Teaching Kids Classical Music

[ClassicalWeekly]

Can anyone recommend a website (or book -- gasp!) that would be helpful to help young children learn to appreciate classical music?  Clearly sitting down and listening with them is a great start, but when it comes to describing the music I need some help (other than of course "this is a crescendo" or  "this is a recapitulation").  Something visual would be best.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[Palmetto]

How young are the children?  Material suited for pre-schoolers is going to bore third-graders.  Is this a music program as part of their normal school day, an after-school extracurricular activity, or an independent program not part of their schooling?  Are you on a shoestring budget?  Will the kids have access to the web outside of class?

These answers may help our more knowledgeable members make tailored recommendations.  Me, I'm only good for suggesting 'Peter and the Wolf', and I suspect you're already aware of that.

[mc ukrneal]

Can anyone recommend a website (or book -- gasp!) that would be helpful to help young children learn to appreciate classical music?  Clearly sitting down and listening with them is a great start, but when it comes to describing the music I need some help (other than of course "this is a crescendo" or  "this is a recapitulation").  Something visual would be best.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

There are a number of orchestras, opera companies, etc. that put on shows/concerts every year just for kids. They often provide additional materials on their websites for the teachers and such. These mateirals often discuss the composers, music theory, examples from the music they heard, etc. I know I've seen this more than once, but I don't remember any of the sites. A bit of searching may yield a result (or perhaps someone here knows a few).

There are a number of books on Amazon, but I am not really familiar with them for that age, so hopefully someone else will be able to comment for you.

[ClassicalWeekly]

Good point(s)!  The age is preschool and it's really for enrichment.  In the same way you'd sit down with a preschooler (4 or 5 year old) and read about "steam engine trains and electric trains", I want to work in "symphony", "sonata".  Even a book with some music buttons would be great (e.g. like if you know about the Thomas the Tank Engine books where you read to the child and press the button to make the noise in the story).

Thanks!

[Szykneij]

Good point(s)!  The age is preschool and it's really for enrichment.  In the same way you'd sit down with a preschooler (4 or 5 year old) and read about "steam engine trains and electric trains", I want to work in "symphony", "sonata".  Even a book with some music buttons would be great (e.g. like if you know about the Thomas the Tank Engine books where you read to the child and press the button to make the noise in the story).

Thanks!

You could try Tubby, but even he might be too advanced for pre-schoolers. At that age, "simple" and "son" might not be in their vocabulary or realm of understanding, let alone "symphony" and "sonata".

[owlice]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beethoven_Lives_Upstairs

There are 16 CDs in the series; so far as I know, the Beethoven CD is the only one that was made into a movie. The CD series:

http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Kids-%28Series%29/e/B000AQ18UU/ref=ac_dpt_sa_nc_link

I have not listened to these, but the reviews are excellent.

Also, there is a book and CD called The Farewell Symphony. Assuming I can find it and you're in North America, I'd be willing to part with my copy, since my tot is now 17 and a college sophomore.  It's not as engaging as I'd hoped when I bought it, but did introduce my son and one of his buddies to the Haydn symphony and might do well for pre-schoolers.

You can also download a (free) score of Vivaldi's Four Seasons; the different programmatic elements in the work are marked in the score. Pointing these out to the kids, aurally and for some, even in the score itself, could be a good way to get them used to really listening to music.

I took Aho's Insect Symphony into my then-small child's school and listened to it with the students, and for some of the movements, had them guess what insects were being depicted, and for others, told them ahead of time. Carnival of the Animals is also a good work for this. I bought copies of Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and handed them out to every kid in the school, too. (It was a very small school, and I got the CDs through BMG or Berkshire at some ridiculously low price -- maybe $2/CD.)

I'd be all about getting them to hear differences in texture, instruments, volume, tone, etc. I think it's okay to talk about how many/which instruments are involved in making the music, so would say the names of instruments and forms such as "symphony" and "quartet" are okay (reinforcing concepts such as many, some, one, after all, and even counting), but I'd leave "sonata form" for much older kids.

Our local symphony sponsors an instrument petting zoo a few times a year (or used to; I assume they still do). These were wildly popular. If you have friends who can stop in with instruments to show/demonstrate them to the kids, that'd be good.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beethoven_Lives_Upstairs

Is this a horror movie? Living downstairs from Beethoven would have been hellish. As he went deaf, he banged on the piano harder and harder in a desperate effort to hear it; this must have driven the neighbors nuts. Also, his fits of rage and habit of splashing water everywhere would not have pleased the landlord.

[Palmetto]

than living next door to a high school rock band with nightly practice sessions in the garage.  At least Ludwig's music would be worth listening to.

[karlhenning]

. . .  At least Ludwig's music would be worth listening to.

Maybe not as works-in-progress. (Just saying.)

[ClassicalWeekly]

I'd be all about getting them to hear differences in texture, instruments, volume, tone, etc. I think it's okay to talk about how many/which instruments are involved in making the music, so would say the names of instruments and forms such as "symphony" and "quartet" are okay (reinforcing concepts such as many, some, one, after all, and even counting), but I'd leave "sonata form" for much older kids.

Your suggestions are great and your description above is exactly what I'm trying to get at....the "texture" etc.

The real problem is that I'm a percussionist, so while I can read the rhythm, I can't read notes (not easily anyway).  I was actually thinking doing one of those "Great Courses" like this one for myself:

"Understanding the Fundamentals of Music"  -- and obviously I'd wait for a coupon..

http://www.teach12.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=7261

Maybe some of what I learn there will trickle down to the kids....

[owlice]

The real problem is that I'm a percussionist, so while I can read the rhythm, I can't read notes (not easily anyway).

You don't need to be able to read notes well; it's easy enough to follow the contour of the music with a little practice, especially since you can count!

