Composers

More music paraphernalia - this time I get to show off my audio editing skills! I hope my husband reads this post, because he will have to take back all that he said about me being a bit "slow" when it comes to the computer. Ha!

At the "View My Files" button in the side bar, your will find some more files: Composers 3-part cards and sound clips. Sound clips! Whoopee! Music isn't about pictures, folks, its about MUSIC! So why in the world would you have composer cards (or instrument cards) without listening to songs written by them? Et voila! Here you have it: 18 clips of songs by the 18 composers on the cards, edited with fade-ins and fade-outs.

The child puts on the disc (almost 16 minutes total running time) and spreads out the picture cards (without names) on a rug. She then picks the photo of the composer while listening to the part of his song. At the end, she can check her work to see if she matched correctly. (Number the composer photos from 1-18 in order of appearance on the CD.) If you copy directly from the folder to the left, the order will be:

1- Dvorak
2- Prokofiev
3- Beethoven
4-Ravel
5- Bach
6- Pachelbel
7- Chopin
8- Mozart
9- Rachmaninoff
10- Miles Davis
11- Verdi
12- Debussy
13- Scott Joplin
14- Gershwin
15- Copeland
16- Bernstein
17- Vivaldi
18- Tchaikovsky

Also label the back of the name cards . This is a more advanced exercise for children who are already reading. They match the names only to the CD track.

Be sure when burning the CD that you burn it with individual tracks with a 2-second pause between each.

Of course, this puts a whole new spin on how you present these composers to the children. No more will they wonder why in the world you are showing them pictures of goofy looking men and telling them their names. Now you can present the names of the composers to the child with the audio. Present 2-3 composers and clips at a time.

You might have guessed by now, but music is really my "thing." I love all of the Cultural Areas of the curriculum, but music has a special place in my heart. I've always been a singer and I dabble in guitar and piano. When I was a teenager I was classically trained, but all that theory, voice and passion now manifests itself in singing La Bamba with a group of dancin' 3-6 year olds. So worth it!


xo,
Meg