YouTube Resources: May the Fourth Be With You!

I am a HUGE Star Wars fan. Tomorrow is May the 4th, and millions of Star Wars fans just like me celebrate the unofficial Star Wars holiday called May the Fourth - aka Star Wars Day. Very nerdy, yes, but it IS fun. Because this classic series of movies has some of the most well known movie music ever composed, by the one and only John Williams, music teachers around the world also celebrate May the Fourth by bringing this music into their classrooms.

In an effort to help you find something that is just right for your students and your teaching style, I have put together a playlist of over 25 YouTube videos that should help you find something perfect for you class. This playlist includes Listening Maps, Boomwhacker videos, behind the scenes videos, performances, composer tips and tricks, and more. I hope you enjoy it!

My May the Fourth YouTube Playlist

Whenever people post their videos to YouTube, they have the option of labeling it as “Made for children” or not. When they select “Made for children” it blocks those videos from being added to other users playlists. The following videos are fantastic and I wanted to make sure to include them, even though I couldn’t add them to my playlist.

This is a listening activity made by the amazing Amy Burns. She demonstrated how she created this video using Canva at the Connecticut Music TEchnology Day 2023, sponsored by MusicFirst & Focusrite

This incredible playlist contains 40 score analyses of various music from the Star Wars franchise, created by David McCaulley.

This is a wonderful video created by Jennifer Archer that focuses on the form of the main Star Wars theme. Students will love it!

This video by Musication is a Boomwhacker play-along video. Students will enjoy playing this dark theme from Star Wars.

This is a Star Wars Rap video created by the VERY talented Bill Henry from Mr. Henry’s Music World.

Here is another video from Mr. Henry’s Music World. Your students will LOVE playing along with the theme from The Mandalorian.

This is an amazing Orff instrument play-along video created by Ashley Chiddix.

I hope that you find this collection of YouTube resources useful. Because Star Wars is now more popular than ever, I am quite certain that your students will thoroughly enjoy many of these videos, and even learn something in the process!

May the force, I mean fourth, be with you. Always.