Children and how they can learn about composers

FiddleChick@evpl — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:43:00 GMT

This week's theme for Music Mania is Composers! As I imagine, like many teachers, I wondered for a moment how I was going to get kids into learning about composers. I was able to come across a great C.D. called "Peter Ustinov reads The Orchestra." This C.D. is actually based from the book by Mark Rubin. In this C.D. Peter Ustinov narrates to children about various subjects including composers. So, I took this narration from a Tales & Scales standpoint by asking the children what THEY would do if they were composers while giving them hints on what a composer would look for when creating music (dynamics, tempo, melody, harmony, tone color, etc). Do we want our music loud, soft or in between? Do we want our music fast, slow or in between? I of course have a piece of music in mind that is familiar to the children and would play this excerpt on my violin fast, slow, in between as well as loud, soft and in between. Of course, there are so many more places you can go when composing music so feel free to branch from this C.D. and beyond. Hopefully this will be a great tool for others just as it has been for me.

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Children and how they can learn about composers