Music Appreciation

There is lots of music beyond Disney!

An excellent place to start is encouraging your children to listen to fine music.

One good thing about the World Wide Web is you can find excellent classical music. You can also find explanations of the various pieces if you are interested. 

Teaching music in the home (for the non-musical mom)

Carnival of the Animals (Camille Saint-Saens): Various parts of the piece represent different animals. In Danse Macabre, the xylophone sounds like bones.

Amahl and the Night Visitors (Gian Carlo Menotti) is a Christmas opera about the Three Kings visiting Jesus. 

Peter and the Wolf (Sergei Prokofiev) is A fairy tale for children where different instruments represent characters.

The Planets (Gustav Holst) Music represents the solar bodies and the classical origin of their names. For example, Mars is the source of war.

1812 Overture (Great for boys!) The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake (Pytor Illich Tchaikovsky) 

The Messiah  

After I discouraged Disney

Fantasia (Leopold Stokowski) Disney graphics set to classical music. Also Fantasia 2000

If you live near a major city, find out what is nearby.  

● Broadway/Off-Broadway productions

● University productions

● Opera

● Ballet

● Symphony Orchestras

● Band concerts

Even if you do not live in a city or lack the cash, you can almost always find:

● Community college or high school concerts/plays

● Bands in the park during the summer.

Music Theory and Performance

The very best ways for kids to learn to read music are:

● Instrument lessons (easy to find independent of schools)

● Choral lessons (more challenging, but sometimes churches have kids’ choirs)

Online courses are available for instrumental, choral, and reading sheet music.

Study parts of bands and orchestras (Andre Rieux videos online)

● Learn sections:  strings (orchestras only), woodwinds, brass, and percussion.

● Make scrapbooks with pictures of musical instruments. Label them with section and soprano, alto, tenor, or bass.

● Define: conductor, soloist

Let kids make their instruments:  

● drums from oatmeal boxes or by stretching balloons over empty jars

● Fake cymbals by smashing two pot lids together

● Maracas: Decorate small pringle containers or empty plastic water bottles and fill them with dry beans or popcorn. Tape plastic spoons to empty plastic Easter eggs, fill and decorate. 

● Homemade xylophone out of water glasses filled to different levels

Composer Study

● Learn about the great composers, their music style, and their influences.

There is so much to explore. We hope this sampling helps you get on track.

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