Sunday, May 14, 2006
Book Fair: Music Selection
This is the coolest! I have no musical talent and so can not teach Thomas to play an instrument. But I have a great deal of appreciation for good music and COULD teach him that. Well, I found the perfect thing to do just that with: Themes to Remember. Themes to Remember is a book and companion cd set, for 20$, that teaches children to recognize famous classical music pieces AND identify the name and composer. It does this by adding lyrics to the "heart," or main theme (thus the name!) of the famous piece. For instance, if you click on the link above, you can read the lyrics and download an example of the lyrics sung atop the main theme for Peer Gynt.
The book is illustrated and contains enough information about musical periods, the composers, and musical terms, along with recommendations for continued listening, to satisfy a fairly rigorous music appreciation class for kids of all ages. With Thomas being as young as he is, I plan mostly on just playing the cd. But I can tell that this book/cd is going to be an oft-used resource for years to come.
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I'm going to have to check into this. My 2 year old is around music all the time. I think she would really enjoy a book like this.
Spunky,
Thanks so much for your visit and for your comment!
A little more about Themes to Remember: there are about 40 themes on each of three book/cd sets. The author's husband told me that this one, Themes to Remember, was the one to start with.
Each of the pieces of music is very short (30 seconds to a minute and a half)--the idea is to become familiar with the main theme, not necessarily the whole piece. Listening to the whole piece comes later.