As part of our homeschool “feast,” we have music appreciation lessons. This is where we learn about different classical composers: both their music and their own life stories.
Sharing with you today some of the materials we use and love for our music studies. These are what I currently use with my son Luke, a 5 year old kindergartener.
Books About the Composers:
Learning about the people behind the music makes it more personal and relatable for the kids. These are 3 that we use for this purpose:
I use this as my main spine. Each biography though is short (only 2-3 pages,) which can be a good thing if you’re just looking for an introduction.
The tidbits included in the stories are also very interesting! My son loves Beethoven’s story and can’t forget interesting little facts such as how he’d throw cold water on his head to keep himself awake and how he used to leave dirty chamber pots for days (ew!) because he was too focused on his music.
2. Child’s Own Book of Great Musicians
A series of short books about famous composers. Considered “living books” and are great for read-alouds. Good news is, you can get these for free online (click here for a link and a list of books you can get for free!)
3. “Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers” Books
A series of books that goes in-depth about the lives of each composer. The drawings are cartoony and humorous, and some jokes are not really ones that kids will “get,” which I’m not fond of. But for content, I love this series!
4. Opal Wheeler’s Lives of Great Musicians
A series of living biography books about each composer. My son thoroughly enjoyed the Tchaikovsky book and I plan to continue with the others in the series for years to come.
For a Better Appreciation of Classical Music:
Some kids take in the music naturally, but sometimes they may need something a little bit more to help them appreciate! And that’s okay.
1. The Story Orchestra Book Series:
We own the Four Seasons by Vivaldi book from this series and love it to bits. The story and illustrations on each spread is set to the theme of the music. And I can’t begin to explain how brilliant that is! My 5 yo gets tense at the tense parts and even my 1 yo breaks out in various dances, depending on the buttons we press. Hehe.
The illustrations and story are wonderful. The only con is these books are expensive, which is why I haven’t purchased the other titles. But I hope to get The Nutcracker soon! 😉
2. The Story of the Orchestra:
Don’t be fooled by the similar title to the one above; this is a totally different book!
The Story of the Orchestra gives brief histories about each kind of music, the instruments and also the composers. It also includes a CD which you can play as you read. Knowing more about each piece may help kids appreciate it more.
3. Play Me a Story:
Each page contains a poem or story to be read aloud as you play the music in the background. The book features well-know pieces from famous composers and is a great way to introduce kids to Classical music.
I got this book from a secondhand bookshop online and I’m so pleased with my find! The original book includes a CD but my copy didn’t. So what I did was, I looked for each song and compiled them into a playlist on Spotify. I just hope I got all the scores correctly (I think I did! Hehe!)
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There are lot of beautiful books about composers available but I have yet to read or purchase them, so I cannot give an accurate review. But if you are just beginning to fill up your library, I suggest you consider as well some of these titles that are also on my wishlist:
- Becoming Bach
- Mozart Finds a Melody
- Allegro: A Musical Journey Through 11 Musical Masterpieces
- I, Vivaldi
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