The Great Courses courses are currently on sale, but you might want to check your local library to see whether they carry them (either at your local branch or within the system). Even my small local library, which is part of a larger system, keeps a fair number of these courses on the shelf.

Since you're a percussionist, how about having a drum circle? Start off with a heartbeat rhythm and get them to do that, then introduce some easy changes that increase the complexity. The kids could make their own drums (or "drums") and/or bring a drum from home if they have one and/or use any one of many different inexpensive percussion instruments, such as egg shakers, seed pods, and spoons. Heck, you could do this just with clapping, too. Might be like herding cats, but the kids would likely have a blast! Bonus points if you can teach them the notation for two or three different beats by sight and don't run out of aspirin.

[ClassicalWeekly]

You don't need to be able to read notes well; it's easy enough to follow the contour of the music with a little practice, especially since you can count!

The Great Courses courses are currently on sale, but you might want to check your local library to see whether they carry them (either at your local branch or within the system). Even my small local library, which is part of a larger system, keeps a fair number of these courses on the shelf.

Since you're a percussionist, how about having a drum circle? Start off with a heartbeat rhythm and get them to do that, then introduce some easy changes that increase the complexity. The kids could make their own drums (or "drums") and/or bring a drum from home if they have one and/or use any one of many different inexpensive percussion instruments, such as egg shakers, seed pods, and spoons. Heck, you could do this just with clapping, too. Might be like herding cats, but the kids would likely have a blast! Bonus points if you can teach them the notation for two or three different beats by sight and don't run out of aspirin.

LOL -- my children have a percussion set AND we found our old synthesizer so they get a real kick out of that (especially changing the instrument on the fly).  The percussion set is basically a kit that came with everything that man ever invented that makes noise -- but they love it -- especially the tambourine.

[owlice]

Oh! This is for your own kids, then? I thought you were doing this as part of a pre-school program with a bunch of kids!

[ClassicalWeekly]

Yes, for my own crew.

[owlice]

Well, that's much easier, then, to build into everyday life! When my son was very young, I got a music bulletin board set, such as one might see in a classroom, and used it to decorate his walls. (I alternated this with another bulletin board set for astronomy so he wouldn't get tired of seeing the same stuff.) We'd talk about the different instruments and what they sounded like, where they were in the orchestra... that kind of stuff. At bedtime, we'd listen to classical music together and sometimes talk about it. Good times; have fun!

[zamyrabyrd]

Your suggestions are great and your description above is exactly what I'm trying to get at....the "texture" etc. The real problem is that I'm a percussionist, so while I can read the rhythm, I can't read notes (not easily anyway).  I was actually thinking doing one of those "Great Courses" like this one for myself:

"Understanding the Fundamentals of Music"  -- and obviously I'd wait for a coupon..

http://www.teach12.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=7261

By the time kids get to read and write, they already have an infrastructure of vocabulary and syntax. So placing musical experience first seems to be the right sequence of events rather than starting with "notes" in conventional music teaching.  I don't know how long one could delay notation as scripted music has its counterpart in written literature as a part of transmitted culture. 

Some students though are notoriously resistant to learning how to read music and I wonder if the fault is not mine at times, even though I try creative solutions. Maybe something was missed, a necessary step along the way that was not covered.  The problem with imitation in teaching a musical instrument, however necessary, is that the reading doesn't catch up unless the two are done more or less simultaneously.

But people can be very educated in music with excellent taste without being able to read, as some members of my family are. I get more frustrated with formalistic teaching methods in music, having kids memorize so-called historical facts, dates and musical forms. I also see that formalism invades the mentality of teachers who eventually believe in their stiffnecked approach and are not free anymore to appreciate music without all their loaded preconceptions.

ZB

[owlice]

I didn't get the sense that ClassicalWeekly was wanting to teach the kids how to read music. My experience, which is limited to my kid and myself, is that if a kid finds music interesting, he/she will teach him/herself to read music. The most I did with my son was name the different notes and rest notations -- eighth, quarter, half, whole. He did the rest pretty much himself. An adult who spends time reading, whether text or music, demonstrates that this activity has value; kids like to figure things out. I made sure there were resources my son could exploit to teach himself... whatever. Apparently my family did the same, for I taught myself to read music, and I suspect that's how my brothers learned, too (though, hmmm... I don't know; I'll have to ask!).

I took the comment about the Great Course as being learning for ClassicalWeekly so as to be better prepared to teach the child(ren), not as a precursor to actually teaching the tot(s) how to read music.

[ClassicalWeekly]

I didn't get the sense that ClassicalWeekly was wanting to teach the kids how to read music. My experience, which is limited to my kid and myself, is that if a kid finds music interesting, he/she will teach him/herself to read music. The most I did with my son was name the different notes and rest notations -- eighth, quarter, half, whole. He did the rest pretty much himself. An adult who spends time reading, whether text or music, demonstrates that this activity has value; kids like to figure things out. I made sure there were resources my son could exploit to teach himself... whatever. Apparently my family did the same, for I taught myself to read music, and I suspect that's how my brothers learned, too (though, hmmm... I don't know; I'll have to ask!).

I took the comment about the Great Course as being learning for ClassicalWeekly so as to be better prepared to teach the child(ren), not as a precursor to actually teaching the tot(s) how to read music.

It's a little of both.  I want to take the Great Course for myself, -- so I can better explain things to the kids.  I don't want them to feel forced to read music (-- yet --   ). 

And, owlice, we do astronomy, too!  We talk about the moons of Saturn ( sat - ur -in" as he says it) and the rings of ice and dust, etc.

[owlice]

ClassicalWeekly, you know about the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) site, yes? In case not: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

There's a discussion board for APOD, too; it's here: http://asterisk.apod.com/index.php

And you might like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oa6Up7t2vM