons.

Hi everyone... today I thought I might let you know about some groovy music fonts I have created. These can be used in any word processing program - word, pages, powerpoint, keynote, excel etc... If you are anything like me and have a great idea for a worksheet and then spend hours aligning beat lines, time signatures, heart images for the beat - with all these jumping images everywhere it has been driving me insane! 

So after much investigation into the world of Adobe Illustrator and a font editing program I decided to create a series of music fonts called: 'Eazy Stix Notation'. These fonts have been so great to use for all my worksheets that I have drastically reduced the amount of time I spend creating worksheets and wanted you to enjoy the same efficiency! 

You can use them on a Mac, on a PC and any other system you are using. They are easy to install and if you are not sure how to install them you can follow these fantastic instructions by Dafont.com here

I would like to introduce you to 3 out of the 5 'Eazy Stix' Music Notation fonts. 
Please click the blue titles to see the font in more detail.

1. Stickies - perfect for Early Years - Year 2
2. Stix 2 - every rhythm in stick notation, stems up & down
3. Beatz - every rhythm in stick notation with beat lines added to each character, stems up & down.

Have a read below of why I want my students to be familiar with stick notation...

Go straight to my TpT store to purchase these fonts today! Only $2.50 USD

I guess we are all used to Opus Text - another great music font from Sibelius and it does work well in word processing programs. The only issue I have is that it contains note heads. Now you can go into Sibelius and create your rhythms without note heads and then import your picture into word. But I find the image quality is not as good, I cannot align my beat heart images at the top and I also have trouble aligning beat lines etc... by the time things have jumped here and there I really just want to turn off my computer and go home. 

Whats so great about the 'Eazy Stix Notation fonts' is that everything is ready for you with one simple click. Once you are used to the character placement - which has been thought out so that common rhythms are used by your two index fingers and a bar line is the letter b character etc... You will be able to make worksheets, flashcards, IWB activities in no time at all. 

Plus I find that it is really important to let students understand the different between stick notation and music stave notation. Rhythm doesn't need note heads because it essentially has one sound (no pitch). Whereas melody lives on the music stave and we add the note heads to show where the sounds live on the stave.

Being at a PYP school one of my Central Ideas that runs through my stand-alone music planners is: "Musicians interpret sounds through the use of notation and symbols". This central idea will be looked at every year with the students but with different elements/skills to focus on. Part of this knowledge requires them to have an understanding of stick notation and what better way to reinforce that in their learning with the use of a stick notation music font. 

Thanks so much for reading today's: 'Hooray! It's Monday' blogspot. 

Would love your feedback on my newly created fonts! 

Hope you enjoy!

~ Lisa